Minutes of the Bairns Trust Meeting
Monday 17th April 2006
at the Falkirk Stadium

Present:
W Anderson, S Jackson, W Sommerville, B Guthrie, P Jack, F Caldwell, J Gardiner, S Monfries, G Williamson, W Robertson, M Fraser, J Dick, S Wilson, M Allan, M Paterson, H McGinlay, S Livingstone, G Neary & B Moorhouse.

Apologies:
S Adam, K Adam, M McIntyre & D Robertson.

Welcome

Bill Anderson welcomed the all male turnout and thanked them for making the effort on a holiday Monday.

Sectarianism in Scottish Football

Bill welcomed our guest, Bert Moorhouse from Glasgow University who is working on behalf of the Scottish Executive who have now set up working groups following the Summit on Sectarianism. Mr Moorhouse is consulting various groups including supporters to ascertain their views on Sectarianism.
After a lively wide-ranging discussion lasting an hour Mr Moorhouse thanked BairnsTrust for their contribution to his working remit. He will compile a separate, detailed, minute of the discussion and forward to the Trust. This will be duly posted as an addendum to the rest of tonight’s minutes.

Minutes of Previous Meeting

Adoption of the minutes of the February meeting was proposed by S Wilson and seconded by S Monfries.

Matters Arising

• The Tom Jamieson Memorial event is now pencilled in for early May.
  BairnsTrust will be meeting with the Club to discuss Season Ticket prices as soon as we are clear of the threat of relegation. The feeling of the meeting was that prices should be pegged at the current level (assuming that we are still in the SPL)
• .The spectre of 3 replica strips for next season was also discussed at this juncture.

Secretary’s Report

• A letter had been sent to the Board of Directors confirming that Steven Jackson had been ratified as our choice of Supporter Director.
• Following the Secretary’s meeting with George Craig a letter had also been sent to the Board of Directors requesting consideration of an allocation of seats on matchdays for use by the Former Players’ Association.
• Various Emails had been received and had been dealt with or passed on as appropriate. This included notice of the Supporter’s Direct debate at the Scottish Parliament on Wed 19/04/06, 5pm to which delegates from the Trust had been invited to attend .
• One new member had still to be processed.
• A letter would be sent to DAFC, the Dunfermline Trust and copied to the SPL to follow up verbal complaints made on the day by Trust representatives about the charging at East End Park when Falkirk supporters were charged £19/£12 (compared to previous October visit when charges were £18/£10) and Dunfermline supporters in the Norrie McCathie stand £16/£8. It was also pointed out that it costs more for a disabled person and carer to get into EEP than it does at Ibrox or Parkhead and that there is no provision for carers to sit beside those in their care, all of which will be covered in the letter.

Treasurer’s Report

• There had been £30 of donations to the contingency fund (now total £292) and £20 worth of T-shirts were bought in bulk by the Treasurer and a DVD had been sold. £15 had been made from a Spot the Team card.
• The Quiz Night on Thu 06/04/06 had raised £325 as our 2nd best fundraiser of the season and the 60’s night on 24/02/06 still had half the advertising (£75) and £40 ticket money outstanding.
• A bill for £232.80 for the hire of Grangemouth Town Hall had been reluctantly paid. A letter of complaint re the performance of the electrics on the night had been sent and reviewed by the Council. The discount of £15.36 on the original quote may be the best the Trust will obtain.
• The 2nd Amarillo night on Fri 10/03/06 raised £15, after prize costs, from the raffle, but no raffle was held at the 3rd Amarillo night on Fri 14/04/06.
• Sharesave income for the month was roughly £250 (a further £500 is estimated before we have to pay for the shares).
• £40 telephone expenses were paid to the Social Convenor and £80 expenses for the AGM and first batch of stationery for the impending Sharesave mailing to the Secretary.
• £4974.45 was in the bank at the start of the month rising to nearly £5200 at present but approximately £6000 would be required for sharesavers.
• The Treasurer would be contacting the first batch of Sharesavers by letter by the end of April.
• BairnsTrust Board Rep Fergus Caldwell was briefed individually of those in the first batch for relaying to the Falkirk FC Board meeting on Thursday 20/04/06.
• There had been another electronic newsletter #13 sent to members in the month who had supplied email addresses.
• The FSA forms were completed and signed along with the Annual Accounts and would be sent off for receipt by the end of April.
• Previous newsletter # 4 in November 2005 had asked members for feedback and a draw was made from those who had replied for the Boardroom Experience instead of one of our Social Nights as originally intimated. The winner will be contacted and if unable to attend a 1st and 2nd reserve would be contacted.

Social Committee Report

• Bill Anderson welcomed Brian Guthrie following his recent illness.
• Following the power cut-outs at the Christmas Dance a letter had been received which contained some inaccuracies. The Social Convenor would reply to the points raised and pass this to the Secretary for sending off.
• Following the contact with Brooks Mileson an email acknowledgement had been received indicating that he would write or telephone, but he had received several hundred requests after appearing on “Offside”.
• Apart from the initial hunt for tables and chairs the Quiz Night had been very successful and seemed to be enjoyed by all. Another will be held in the near future.
• The last Amarillo night had been poorly attended but Brian would have discussions with Drew Norloch to look at how to improve this situation, especially as every month up until Christmas was already contracted.
  The May Amarillo event will feature Frank Robb, a comedian/musician and Brenda Collins, a Geordie comedienne/singer).
• On Friday 26th May another BairnsTrust Social Night would be held in the Castings Club, featuring Face-to-Face (band) and some of the talent who had appeared in “Rising Stars”. Adverts will appear at the Motherwell home fixture and tickets will be available from the Trust stall on the main concourse and usual outlets.

Board Members Report

The next Board Meeting, the last featuring Bill Anderson, will be held on Thursday 20th April and a report should appear on the BairnsTrust website www.bairnstrust.com early next week.

Saturday Meetings

• Dunfermline pricing had been discussed at the Saturday meetings and a letter was being sent from the Club also.
• The ideas garnered from our last Trust meeting to raise the atmosphere in the run-in of fixtures were taken to the Saturday meetings and were enthusiastically entertained. Some have already been adopted! The Club is listening to supporters and is trying to generate a better atmosphere.

AOB

• Presentation of Jerseys was to take place on 4th May and Steven Jackson & Stewart Wilson would represent BairnsTrust to receive Craig Ireland’s jersey.
• BairnsTrust would most likely continue to sponsor a jersey in the coming season depending on cost and player availability.
• It was decided that corporate members should be added to the list of ordinary members and is contacted in the same way as and when the need arises.
• The Trust Committee is now reviewing and budgeting new merchandise for next season.
• A Committee Meeting would be arranged in advance of the May meeting. Date and time to be arranged.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of BairnsTrust will be at 7.30pm on Monday 15th May at the Falkirk Community Stadium. Everyone is welcome and can participate in discussion, but only members are allowed to vote on any issue.

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