New Honorary President Of Ict

[caleyrule]

David Sutherland is the new Honorary President of the club and Ken Mackie and Roddy Ross are the new Vice Honorary Presidents of the club

Also, the main stand will be offically renamed the Jock McDonald stand at the Montrose game

http://www.ictfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News...1692629,00.html

Edited June 15, 2009 by caleyrule

[CaleyD]

I would have thought that getting a team on the pitch would have been the priority of the Board right now.

[Scotty]

I would have thought that getting a team on the pitch would have been the priority of the Board right now.

I would rather the board left that to Terry Butcher !

I have no problem whatsoever in appointing DFS as Honorary President of ICT. I think we all acknowledge that Jock MacDonald deserved the title based on his long association with Highland Football and his influence in getting us into the senior leagues back in 1994. It is equally fitting that his successor as Honorary President is the man who came in a few years later, reversed our downward financial spiral, put a plan in place to get us to the premier league, achieved that goal, and then made it possible for 2 stands to be built in 45 days to bring that SPL football to Inverness.

We might not agree with everything he does or has done, we might not have liked his comments re: the trust during last season when feelings on all sides were running high, and some may question his motives in being the ICT benefactor, but when you cut away the individual issues that people have with the man, the simple fact of the matter is that if he had not come into the club when he did we would never have reached the SPL and the only bounce we might ever have been talking about was the one from the third or second division up to the division above for brief spells !!!

For the more cynical amongst you - maybe this reason will work as an alternative: his shareholding ensures that he will always have a huge say so he might as well have a title to go along with it.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

Jobs for the boys .

[Scotty]

its not really "jobs for the boys" ... its an honorary title, and despite his run-ins with certain groups or organisations in the recent past, personally I believe it is one he has earned.

[caleyrule]

its not really "jobs for the boys" ... its an honorary title, and despite his run-ins with certain groups or organisations in the recent past, personally I believe it is one he has earned.

I agree and hopefully we can get a big crowd in at the montrose game for the offical renaming of the main stand as well

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

I was meaning more Ken and Roddys new titles . Titles for the boys is maybe more apt .

[CaleyD]

I would have thought that getting a team on the pitch would have been the priority of the Board right now.

I would rather the board left that to Terry Butcher !

I have no problem whatsoever in appointing DFS as Honorary President of ICT. I think we all acknowledge that Jock MacDonald deserved the title based on his long association with Highland Football and his influence in getting us into the senior leagues back in 1994. It is equally fitting that his successor as Honorary President is the man who came in a few years later, reversed our downward financial spiral, put a plan in place to get us to the premier league, achieved that goal, and then made it possible for 2 stands to be built in 45 days to bring that SPL football to Inverness.

We might not agree with everything he does or has done, we might not have liked his comments re: the trust during last season when feelings on all sides were running high, and some may question his motives in being the ICT benefactor, but when you cut away the individual issues that people have with the man, the simple fact of the matter is that if he had not come into the club when he did we would never have reached the SPL and the only bounce we might ever have been talking about was the one from the third or second division up to the division above for brief spells !!!

For the more cynical amongst you - maybe this reason will work as an alternative: his shareholding ensures that he will always have a huge say so he might as well have a title to go along with it.

My comment has nothing to do with who might or might not deserve a "Title" or what they have done for the club in the past. We're in a situation where it's far more important to know what people are doing now to secure the future of the club and the only news the club can come up with is how they are honouring their own.....give me a break!!!

What I, and I'm sure most other fans want to be hearing about right now is that budgets have been set for next year, the manager knows how much money he has to spend and is positively targeting players. I want to know that we're taking a sensible approach to relegation and the plans not to send the club into debt in a mindless attempt at bouncing straight back.

As worthy as these people may be of their titles, it sticks in the throat just a little to have them patting each other on the back for a job well done when we've just been relegated and the vast majority of the fans have absolutely no idea of what direction the clubs future will take.

It doesn't surprise me though as our board haven't exactly been renowned for their successes when it comes to PR and tact in recent times.

[Scotty]

My comment has nothing to do with who might or might not deserve a "Title" or what they have done for the club in the past. We're in a situation where it's far more important to know what people are doing now to secure the future of the club and the only news the club can come up with is how they are honouring their own.....give me a break!!!

What I, and I'm sure most other fans want to be hearing about right now is that budgets have been set for next year, the manager knows how much money he has to spend and is positively targeting players. I want to know that we're taking a sensible approach to relegation and the plans not to send the club into debt in a mindless attempt at bouncing straight back.

As worthy as these people may be of their titles, it sticks in the throat just a little to have them patting each other on the back for a job well done when we've just been relegated and the vast majority of the fans have absolutely no idea of what direction the clubs future will take.

It doesn't surprise me though as our board haven't exactly been renowned for their successes when it comes to PR and tact in recent times.

Maybe there is no other news right now though 'D' ?

Butcher has just returned from holiday and discussions are no doubt ongoing between himself, Grassa, players and agents .....

I too would like to hear some positive news about the playing side of things but lets face it we are not going to get the minutiae of the budget other than knowing its a lot less than last year. We have already heard that players are being targetted and Grassa more or less said there is no money to spend on anything but wages which in turn suggests we are not going to send the club into deep debt in an attempt to bounce strraight back so most of the valid points you raised have actually been addressed albeit indirectly.

[CaleyD]

Scotty, do you honestly think that, given the situation the club is in right now, that the best thing for the clubs PR is to be handing out self-gratifying titles?

There's a time and place for these things, and as you said above, these guys are probably deserving of recognition...it just doesn't look good to be handing them out when, in the eyes of most fans, the club has made some major errors in the last 12 months and heads should be rolling.

Let's face it, the people awarding these titles are giving them to the very men who should most likely be asking some serious questions of them and perhaps showing a couple of them the door. It just stinks of ass-kissing so they can keep their positions (which it probably isn't, but that's how it looks).

[Scotty]

fair comment .... but I think those handed the titles are far more astute in business than to be swayed by such an action if it was done for that purpose (which I dont think it was).

consider one other thing as well though ... something we both know from the early days of the proposed website contract between PTV and ICT when the club asked for our input .... The contract with the club (in fact the standard PTV contract, and one which was mirrored in my days with rivals.net and to a lesser extent with SportNetwork) is that the "website operator" (ie. ICT) must release 'X' amount of "newsworthy" stories per week or be in breach of that contract. Not sure how many it is with ICT these days but I think the initial discussions mentioned three stories per week and they had to be in certain categories. If there are no valid team or match stories to put on the site and there is no contract news simply putting the centenary club results up or something else of that ilk doesnt cut it.

The timing may not be perfect, but I think we are creating a storm in a teacup here over something that shouldnt really be an issue. It only seems to be an issue because the news of it came before something else that is higher up the priority list and hopefully that is likely being worked on but just cant be commented on right now !

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Give me a break - This endowment is just part of the control system - It is just yet another ploy by the Old Boy network and a shure sign that we arent going to see many changes off the park. As suspected the muppets have got off scot free despite shunting us out of the SPL.

[Renegade]

It's pretty silly really. This gang are just giving themselves new titles for no reason at all, other than to pat each other on the back. Another strange decision by the board.

[SMEE]

I like this bit.....

Mr Sutherland's drive and determination saw his firm Tulloch built two new stands in 45 days to enable Caley Thistle to meet the SPL deadline and take up their place in the top flight in 2004.

Amazing that...considering his company took about 15 months to fit a kitchen in my old work! :)

[Guest birdog]

I like this bit.....

Mr Sutherland's drive and determination saw his firm Tulloch built two new stands in 45 days to enable Caley Thistle to meet the SPL deadline and take up their place in the top flight in 2004.

Amazing that...considering his company took about 15 months to fit a kitchen in my old work! :)

TBH I hadn't read through the full article but after reading your post I went back to see if this blatant spin had been included in the wording which you have highlighted. I think that this post shows exactly how much press releases from the club are worded to twist the truth and make certain people look better. As far as my memory serves we were already an SPL club, playing in Aberdeen, so regardless of how long it took to build the stands Tullochs never beat any deadline to allow us to take our place in the SPL, more smoke and mirrors. I believe the truth is just as admirable, the building of the new stands allowed us to play the second half of the season in Sneck but the lies coming from the club in an attempt to deceive the fans have tarnished this.

[Kirishima]

Yes, not great timing. DFS aside (he can call himself El Presidente for all we can do about it) the others should be announcing news of what they are sacrificing rather than what they are gaining. Let's face it, it's one big jolly for the lads.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

I think you could only ground share for one season so maybe Mr Sutherland did enable us to make the deadline . correct me if I'm wrong ( which I probably am ) .

[Guest birdog]

I think you could only ground share for one season so maybe Mr Sutherland did enable us to make the deadline . correct me if I'm wrong ( which I probably am ) .

I don't know the ins and outs but the fact remains we were already an SPL team and it is my belief the deadline that was reached was to allow us to play in Sneck before the end of our first SPL season. I also think that the deadline for the following season would have been the same as a club being promoted from the first division, the end of May or begining of June possibly?

EDIT-

Mr Sutherland's drive and determination saw his firm Tulloch built two new stands in 45 days to enable Caley Thistle to meet the SPL deadline and take up their place in the top flight in 2004.

The first SPL match played at TCS was on the 29th of January 2005. So you can make whatever assumptions you like from the statement.

Edited June 16, 2009 by birdog

[Scotty]

Badly worded I would agree, as we fulfilled our promotion criteria (much to the chagrin of Plastic Thistle) by organising a groundshare in Aberdeen.

The deadline referred to I believe - and this could have been a lot clearer - was the one set by the SPL that if we had the stands in place by a certain date, we could complete the season in Inverness rather than play it all in Aberdeen. If we had not met that deadline, we would have been stuck at Pittodrie for the rest of the season.

As for the following season, I believe you have (or had) to have your SPL compliant stadium ready well before the end of the season (Feb or March I think - although that may now have changed?). I remember this because it was a frequently debated topic before we went up in 2004 ... There were quite a few times when we skirted with greatness that the "should we spend the money and get the stadium ready when we dont know if we will win the league until May???" conundrum was floated ...

[Guest birdog]

Badly worded or misdirection? Maybe even a bit of ego massaging?

I believe that March the 31st was the deadline to have a compliant stadium in place but that was revised to May or June before the end of our first SPL season.

[Scotty]

Given the examples of past PR/Spin fiascos, I would go with badly worded rather than misdirection. In terms of Spin, ICT are less "Carlsberg" and more "Kestrel" :026:

I knew there was a Feb/Mar deadline as we have talked about it in the past .... something was telling me it changed though so you could be right about it now being May (which is sensible).

[Guest birdog]

Given the examples of past PR/Spin fiascos, I would go with badly worded rather than misdirection. In terms of Spin, ICT are less "Carlsberg" and more "Kestrel" :026:

I think you could well be correct, which would lead me to think that given the past fiascos and the inability to get, perhaps, some of the most important facts in our short history wrong on press releases then someone needs to be employed who has the ability to manage the PR in such a way that we fans are not alienated any further than we have been recently.

[Scotty]

I agree with you Birdog, but as needed as that position might be, creating it in the middle of a recession when we have just reduced our potential income by being relegated, and are looking to cut costs all over the stadium is not the time to do it. I have bitched and moaned about PR for ages, but now is not the time.

If you read the various comments on here or in the media or hear snippets of stories going around, it is clear that the club are slap bang in the middle of a "consultation process" which will likely result in staffing reductions all over the place. We have had various threads about this surface in the last few days with mention of certain high profile or visible positions but the truth of the matter is that this is going on all over the stadium.

Having gone through a consultation process myself a good few years ago where a group of us were told that half of us were not going to make it, I am glad that the club are saying very little about this publicly. I actually support them in making no direct (public) comment about any individuals until the process is over as that is the only professional way to handle things.

I am not sure who on here has been through such a process, but I would guess a fair few. For those that have not, I can assure you it is a painful and horrible process for all concerned as you are dealing with people's livelihoods, their ability to pay mortgages etc and it is a process that must remain internal until it is finalised. Whatever we think right now is immaterial, it is the club staff who are important and we are secondary.

I know we are nosey to know what is going on or what has gone on already or desperate to get that juicy bit of gossip posted, but I would hope that those of us who have had any dealings with the staff at the stadium would respect the fact that they must all be worried right now and inaccurate or insensitive comments on a public message board will not do anything to help.

Once the process is complete, then it is definitely time to look for a full and frank statement from the club regarding what they have had to do to re-organise, what changes they have made to the staffing structure at the stadium, and how it affects everything else including the playing budget. Only then will we be in a position to fully comment on whether we agree with those changes.

[maimie]

to be honest i have absolutely no objection to Roddy Ross's contribution to the club being recognised in some way.

i'll bet my bottom dollar that he's put more money in to this club in one way or another than others mentioned...

[Reliably_Informed]

Nobody seems to have pointed out that David Sutherland is also far from being the largest shareholder. He has a grand total of 250 shares in ICT.