Bairns Trust Newsletter No 41

If you are reading our newsletter for the first time ... welcome to BairnsTrust as a new member! If you wish to review some of our previous newsletters they can be visited at the following section of the website...Newsletter Lists

The Trust take this opportunity to thank you all for joining for the new season and appreciate all those that made a donation to the contingency fund, too many to mention individually, but very much appreciated. It has been assumed that all under 16s that have joined have done so with full parental/guardian consent.

You are cordially invited to attend the monthly BairnsTrust meeting in the Warm Up Area of the Falkirk Community Stadium on Monday 15/10/07, KO 7.30pm.

There will be a full agenda for discussion, but if you have any concerns you wish to raise, please respond to either bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk or post your query on the message board at our website and we will try to cover on the night.

If you are unable to attend, the minutes from the meeting will appear in our Minutes Archive section ...

The Trust moved to buy some more shares in the Club from your Contingency Fund donations over the past months. This was ratified at the September Club Board meeting and all monies transferred before the Trust's financial year end on 30/09/07. The Share Certificate has been received and BairnsTrust will monitor that it appears accurately on the Club's share register. The Club's Company Secretary has taken on the unenviable task of a shareholding register cleanup after years of neglect. This will take some time. BairnsTrust Vice-Chairman will assist by offering Supporter’s Direct advice on the matter and this exercise will ultimately benefit all shareholders who hold a current financial interest in Falkirk Football Club (FFC).

Glad to report that the Trust have signed another THREE Corporate sponsors in the last month ...

1) Building and Renovation Services Ltd of Unit 5, Castle Drive, Bankside Industrial Estate, Falkirk, FK2 7UX. Tel. 01324 622516, Fax. 01324 611470 provide complete domestic, commercial and specialist engineering solutions to customers all around Central Scotland with clients including Turner Homes, Falkirk Council, Clackmannan Council, Mulholland Contracts, RJ McLeod, Capital Contracts, Markon, Lauriston Church and Bruce Taxis.

For more, visit their website ...

2) The Beijing Villa of 14 Merchiston Road, Falkirk, FK2 7JP. Come highly recommended by our Social Committee and we are looking into having a Trust Social event there before the end of the year as a thank you for sponsoring BairnsTrust. Telephone number for the restaurant is 01324 632007 and a map location here ...

3) The Trust are proud to welcome on board Land-Drill as another prestigious new Corporate Sponsor for this year. All Falkirk fans will be fully aware of their financial input into the club this season including a sponsored van and their name on the back of the team shirts. Land-Drill aim to offer a personal service of geotechnical and geoenvironmental investigations, laboratory testing and advice to clients in the construction industry.

Learn more about the business from their website ...

Your Vice-Chairman has named 4 more potential Corporate Sponsors and 2 possibles from our Chairman through the networking carried out in Matchday hospitality. This is a great source of funds for the Trust and uptake has been increasing in the 3 years since its inception. Our sponsors have noticed the exposure it derives and we encourage you to support their businesses whenever possible. Show your 2007/08 BairnsTrust Membership card to our Corporate sponsors and you may get a discount! Only £100 per season for SPL advertising or why not invest in banner space on the home page of our website. More details can be had from contacting bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk

All members will now have received your membership card. A lot were posted out but encourage new members still to receive to save our postage costs and collect in person at the BairnsTrust stall located on the concourse in the Main Stand at the next home game after you submit your application.

One BairnsTrust vacancy that requires to be filled on the Committee is the position of Secretary following the resignation of the previous occupant. If you wish to be co-opted to this office-bearer post, please feel free to attend the next Monthly Meeting on Mon 15/10/07 or make your intentions known by email to bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk

FFC having spotted the popularity of the Trust electronic newsletter, and they too have now launched their own monthly version and the first edition was quite impressive. Feel free to subscribe to "The Navy Blue"

We have introduced another new feature onto our web site. If you have any interesting photos, which are Falkirk Football Club related and you would like share with others, then why not send them to us for inclusion on the Fans Pix page. We must ask that no obscene or inappropriate material be submitted as they will not be accepted. Images must not be copyrighted by anyone other than the individual submitting them and permission granted for BairnsTrust to use accordingly. Based on the success of our framed photo of the main stand at the stadium, the Trust may market any photos if enough interest is intimated in a particular photo. Please submit your electronic artwork to us at BairnsTrust

Another new area of the Trust website is our own UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football Competition. This replaces our score prediction game that used to appear on our messageboard. The BairnsTrust mini-league is up and running and after the first couple of gameweeks it is tight at the top. New participants can still join but will be two weeks worth of points behind. Early days yet though and plenty of time to catch up. The table will be posted on the message board after every round of games and will hopefully create more interest in our messageboard at the same time. To take part all you need to do is create a team through the UEFA website http://en.uclfantasy.uefa.com and enter the code 33869-7036 when asked. You will also have the option of receiving the regular emailed magazine direct from UEFA. An interesting article from one such newsletter was as follows ...

The biggest BairnsTrust Community event of the year returns on Sat 20/10/07 v Kilmarnock with the annual Show Racism the Red Card Day (SRTRC). This year will be even bigger as it will tie-in with the Kick Racism out of Football campaign. The Trust has been asked to make our event even more high profile this year. SRTRC will produce the red cards, reducing Trust expenditure and Trust Vice-Chairman and FFC's R Wilson and G Craig are considering going round local schools with an educational pack. Pack costs £20 each and include a 300 page file and DVD. Publicity magazines are available at £50/100 and we will obtain as many complimentary products as possible, e.g. stickers and posters. The Club are willing to split any costs with the Trust once again, just like in previous years. We are costing at the moment lapel badges for all Club staff to wear on the day. Looking for members to help to distribute Red Cards, stickers, posters, etc. on the day from 2.15pm until kick-off. Please intimate if you can assist via our email contact address at bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk or turn up early on the day.

Already helping will be our foreign members. The Latapy Gospel has spread and we now have three times the number of Trinidadian members this season. Negotiations are at an advanced stage to boost our Norwegian contingent as well.

The resident Falkirk Supporters' Sunday Football Team have been performing well recently. Further details can be found on their website and the League's site is here ...

Although the above team have some good young players the SFA were quick to announce news that the Scotland u-16s will be appearing at the Falkirk Stadium in November

Have you also registered with the new SPL Sponsors website to entitle you to a number of unique competitions and voting opportunities ... Cb Football

We still have programmes from the Holland trip and they can be purchased as sets or individually at the Matchday stall on the concourse in the Main Stand at home games. Sets now contain :

1) FC Zwolle (Holland). Wed 11/07/2007. Score 1-1.

a) Programme – 4 pages. A5. All in Dutch.

b) Brochure commemorating the moving from FC Zwolle's old stadium to new ground. A5. All in Dutch.

c) 2006/07 FC Zwolle Team Poster. A3.

2) KSV Roeselare (Belgium) on Sat 14/07/07. Falkirk won 2-0.

Programme – 4 pages. A5. All in Dutch.

The online auction site that we use to host some of our range of goods have recognised our recent number of postings and awarded us a milestone mark.

The Trust have a stock old Falkirk FC HOME and AWAY programmes from this and previous seasons for sale at £2 each. Also have some rarely available team sheets and after match stats sheets to compliment these. Visit our online shop which has a stocklist of all our programmes for browsing

One sought after publication was the last home edition versus Dundee Utd in the CIS Cup on Tue 25/09/07 as it contained a "Setanta" article submitted by our BairnsTrust Chairman and Boardroom Rep. The "pulling power" stretches to the matchday programme as well!

In addition, BairnsTrust have obtained a large quantity of surplus home programmes from the past few seasons from the Club for an excellent, discounted rate. Now collated into “Bargain Bundles.” These bundles proved popular before and it’s anticipated this new stock will disappear as quick.

At the recent Stirlingshire Cup Final game on Tuesday 09/10/07, BairnsTrust were able to procure a few of the programmes as well as teamsheets and unique player complimentary passes. Visit our stall to purchase a set.

The programmes for sale at the stall are received by generous donations from numerous persons and are not from hospitality as has been suggested. The Trust gratefully acknowledge donations from the private collections of J Gardiner, P Mosson, C Christie, M Ritchie, D Paterson, A Totten and periodically from stewards, BairnsTrust Members and Committee. These such gestures are much appreciated and provide the Trust with a valuable income stream.

Advance orders will be taken for the upcoming Home Scotland programmes, if interested ... Contact Us

Sat 13/10/07 - Scotland v Ukraine.

Order by Saturday 13/10/07 midday.

Sat 17/11/07 - Scotland v Italy.

Order by Saturday 17/11/07 midday.

There were a handful of rare, VIP issues of the France v Scotland programme on Wed 12/09/07, but these have been attracting unbelievable bids at online auction ...

Falkirk FC has allowed BairnsTrust to become an Official Matchday Programme vendor using our stall on the concourse in the Main Stand at home games as the point of sale. We will cater for those who wish to buy INSIDE the Stadium prematch and in return the Trust will receive the standard “sellers fee” in return. This is proving a great success so far. We urge Members to purchase their copy from the stall to allow the Club to monitor how successful and necessary this point of sale is.

Stocks have now been obtained of the rare "1957 Cup Winners Re-union Brochure" from author Michael White. Already half the stock has been snapped up. Again to purchase, intimate your interest via our email contact address or visit our stall or online shop

Negotiations already in place at the stall to stock Michael's new book that will be out in time for Christmas. This will be the third volume in the series covering Falkirk's history by season from the end of volume two up to the present.

The BairnsTrust 2nd Representative in the Falkirk Boardroom discussion has been rumbling on since our election at the end of last season. Your Trust Committee have spent many hours pouring over the legal side of things and were very close to an agreement. A setback occurred at the last FFC Board meeting in September, but we hope your elected delegate will be in position after the October Board meet.

Friday 09/11/07 sees our good friend Silly Connolly over from Ireland for Children in Need on the Saturday. Silly has been commissioned to write the Scottish Children in Need Charity single and will be performing it at Celtic Park that day. The Trust could have a show on the Friday evening at the Stadium with TV cameras present. Entertainer Adam Quest is also a possibility and we are in negotiations with Alchemy Inns Ltd that this could be the opening event of the 1st floor function suite.

Finally, if you have any topics or articles you wish to be included in future BairnsTrust Electronic Newsletters, please respond by your preferred contact method below.

One such advertisement is from your local Round Table. They are holding a Family Ceilidh, cold buffet and prize draw raffle at the Dobbie Hall, Larbert on Sat 03/11/07, 7pm for 7.30pm – 11.30pm. Ticket price is £15.00 for adults and £3.00 for children. Dress code is smart casual with kilts optional. All Proceeds Children with Cancer and Leukaemia Advice and Support for Parents (CCLASP). Tickets can be bought from members of the Round Table, but as a gesture BairnsTrust will accept confirmed orders by email to bairnstrust@hotmail.co.uk

Why not visit one of our Corporate Sponsors JH Kilt Hire for your evening's attire! www.jhkilthire.com

LATE NEWS: The Andy Lawrie Testimonial Committee announce that a testimonial match has been arranged between Falkirk FC and Sunderland FC on the evening of Thursday 15/11/07 at the Stadium. More details on the Falkirk FC website ...

Look forward to seeing you at the next monthly meeting where there will be a chance to win a prize for attendees!

Thanks.
Peter Jack, FCCA

BairnsTrust Treasurer

Please support the Trust's Corporate Sponsors:

Thomas Johnston Quality Butchers Limited

Amarillo Bistro Bar / Eleven Restaurant

J H Kilt Hire

BSH Limited

John Mitchell Haulage

Building & Renovation Services

Beijing Villa Chinese Restaurant

Land-Drill