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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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It always struck me as a difficult tightrope to walk. I always thought of a fan rep on the board as someone who stands on the middle ground, independently, between the two.


Isn’t the clue in the choice of title i.e. “representative” rather “mediator” or “liaison”?
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Isn’t the clue in the choice of title i.e. “representative” rather “mediator” or “liaison”?


I don’t know. I don’t know how exactly it was envisaged the role would work and why it’s not working out. I appreciate it probably wasn’t easy though.

I guess tomorrow might bring some answers, although not for me as I’m not in the Trust.
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I don’t know. I don’t know how exactly it was envisaged the role would work and why it’s not working out. I appreciate it probably wasn’t easy though.

I guess tomorrow might bring some answers, although not for me as I’m not in the Trust.


I would guess that the trust’s articles define the role.

I also suppose it’s like any elected role (he was elected wasn’t he?). The person occupying the role is ultimately accountable to those who elected them.
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It's certainly not an easy role, but for me, having someone as the middle ground by definition means that they aren't a fans rep, therefore there would be no point in having them.
 


I’m not sure how it works at other clubs. Do they all have a seat at the top table or is the role just a link between fans and board?
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Disappointing with Stuart Shields as he seems to have best interests of the club as his main priority. Clash of personalities aren't unusual in life or buisness. 

Shame about Willie Marshall as he is a gentleman and the trust do some great work. 

If we have a decent team on the park I don't think anyone would care about behind the scenes 

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I was dreading the meeting being more of a financial crisis but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

I have a lot of time for those involved in the club. They give their time freely to do a lot of work which isn’t core to but which adds a lot of value to the football club (and in the case of the Sensory Room and Sammy’s Shelter have also improved the stadium).

A succession of owners have been unwilling to give the Board a seat at the table and the issue always seems to be that they expect the trust to pass on more funds to the club with nothing in return.

I’d like to see the club agree to issue the trust shares every time it can pass £10k to the Club. That would dilute the other owners (unless they matched that on a pro rata basis) but it would incentivise the trust to keep raising funds and lead to increased Fan ownership.

As it is just now, I really feel for the committee and I’d like to express my thanks for all of your efforts [emoji815]️

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2 hours ago, The clean living guy said:

If we have a decent team on the park I don't think anyone would care about behind the scenes 

And that's why so many clubs up and down the country get infested with absolute shysters that sit on boards and feed their own interests. If every fan cared first and foremost about getting the right people in at board level then the stuff on the park will come naturally.

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On reflection the meeting was a bit pointless. a bigger audience could have been reached by Just publishing Wullie’s reasons for leaving.

Stuart shields and Colin Elliot gave their reasons for leaving so in that respect it was worthwhile but would have been better if the Spiers had been there to detail their reasons as well. Although I understand they were elsewhere and were unable to attend.

At the end of the day we found out PH is difficult to get on with - don’t think that’s news to anyone really is it?

There are 2 sides to every story. Shame PH doesn’t attend a public meeting a set out his case and then fans can make up their own minds.

I don’t know if I’d have much faith in the discussion around increasing the shareholding of the fans. Sounds like pie in the sky to me.

The trust do great work in the community and I don’t think that anyone should feel they have any right to express an opinion on where there money should go.

However, in terms of holding boards past or present to account I don’t think that they are particularly effective and seem to do a lot of fence sitting or imply things aren’t right but then expect/hope others to come up with the tough talk or action.

Stuart shields, Colin Elliot and the Speirs are all true supporters and we’d obviously all be more comfortable with people in charge who we know have the best interests of the club at heart.

However, as stuart shields said last night- PH is an astute businessman. It’s not in his interests to see the club decline when he owns the stadium so we are as well letting him get on with it and see how it turns out.

At the end of the day if we were 15 points better off nobody would give a toss about any of the background stuff would they?



It would be good to hear PH’s vision for the club and where he thinks the Trust fit into that.

I don’t think the shares point is all that difficult though. Every time they put in £10k they get issued the same number of shares they’ve just bought from Colin Elliott.
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52 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

And that's why so many clubs up and down the country get infested with absolute shysters that sit on boards and feed their own interests. If every fan cared first and foremost about getting the right people in at board level then the stuff on the park will come naturally.

I get your point regarding shysters but what do you regard as the right people? 

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2 minutes ago, The clean living guy said:

I get your point regarding shysters but what do you regard as the right people? 

People who are there for the interests of the club and not themselves. People who will work to make your club sustainable instead of putting in wads of cash as loans and lumbering your club with debt. People who are generally interested in seeing your club progress rather than being excited about the free meals and blazer they get.

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16 hours ago, The Chlamydia Kid said:

Summary of what was said by trust. This is their perspective. I’m only reporting what was said.

 

Can’t be arsed typing up questions asked or proof reading.

 

4 issue raised at recent board meeting against trust “not personal to Wullie”

 

Wullie spoken to badly in his opinion felt there was a Confrontational tone at meeting.

 

4 issues trust cited are:

 

1. Kitaid club feel trust should pay 10k towards season tickets

Club got 10k in previous years. This season trust felt they didn’t have to pay as part owners. December email asking where cash it was. Brought up again recently. Colin Eliot wanted to sell shares to trust for 10k. Reported that Paul wanted club go get it.

 

May 30 stock count of merchandise amounted to £9k approx. Retail value - £17k given to club for free. Trust pay pruntys wages as well. Trust raised money with community initiatives for free. Trust believe commitment made.

 

Due to give 20k in dec. was late due to PayPal issue. Board reported to be going to hold on to the cash to compensate for kitaid cash instead of it going to buy shares.

 

 

2. Request for trust for open board meeting -

 

On back of stuart shields resigning a lot of emails. Trust wanted open meeting to communicate. It was said that the club argue it was a “knee jerk reaction” and no need to meet supporters.

 

 

3. Trust community Work- Mongolia - reported that Club challenged cause and said money should go to local causes or club. Trust disagreed. Great media support for previous issues. Some key club sponsors buy in to this. As do members.

 

4. Poty - reported PH wanted profits shared with club trust were happy to explore.

 

Attack by Celtic fans discussed. Steven Eaton spoke to police who think categorisation of game was ok. Said they were short of numbers as section B were at gallowgate and polis managing them.

 

From now on away fans will take a different route to ground. Dealing with turnstiles issue with Celtic.

Didn’t expect so many airdrie fans arriving at once. Few folk identified. Trust won’t take it any further.

 

This was brought up at board meeting and sporting liaison officer position was raised. Board weren’t supportive at this time.

 

Concludes the reasons given by Wullie resignation.

 

Trust board want to continue to work with the club. Set out all the work outstanding. Don’t want division between trust and club. No replacement at the minute while issues ongoing.

 

 

 

Out of interest, why did it take until December for this to become an issue at board level?

Surely either the Trust knew they had no plans to hand the money to the club this year and made their position clear or they knew (via being on the board) that the club was expecting the 10k and budgeting on that basis. Not having a go at any party here, genuinely interested to know how this hasn't been noticed until a year after the consortium got together and 6 months after we'd signed a squad.

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What’s the end goal but? The trust end up owning the club? After the committee pressure PH to sell up with a sternly worded email and some mildly disapproving statements? Then what happens with the stadium?
 
It’s fantasy land stuff.


Trust end up owning a bigger share of it and it leads to sustained investment in the club.

It’s what’s happening at Hibs just now and has helped turn them around.

Existing shareholders would need to be happy being diluted though.
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