CaleyD

Based on previous decisions made by the SFA under similar circumstances I can't see how it is possible for them to justify throwing Brechin out of the Cup. Arbroath were fined ?20,000 and ordered to replay a game for fielding two ineligible players not so long ago, and this situation is no different. You also have other cases where St Mirren were fined ?10,000 for not adhering to the U21 rule but no re-match was ordered as the original result was a draw and they had to replay anyway and QotS received a similar fine but no re-match could be ordered as they had already been knocked out in a later match before it came to the attention of the SFA that they had breached the player eligibility criteria.

It would happen a lot faster if the Supporters Trust had more members, and as such was more representative of the fans and gave people the confidence to sign over their proxy to the Trust. Doesn't matter if it's ?50, ?25, ?10 ?5 or ?1....I am of the opinion that it is an unnecessary obstacle and one which is holding back the Trust from realising it's potential. I don't personally feel ?10 is a lot of money, but you can be sure their are others out there who would far rather spend it on something else and use it as an excuse to dismiss the idea of joining. This is a line that I had thrown at me at one of the previous Trust meetings when it was suggested that I be given my ?10 back and told to go home. It was noted that the idea of removing the joining fee would be discussed and brought up at the next AGM. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the AGM just passed, so I cannot confirm what the outcome was of that discussion or the vote that should have taken place. Why should anyone get to attend meetings of any form of membership club if they dont become members. I drink in the Caley club but am not a member so wouldn't expect to be allowed to attend meetings. As for finding out what its all about check the website, ask the committee, check other Trust's websites. But in support of what you say perhaps the Trust could organise an open meet for people who want to fact find. Like yourself I was at the very first meeting and, to be honest, the turnout was pretty dire so would it work a couple of years down the line? Is the concept of being inclusive instead of exclusive so alien to everyone that they feel that if they are giving people something then they must have something in return, even if it's not needed? Granted, that works two ways, but the Trust have it within their ability to change that way of thinking among ICT fans in relation to both themselves and the club....ok, you'll get those who will take advantage of it, but you'll also get far more who will appreciate the gesture and those are the people who will help if and when it is needed. The Trust was not formed to help dissolve the members club. The Members Club was a closed shop of a very small minority who carried a fairly significant voice. The Trust was formed to create a society which would be open to ALL members and had the aim of giving everyone a voice. It was never at any time prior to or during the setting up of the Trust certain that the Members Club were even interested in transferring their shares/voting right, let alone had taken any action to instigate the creation of an alternative body for the holding of those rights. As it happened that was something that did eventually happen, but I'm not even sure the majority of fans know that the Members Club was dissolved or that the 12.5% (I think) voting right was transferred to the Supporters Trust. History does show that the largest Supporters Trust are born out of a crisis at the respective clubs and many of these Trusts have ongoing financial commitments as a result of bailing their teams out of a financial hole...hence the reason why some of them have such large membership fees. But we aren't in that situation and we have no desperate need to be building up a huge bank balance. I am a strong believer in the principle of Supporters Trusts and everyone who is able to join should join. However, the Trust also has a responsibility to make it as easy and as affordable as possible in order to open it up to everyone and remove all excuses practical for people not to join. At this moment in time I am of the opinion that the existence of a membership fee cannot be justified, certainly not on the grounds of "we need the money". The day may come when the Trust will be in a situation that every penny they can bring in is desperately needed, but surely the best preparation for that is to have as many people on board as possible in advance....even better if you can have EVERYONE on board. If the 5hit ever does hit the fan, surely it's better to have a list of a few thousand members who know the Trust and how it works who you can contact quickly instead of just a few hundred. That's the reason this country invests so heavily in a Territorial Army...they hope the day never comes when they are needed, but if and when it does they are ready to hit the ground running. In the meantime, you have a large society with one **** of a voice which helps reduce the risk of problems happening in the first place. It also accelerates the potential to grow the shareholding and adds value to the ICT Community which in turn grows the number of fans and grows the size/strength of the Trust. Something needs to kick start the process and the Trust are far better placed to do that than anyone else.

ICT have pulled something out of the hat at the last minute too many times for me to be too worried about our lack of transfer window activity at the moment.

What are the benefits of being a member of the trust? I assume it costs mazoola? If the trust was free where would thye get funds? Can't say a fiver a year for a share in the club is too much to pay. Benifits:- Discount in shop. Priority for tickets. A voice on the board. To name just three. If the Trust are relying on membership fees to raise funds/operate then they'd be as well packing up the whole thing now. As it is, they don't, and they have done a great job of raising funds through the events etc they run and I'm sure that will continue and grow. It's not ?5/year, it's ?10. Shop discount and priority tickets are already available to a vast majority of fans through them being season ticket holder, shareholder or centenary club member. The Trust have no representation on the club board. The thing is, the bigger the Supporters Trust, the more representative it is of the fans, the more people it has to attract to fund raising events, the larger the voice and the more likely they are to get that seat on the Board of Directors. A lot of people remain cynical of the benefits of being a Trust Member and will never part with a penny to join, they therefore never get a chance to attend the meetings or AGM to find out what it is about and buy in to the idea. Open the doors, invite everyone in and remove all obstacles....only then will the Supporters Trust realise it's full potential in being a voice for ALL fans. If people wish to make a donation, then so be it, allow them to do that by choice and not by necessity. Many people on here will argue that when it comes to football attendances they are too expensive and it is better to have 5000 people pay ?10 than 2500 paying ?20 as you benefit from the other stuff.....I make the same argument in support of making the Trust free for all to join. Better to have 3000 members all contributing to the organisation than just a few hundred, and if that means giving up a couple of thousand a year in membership fees then I'm sure it will be recouped several times over in other areas.

I've dabbled with logo design for years. When I started off doing it I used good old pencil and paper, and most of my ideas start off like that still before I start to lay anything down on the computer. I use a couple of different packages on the PC depending on what I'm trying to achieve, but mostly I knock them together in Macromedia Fireworks. The idea for the above logo came from the concept of having something which would convey the feeling of friendship/belonging/co-operation. The (brackets) criss cross in the manner they do to show the bringing together of the 3 elements of ICT - Inverness (the support), Caley and Thistle - into a single entity. The idea first came to me years back and it wasn't till last year when trying to come up with a log for the Highland Marchers that I got round to putting it down on paper (the screen). I've just (finally) come up with another logo for them, but I'll give you a sneak preview here :004: [attach=1]

We get this topic about 3 times a year :015:

The logo identifies the group as belonging to ICT so I don't think it would be good to change the 3 main letters that make it up. You could just add the name round the outside (as per the attached)....I've just used the BENI as an example [attach=1]

Husband and wife are out shopping and as they go through the aisles the husband puts a case of Stella in the trolley. The wife takes it out, puts it back on the shelf and says at ?10 it costs too much. Further round she takes a jar of face cream at puts it in the trolley. The husband takes it out and puts it back on the shelf saying that at ?20 it costs too much. "But", she argues....."it makes me look so sexy" He replies......"So does the Stella, and it was only half the price"

A Supporters Trust that is FREE for all supporters/fans to join.

there's a couple of better ones than that but no words that i know of.... :009: We Will Rock You is better, but I have it in the back of my mind that someone else uses that tune, albeit not the Chilli Pipers version.

Red Hot Chilli Pipers - Voodoo Chile

Another Logo/Design I had knocked up for something else but it ended up not being used. [attach=1]

As someone who admitted earlier in the thread that they do/have done charity work, then I'm guessing you don't really mean "ANYTHING" - otherwise you'd be drawing a line under those less fortunates and moving on.

Why not? They're a well organized outfit with smart, motivated guys at the helm and a growing, enthusiastic fan base. Just compare their websites http://www.spanglefish.com/invernesscity/ http://www.freewebs.com/clachnacuddinfc/ Which is more professional? Clach are a joke - their finances tell you everything you need to know. They're going nowhere, in contrast to City who could grow into a force to be reckoned with if given the chance. I have nothing against Inverness City and I would love to see a second team from Inverness playing in the Highland League, but you really can't compare them to Clach in any way, shape or form. If forced to choose between the existence of one or other team then, for me, it would be Clach without having to even think about it. In fact, I think that your a little out of order to even suggest that Clach should be allowed to die in order to open up a place for Inverness City to move through. IMO, no honest football fan would wish to see the demise of any team, for any reason.

Can you imagine what this country would look like if you applied that philosophy to everything? Lets not give grants to preserve old buildings and lets build over all the greenland....these things don't pay for themselves, so screw them, let them disappear. Look at the millions that are invested into such things. Over ?50,000+ was spent putting in a path along the back of Dalneigh next to the canel (which already has a path running along it) not so long ago and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people I see using it ever week and they're talking about spending the same again (and more) adding lights to it and installing some kind of "fitness" equipment along the route. Then you have the maintenance costs every year on top of that. We're not talking about a club that only appeared on the scene a few years ago. We're talking about the oldest remaining football team in Inverness, a founder member of the North of Scotland FA and the last connection this city has with the Highland League. Football, in the shape of ICT, has brought a lot of money to Inverness, and it's easy for us to sit in our nice new stadium playing in the top league to say "We survived and grew, Clach had a chance to be part of that and chose not to, so feck em". How quickly some people forget that things could so easily have gone the same way for Caley and/or Thistle 14 years ago. I couldn't quote their attendance figures and I don't know how much ICT's success has contributed to any decrease over the years, but you can be sure that it will have had some impact. In fact, Clach are likely one of the few "businesses" in Inverness to have been effected in a negative manner by the presence of ICT. We all mump and moan about how the OF fans steal fans away from the smaller teams....are ICT not doing the exact same thing to a certain extent when it comes to the Clach? Why shouldn't everyone who has benefited from the success of football in the city be expected to give a little something back to the game at the lower level? Are we all really so greedy and money-grabbing that we won't forego a few quid to make life a little easier for Clach and continue to provide an affordable alternative to supporting ICT, or would we rather these people spent their Saturdays sitting at home watching football on the TV and never giving a second thought to the game in their own city. I'm no Clach Fan, never have been, but that doesn't mean I want to see them go to the wall.

And some of the old cnuts that have been doing it for years and think everything should just get out of their way :015:

When I win the lottery and build the "CaleyD Corner Pod" with my penthouse flat and helicopter pad, I'll make sure and add some luxury seating for matchdays and the ladies would be welcome to use them for the reserve matches so long as I get a cuppa and a bit of cake in return.

It was his plans to stick a roof on the stadium I objected to, not the half time entertainment :015:

Juanjo never recovered form after his injury and with the way he seems to be bouncing around at smaller clubs I wouldn't be convinced by any moves to have him return.

Forget the scoreboards and hire a couple of Dolly Birds to parade up and down in front of each stand holding up numbers with the score on. Creates employment, adds to the viewing pleasure and eh....eh....oh yeah....would be cheaper than electronic scoreboards.

Feb8th School of posting images proves it's worth yet again

Personally I don't see the point of arguing over who is or is not worthy of a testimonial as all the events run to raise money are optional. This means that if you don't agree with it then you simply choose not to support it....end of problem.

Our Community Development Dept is a registered Charity, why not exploit that fact to benefit from the same tax breaks that other charity shops do :004: