Supporters Trust Statement on The Threat of Administration

[ICT Supporters Trust]

Following today's letter to shareholders from the Interim Chairman, the Supporters Trust has issued this statement:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/the-threat-of-administration

We have also seen the suggestion that the Trust compiles a list of questions to be put to the Board, and we are happy to do this. We are conscious that many questions will inevitably relate to how the club got into the current situation rather than to how we can get out of it and avoid going in to administration.

As a result, it is our intention to submit "backward looking" questions to the SLO in advance of the meeting and endeavour to raise "forward looking" questions at the meeting itself.

To aid us in compiling the list of questions, it will be helpful if they can all be sent to us by e-mail:

[email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

[big cherly]

1 hour ago, ICT Supporters Trust said:

Following today's letter to shareholders from the Interim Chairman, the Supporters Trust has issued this statement:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/the-threat-of-administration

We have also seen the suggestion that the Trust compiles a list of questions to be put to the Board, and we are happy to do this. We are conscious that many questions will inevitably relate to how the club got into the current situation rather than to how we can get out of it and avoid going in to administration.

As a result, it is our intention to submit "backward looking" questions to the SLO in advance of the meeting and endeavour to raise "forward looking" questions at the meeting itself.

To aid us in compiling the list of questions, it will be helpful if they can all be sent to us by e-mail:

[email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

Will the questions list be available on a live link (or equivalent) to fans of questions received / entered or is it just what is decided to be raised by the SLO on the night?

Thanks bc

Edited October 2 by big cherly

[+snorbens_caleyman]

1 hour ago, ICT Supporters Trust said:

As a result, it is our intention to submit "backward looking" questions to the SLO in advance of the meeting and endeavour to raise "forward looking" questions at the meeting itself.

Yes.  Because, despite the temptations, the meeting has to be "forward looking".

[STFU]

1 hour ago, ICT Supporters Trust said:

.... it is our intention to submit "backward looking" questions to the SLO in advance of the meeting and endeavour to raise "forward looking" questions at the meeting itself.

The statement is a good one but this idea again shows the trust are doing a bad job of reading the room.

Fans are not going to entertain the idea of putting financial support behind those who continue to shun accountability or refuse to explain how they failed to prevent us getting into this position and that involves a lot of backward looking.

They need to be questioned thoroughly on that at the meeting if there's to be any chance of looking forward.

[CaleyCanary]

The board members who failed in their duty HAVE to be accountable, be honest enough to admit their culpability in the lack of due diligence and overseeing Gardiner’s antics, and have the decency to say sorry!

After that they can tell us how they’ll each improve personally to ensure the likes of this debacle can never happen again, and what their plans and ideas are to get us out of the mess they’ve helped to create. Until they do I’ll have no confidence to put any money into a bottomless pit that won’t save our club.

I’m not that naive to expect cast iron guarantees but I will need to have some level of assurance that it’s a worthwhile ongoing venture.

[+snorbens_caleyman]

1 hour ago, STFU said:

They need to be questioned thoroughly on that at the meeting if there's to be any chance of looking forward.

Whilst I agree that the Board has to account for their (in)actions - see umpteen of my past posts - Monday's meeting is not the time to do that. Start on that, and the meeting will get nowhere.

The only topic for discussion must be how the club could be saved. Everything else is just noise.

If a miracle happens, there will be time to ask other questions at a later date.

[Yngwie]

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

[Scotty]

3 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

This is a great analogy.

As someone who has posed many backward facing questions in the other threads, I am comfortable with putting my questions in the Trust's hands to be asked. However, we absolutely need the backward facing questions to be asked, and should the club survive, these should be asked, in-depth of every single board member individually rather than collectively. They cannot squirm away or deem any question unanswerable if fans dip into pockets again to bail them out of the mess they created. There is no hiding place in the aftermath.  

As for forward looking questions, I will come up with a few no doubt, but as a starter, I would ask every single board member for one individual fund-raising idea they would personally commit to initiating, promoting and seeing through should they remain as a board member. It might raise £1000 it might raise £50,000 but it will start to show us the mettle of these silent executives, what they are prepared to do, and how much effort they are prepared to put in. Will they work in partnership with the fans and everyone else trying to turn the club around and start to (re-)create a relationship or will their interaction simply be to lob that £1000 or £50,000 into the pot and prove themselves to be simply transactional in nature. There is room for both, but we need to know what and who we have to work with going forward.  

 

 

[STFU]

Saving the house involves dealing with the fire and/or the damage it has caused. In this instance it is the board members who are the fire and they're asking us to pay to effect repairs whilst the fire continues to burn. Giving £200k isn't going to extinguish the fire it will just feed it for another month.

Dealing with the fire involves dealing with the board. Everything else is just throwing good money after bad and chasing the folly that somehow we can keep the club going in it's current form.

There will be (more) casualties but fans are not responsible for that and the board cannot be allowed to shift accountability to fans for that which is precisely what is happening here.

"Fans fail to support scheme to save club" is the headline they are looking for so they can walk away saying they tried.

I will reiterate what I said before about thinking the statement from the trust is a solid one. It's only this idea that we should set aside past actions or inactions of the board and support them going forward that I don't like.

In reality the questions are going to be asked by someone. It just doesn't sit well with me that the trust position themselves in disagreement with that happening.

Edited October 3 by STFU

[+CaleyHedgehog]

Quite simply, I cannot afford to pay into another crowd funder. For most of us a donation to the club means a sacrifice somewhere else in our lives. I was happy to contribute to Aaron Doran's fundraiser, to sponsor players, buy merch, and invest in overpriced season tickets, because these were all ways to give a little boost to our team and that was important to me. But I don't have an endless supply of disposable income and I refuse to feel guilty about not putting my hand in my pocket this time.

[CaleyCiuin]

8 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Whilst I agree that the Board has to account for their (in)actions - see umpteen of my past posts - Monday's meeting is not the time to do that. Start on that, and the meeting will get nowhere.

The only topic for discussion must be how the club could be saved. Everything else is just noise.

If a miracle happens, there will be time to ask other questions at a later date.

The current board who are culpable for our current financial mess have shown they are not capable of running the club. By not holding them to account they might be free to repeat the same level of incompetence!

[ICT Supporters Trust]

To clarify any confusion about our position, the Supporters Trust definitely does want the difficult "backward looking" questions to be asked and answered, whether they relate to the stewardship of the club, Board members (individually or collectively), former directors or any other relevant matter.

That is exactly why we have highlighted that we know many questions will be of that nature, and that it is our intention to submit these to the SLO in advance of the meeting. We will share the questions submitted and the answers subsequently received. As many questions may be similar, we will group questions together to avoid duplication.

However, given the seriousness of the situation, we want the meeting itself to be as constructive as possible, which is why we intend to table "forward looking" questions at the meeting.

There are some very good questions being mooted in this and other threads.

What we would ask, so we do not inadvertently miss any, is that anyone with questions sends us them by e-mail to:

[email protected].

[Ronaldo]

The board, or individual board members,  will either be incapable or unwilling to answer the majority the questions that are likely to be put to them.

[+snorbens_caleyman]

2 hours ago, STFU said:

It's only this idea that we should set aside past actions or inactions of the board and support them going forward that I don't like.

I don't think anyone's saying that.  We're saying "save the club first, ask questions later".

Or, to adapt Flash Gordon: "Board, we hate you, but we only have nine days to save the club!".   (That's nine days after the meeting.)

[+DoofersDad]

9 hours ago, Yngwie said:

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

If the house is burning because a pile of old wood up against the walls was set on fire by the Gardiner, then you can help to save the house by removing the old wood.  

I agree we need to focus on ideas for the future, but we can't simply ignore the fact that our current Board are part of the problem for going forward.  With the exception of Scott Young, it is clear from all the social media platforms that any trust the shareholders and wider fan base have in the Board is next to zero.  Looking forward, it is also clear that people would be more willing to contribute to a fighting fund if we had a new Board under Alan Savage.  The dead wood has to go.

[bdu98196]

10 hours ago, Yngwie said:

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

However for not it feels like we have 2 options

1. get a bucket of water and try prolong the inevitable

2. let it burn then start again

Option 3 doesnt appear on the horizon - Fire brigade arrive and there is minimal damage

[Satan]

10 hours ago, Yngwie said:

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

Get the **** out, don't stop to pick up possessions.

Let the professionals deal with the fire.

Get new house.

Read into that analogy.

[Scotty]

4 hours ago, Ronaldo said:

The board, or individual board members,  will either be incapable or unwilling to answer the majority the questions that are likely to be put to them.

If this is the case then the door does not hit them on the way out. No ifs, buts, or maybes .. get out. end of story. This is what got us into this mess in the first place.

[big cherly]

7 hours ago, ICT Supporters Trust said:

that we know many questions will be of that nature, and that it is our intention to submit these to the SLO in advance of the meeting. We will share the questions submitted and the answers subsequently received.

For the Q&A backward looking session I would envisage a few fans would like to understand a little more of the process. As such:-

# Will the compiled questions that are to be forwarded to the SLO be available in advance to the fans. I’m sure this would be helpful to the fans.

# It’s unclear to me what people or individuals the questions are put. ie are the replies / answers the response and views from the SLO, or are the questions put forward to the full board / part board or volunteers? 

# What if any integrity or arbitrator will be in place to avoid spin and bull. Ie is Mr Savage in anyway involved in the process?

# Lastly,  Can we have the answers/ replies before the Monday night meeting. - This will allow I suggest the meeting to be focused on forward thinking. Otherwise I fear fans will insist on raising BL points. 

[+Fraz]

The SLO is now the Chairman. What a club. 

 

Next week Christine will be the Chair. 

Edited October 3 by Fraz

[Scotty]

10 hours ago, Ronaldo said:

The board, or individual board members,  will either be incapable or unwilling to answer the majority the questions that are likely to be put to them.

6 hours ago, Scotty said:

If this is the case then the door does not hit them on the way out. No ifs, buts, or maybes .. get out. end of story. This is what got us into this mess in the first place.

I guess Panos is off to casualty to get the splinters removed ... 

 

 

45 minutes ago, Fraz said:

The SLO is now the Chairman. What a club. 

Next week Christine will be the Chair. 

Could do far worse ... 

[STFU]

24 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I guess Panos is off to casualty to get the splinters removed ... 

Nah he'll just walk it off.

[bishbashbosh]

23 hours ago, Yngwie said:

If your house is on fire, there are 2 things you want to do.

1. Save the house and its inhabitants 

2. Find out how the fire started.

One of those things is a million times important than the other, but is less likely to happen if you place too much emphasis on the other at the critical time!

Sorry couldn’t resist it.

house on fire reminded me of a Rodney Dangerfield joke.

“My wife hates me. I woke up one night and the house was on fire. I heard my wife taking the kids downstairs saying, be quiet you’ll waken daddy.”

Edited October 3 by bishbashbosh
Misspell

[ICT Supporters Trust]

4 hours ago, big cherly said:

For the Q&A backward looking session I would envisage a few fans would like to understand a little more of the process. As such:-

# Will the compiled questions that are to be forwarded to the SLO be available in advance to the fans. I’m sure this would be helpful to the fans.

# It’s unclear to me what people or individuals the questions are put. ie are the replies / answers the response and views from the SLO, or are the questions put forward to the full board / part board or volunteers? 

# What if any integrity or arbitrator will be in place to avoid spin and bull. Ie is Mr Savage in anyway involved in the process?

# Lastly,  Can we have the answers/ replies before the Monday night meeting. - This will allow I suggest the meeting to be focused on forward thinking. Otherwise I fear fans will insist on raising BL points. 

The questions will be shared before the meeting, and hopefully there will be answers provided before the meeting, but the Trust cannot control that. We will share them when we have them.

The SLO is the correct recipient of the questions, and it is for him to gather the necessary information for the responses.

With recent changes to the Board, it is likely that the SLO (as current Vice Chair) will be chairing the meeting on Monday. The Board has called the meeting and has not indicated what role, if any, Alan Savage will play in it or in responding to questions.

Sorry we do not have all the answers to your points, but hopefully by picking up on the suggestion that we collate questions we are providing a mechanism where fans’ issues can be raised.

Thanks to those who have sent in questions so far. Please keep them coming to:

[email protected]. 

[ICTPaisley]

I see the fund raiser is up to 19.5k. Would it not be beneficial for everyone who is willing to part with cash just buy stuff from the club shop? 
 

I’m not quite sure how the kit deal works but surely selling the merchandise would reap the same benefits?