Welcome to the January issue of Boardroom Banter. Following a rather disappointing result at Ross County it was pleasing to see the team get back on track last Saturday against Brechin and again today against Ayr United.

There have been a number of discussions on the message boards of the website which we want to try and comment on this month. Remember .. If you have comments or questions to ask, you can comment directly to the board using our new email address at banter@caleythistleonline.com

Transfer Market

There has, as usual, been plenty rumour and counter rumour as to who is coming and going at the Club during the current transfer window.

As you are all aware we have taken Darren Mackie on loan from Aberdeen until the end of the season and both the Management Team and Directors were delighted at the effort he put in on Saturday and we believe the potential is there for him to improve as he gets competitive games under his belt as he regains his match sharpness.

We can confirm that John/Donald are at this stage keeping their options open regarding further increasing our squad prior to the transfer window closing and are keeping their eye on one player in particular, but as John has always stated he would only move for someone if:

a) It was within our current budgetary strategy. b) It would improve on the players we have in the Squad at present.

You will already know through the local press that we have let Ali Ridgers go to Clach but we do have a buy back clause in the contract deal. Tony Low has been in discussions with John and as he has not figured in the first team this season John felt that he would benefit from a move but at this time Tony has decided to stay on and continue to fight for a position in the First Team Squad.

Apart from Tony and Ali it is not our intention at this stage to let any of our first team squad move on during the transfer window. The management team are currently in discussion with Bobby Mann to secure his long term future at the Club and we are very hopeful of some good news on this front shortly.

Youth and Community

Under the guidance of Danny MacDonald we continue to see this extremely important facet at the Club develop. We have taken on Mike Fridge as Football Development Co-ordinator to compliment the current team and are also extremely pleased that Ronnie Duncan, who was Development Co-ordinator at Ross County, joins the Club as Youth Team Development Officer.

Both Mike and Ronnie are well respected in Scotland within football circles and are extremely successful in their field. They have seen the set up and what we are trying to achieve at ICTFC and are delighted to be joining what they see as a very ambitious and successful Football Club with a long term vision and commitment towards youth development at all levels within the community.

We have consulted with Danny and he is hoping in future to incorporate a few lines from Mike, Fiona, Ronnie and himself on how we are progressing with our programme so that everybody becomes fully aware of what we are trying to achieve at the Club.

Commercial

As mentioned last month, Les Kidger has taken up a part time role at the Club to assist within the department to the end of the season. As this is only an interim situation we have taken on Nicola Barclay as a Sales Executive for our commercial function and she has already made an impact and we see her role developing as the Club move forward on this front.

It is our intention that Charlie Christie will also move into a new position at the Club whilst maintaining his role within the playing staff and more news on this will be issued as the situation develops over the next couple of weeks.

We continue to review the commercial function at the Club and will be announcing some new developments in the near future regarding changes for next season in how we operate.

It is our intention to run a Sportsman's Dinner at a location yet to be confirmed on 2nd April 2004 where the star attraction will be Mr Tam Cowan. Tables and individual places at this event are now available at £50/head and can be booked through the Stadium by contacting Les, Nicola or Charlie. Initial reaction to what promises to be a tremendous evening has been excellent.

The revenue raised at this event will be donated to a fund that is being set up to assist the Club in meeting the latest SPL requirement for promotion to the top flight - under soil heating. There will be a formal press release on this shortly and it will be a chance for all our fans/shareholders alike to make a contribution to the further development of the Club.

We have had numerous comments regarding a town centre outlet for our merchandising and we can confirm that we have been in discussion with a retail outlet that may at long last enable us to fulfil this request, again we will keep you informed regarding this as things progress.

Car Parking/Turnstiles

The Directors continue to monitor the situation with both the car parking and turnstile operations. This will continue until we get things more user friendly for our supporters. At the Brechin game on Saturday it took 12 minutes from the final whistle to clear the Home Car Park which we do not think can be considered a failure.

When exiting the Car Parks we ask that you show a degree of patience as it was noted on Saturday that certain vehicles were jumping queues in an attempt to get out that little bit earlier, this type of behaviour just adds to delays and is not the answer to our problems.

Stadium Criteria

We continue our dialogue with the SPL and it is hoped to have a formal meeting with them shortly to discuss our proposals and how we think we can meet their criteria.

Injuries

We are entering the second half of the season with a few injuries to our key players but are hopeful that B Wilson and S Hislop will be back playing shortly. R McBain is still to be assessed and will be getting a scan early next week and D Proctor is recovering well from his operation but R Hart could be out for some time yet. If we can get over these set backs whilst maintaining our challenge for the League and the Cup we should be back to almost full strength for the run in which would be excellent. It is unfortunate that when we are going so well that all our injuries have come at the one time but that is football and something we just have to get on with.

Finally congratulations are due to Scotty for running what is developing into one of the most successful Football Web Sites in the Country and the Club are grateful for the service provided, and of course thanks also goes to all the users of the site as 2million+ hits is an amazing achievement, long may it continue.