Club EGM notes

Twenty shareholders or their proxies attended the EGM on 20 August at Firhill. Five Jags Trust board members were present, some of whom are shareholders in their own right.

The meeting opened with a brief introduction from the Chairman and a request for questions of clarification.

The Trust asked for more information on resolution three, which was in relation to changes in the Articles of Association of the company in order to comply with The Companies Act 2006. The meeting was advised that these were issues of consolidation in relation to changes already implemented, some of which were relatively historic.

The meeting then voted on all three resolutions at once although it was later pointed out that each should have been taken in turn and the exercise was repeated towards the end of the evening. However, in both cases, the show of hands indicated a substantial majority in favour. As a result, there was no need for individual holdings to be taken into consideration as part of the voting process (this is the process allowed for in the rules for shareholder meetings).

The meeting was opened up for general questions and there were a number of points of interest as follows.

Taking the reduction of debt into consideration, the club is projecting a loss of £50,000 to £60,000 this year. (On reflection, it was not clear if this was the financial year or the football season.) This is less than in the past few years and there are a number of factors which have come into the equation, some of which have a negative impact.

The Ambassador scheme has been successful with nine people signed up at £10,000 per season. Some of these are folk already spending significant amounts in hospitality so the net effect is not an increase of £90,000 in income, but it is significant.

Income from the Centenary Fund is acknowledged as a major contribution.

Increased costs have been incurred in signing up the manager on a three-year deal and in bringing in more players over the summer. It was not stated as such, but the implication was that the salary budget has been increased.

Looking forward, the club is planning for breaking even year in, year out, although it was implied that this is subject to so many variables as to be almost impossible to predict. The meeting was told that some initiatives would take time to grow to fruition whilst an event such as promotion or relegation could change things literally overnight.

When challenged further on these matters Tom Hughes stated that the budget deficit could be fixed very easily by moving to a mixture of part and full time players but this is not contemplated at the moment.

The board acknowledged that becoming more of a selling club was part of the reality of our current position.

Some concerns were raised about the cost of stewards and police in a frequently almost empty North Stand. The club feels that its hands are tied by the police in these instances and there are marginal cost savings if fans are shifted into the Jackie Husband stand due to the need for more stewards to enforce segregation.

As far as the stadium development is concerned, this is unlikely to take place until Spring 2011 at the earliest, due to ongoing discussions with Glasgow City Council in relation to the surrounding area and the impact that the development will have.

There is an ongoing desire to see a four-sided stadium remain, despite some areas having a very small depth from trackside to the rear of any seating. Terracing is being considered as an option and the board were receptive to the idea that fans should and could have an input to that decision.

The proposal to have back of shirt sponsor has fallen through. In addition there is a delay in dispatch of the new away kit due to an issue with the colour of the Ignis logo which is now resolved. The club will talk to Greaves about the season ticket discount voucher which expires at the end of August since the new strips will arrive at Greaves around that deadline.

Under some strong criticism from the body of the meeting, the club agreed to look again at the revised prices in the Aitken Suite with a view to further reductions back towards last season’s levels.

As can be seen from these brief notes, the meeting covered a lot of ground not directly associated with the business in hand. If trust members or other supporters have any queries about any of the items above, please use the comment function in this section of the site and we will do our best to answer them.