E-Mail from the Trust

I was suprised by the inclusion of the no more Parkers shares. I had been reliably informed MP was going to gift the trust a further 200,000 shares once JF had put up the cash n invested in his new shares. Seems JF got wise to this and included the caveat in the agreement. The trust would have been back to 500,000 and in a position to ask for a seat on the board! Hopefully they still are pursuing a seat in the boardroom. If not I doubt I will be joining as planned in March!

Quoted from Trawler

Forza forza!  You make a lot of sense. As one of the (minor) founding fathers have you thought about standing for the Trust Board?

thanks for the thoughts but live too far away to make the contribution i'd like to make.would far rather enthusiastic, intelligent/sensible/business headed locals took up the places!

fao ticker - that's interesting stuff - perhaps the trust board are in a slightly stronger bargaining position than i initially thought - the chink in jf's armour seems to be mike parker and his remaining shares. wonder if the trust board have good lines of communication with mr parker? i rather hope so - can then play the role of honest broker, or more deviously ,play one off against the other

Quoted from barralad

As someone who believes in openness at all times

Are members of trust board trying to convince us they've been transparent and open ?
Jesus wept.

Quoted from barralad

Far more important to me has been a desire to see improvements in the match day experience for ALL fans.

But it doesn't stop you throwing your voice behind something that has nothing to do with it ?

Didn't you say before it's not the role of the trust to represent the interests of ALL fans, only the trusts membership ?

Personally, I think the lines are sufficiently greyed for the trust to be able to justify anything.

Quoted from barralad

A lot has been said in this thread about bluffing by the club's owners around the funding issue. I believed at the time that I was asked to make my decision that I couldn't call any bluff in the absence of the wherewithall to step into the funding "shoes" should the worst case scenario come to fruition. Others have recently put money into GTFC and walked away and I couldn't reconcile myself to the probability that it couldn't happen again.

Fair enough but whilst it's great news that it provides stability until 2013 it doesn't tackle the issue of JF's willingness to fund the club long-term.

I was someone who suggested the trust hand over some of it's shares to solve the "control outside the boardroom" issue, but I presumed that was the only issue JF had with in terms of funding the club long term.
Obviously not ?

What's going to be the trusts response if JF comes back in June 2013 asking for the remaining trust shares ?
Will the trust go out of their way to formulate yet ANOTHER proposal ?

Whilst I'm not personally convinced these shares offer too much value in real terms, other members may not feel the same and (presumably depending on football fortune) they might be of greater value in the future ?

More importantly weren't the trust (according to their statements) THEMSELVES saying they held some value ?

So in that case, what guarantees can the trust offer it's membership for the future ?
If none are made, I see no reason why the trust won't lose all of it's remamining shareholding later for the exact same reasons.

Should the the trust and it's membership not consider it's position on this issue if only to convince and attract future members ?

Quoted from barralad

Hindsight is a marvellous gift but at the time of my decision there was no "Bennett Legacy" only the very real possibility that our biggest asset could be sold to ensure the club continued to function. Much has been said about how well things are going on the pitch but this cannot IMO be divorced from the fact that the money to support the day to day running of the club was close to drying up.

Yet JF has now come out in the Telegraph and said the club has the money until the end of NEXT season.
How quickly things can change in football !  

Quoted from barralad

I suspect there aren't too many out there who would have been happy to see our current squad weakened.

I find it very difficult to believe JF would walk away.
Or for that matter weaken the squad.

For one he's already said he's providing further funding.
He'd look a bit of a prat if he walked away with Town improving on the piitch or looking good for next season wouldn't he ?
And didn't he say he also wouldn't walk away anyway ?
Surely as a fan, he wants promotion just as much as anybody else and will continue to ensure we have the means to have the best chance ?

Bottom line is I find it difficult to believe JF wouldn't fund the club or cover the losses whilst we're in League 2 (hopefully next year) or whilst we're chasing promotion in the BSP next season.

That said we know things can quickly change in football - right now I'm probably gonna vote yes simply because it buys time until 2013 (just in case god fobid things go mammaries up on the pitch again).

But tbh I don't buy the trust's version of events (or that they've been "held to ransom").

From thinking the outcome a mere formaility, I was also suprised to read in the GET that "it is understood the issue has divided its board".
I didn't expect that !  

Whether the same is true of it's membership is another matter but I feel disadvantages of the "Yes" and advantages of the "No" arguments should at least be discussed.

Quoted from 1600

Didn't you say before it's not the role of the trust to represent the interests of ALL fans, only the trusts membership ?

Personally, I think the lines are sufficiently greyed for the trust to be able to justify anything.
.

It is the role of the trust to represent the interests of ALL fans that WANT to have their interests represented. if you want to have your say in GTFC related matters, you pay a measly tenner which goes towards fulfilling those ideas and interests.

I really don't understand this 'us and them' attitude that people have with the trust, FFS in an ideal world, every GTFC fan would join, so they then WOULD represent the views of ALL GTFC fans (and they'd have a lot more money and power as a result!).

Anyone got a number for Dignitas?

Quoted from lobsterpot

Anyone fancy a pint?

marc north

Quoted from Marinerz93

I feel for the situation you were faced with and what you will go through in this process.  

There are a few niggling problems with this, the fact the trust has agreed not to accept any more shares from MP and also that the shares the trust has left are not free from being pillaged again should JF take his fancy at free shares.

JF said he wouldn't be buying any more shares yet here he is buying more shares.  He could have done what I said some time ago and convert benign debt into shares to gain control.  The timing of this deal and all it entails stinks of a one sided deal with an ultimatum.

all fenty has been banging on about is that the club needs future funding, how does turning his loans into shares give the club future funding, doing it the way he is, is great for gtfc.

Quoted from Squarkus

all fenty has been banging on about is that the club needs future funding, how does turning his loans into shares give the club future funding, doing it the way he is, is great for gtfc.

Hi John

Quoted from sam gy

It is the role of the trust to represent the interests of ALL fans that WANT to have their interests represented.

Exactly, what has it got to do with ALL fans ? (as was claimed)

Quoted from sam gy

I really don't understand this 'us and them' attitude that people have with the trust, FFS in an ideal world, every GTFC fan would join, so they then WOULD represent the views of ALL GTFC fans (and they'd have a lot more money and power as a result!).

If they really want people to join they're arguably not engaging as much as they could to try to win them over ?
I've tried hard as I can to persuade them to engage on the messageboards but some just won't have it.

300 or so is hardly a very large figure so I'm as disappointed as you are.

But whatever the numbers are what extra power do the trust have in terms of this shares issue ?
In terms of the vote it doesn't matter if it's 300 voters or 3000, just that more people have a smaller voice.
Would the outcome change if it did ? Maybe, who knows !

Extra members will hopefully enrich every supporters matchday experience - as far as I can see that's about it.

I stand by my question of what's to stop a similar proposal occuring again in June 2013.

Quoted from LeightonMariner

Hi John

WHS