Brick Update....

As you may be aware, the Trust have been in communication with the Club in connection with the new sign on the Jackie Husband Stand. The erection of this has resulted in some of the Trust-sponored bricks being covered up so that the inscriptions are no longer visible.

When this was first pointed at the last game of the season, the Trust was advised that this was a temporary structure which would be rectified for the start of the new season. This did not happen and the matter was raised with the Club again. Notwithstanding the information we received at the time, the sign is not temporary and does not give the appearance of ever having been intended to be so.

It is clearly entirely inappropriate that this sign should have been erected without any consideration being given to the impact on the bricks positioned at that section of the wall. That it was not self-evident that the structure would create an issue seems incredulous.

There have been exchanges of e-mails on the matter but these have not yet resulted in either a satisfactory explanation of how this situation arose in the first place or a suitable resolution to the issue. Rather than continue to attempt to deal with it in this manner, our new Club Board Rep Kieron Dempsey will take the matter up directly with the Board.

SIGN UP IN THE AITKEN SUITE THIS SATURDAY

A reminder to everyone that the Jags Trust will have a table in the Aitken Suite at tomorrow's game from 1pm onwards. Several JTB members will be on duty, including new PTFC director Kieron Dempsey, so stop by if you want to talk to us about anything Jags-related.  

Anyone wanting to join the Trust can do it right there and then. Members wanting to renew are also welcome. And we will have a supply of standing order mandates to get you into the 1876 Club competition (exclusive to JT members) in time for the first monthly draw. Just bring your bank details, sign up and you'll be in the hat for one of these great prizes:  

A pair of tickets for PTFC's excellent hospitality package at a match to be arranged. Two of these prizes are up for grabs this month!

A pair of tickets to the new McParland Suite hospitality. We have these for every home fixture in October and November, including the Airdrie semi-final - there will be a winner for every game!

£50 of vouchers for Greaves Sports.

£50 of vouchers for Borders Books.  

This will be your last chance to sign up for the 1876 Club in time for the first draw, which will take place at the end of the week. Don't miss out. We've got some great games coming up at Firhill and you could be watching them in style.  

Jags Trust annual membership is £10 for individuals, £5 for the unwaged, £20 for families. 

1876 Club subscriptions are £10 per month.

JAGS TRUST NEW CHAIRMAN: RAYMOND ROSE

With Sandy Wilkie having indicated that he wished to step down from his role as Chairman of the Jags Trust Board, Raymond Rose was unanimously selected at Monday night's meeting to take over the post with immediate effect.

We'd like to express our thanks to Sandy for his considerable efforts over the past year, travelling through from Fife for meetings and events as well as Jags games, despite pressures of work and having a young family. Sandy remains on the JTB this year and still has much to contribute.

More news from the JTB meeting will be posted here over the next day or two, including a report from Kieron Dempsey on his first PTFC board meeting. 

NEWS ROUND UP

The Jags Trust main website has recovered and is back online now, so everybody relax. Thanks to Graham Lang, recently retired JT attack dog, for taking up this customer service issue and getting it resolved so quickly.

You might be interested to read our brief article about the Firhill Music Collective which swings into life at lunchtime on October 4th before we play Dundee, bringing Jags fans the chance of a gig and a game to get your Saturday off to a great start. Best of luck to this new venture from everyone at the Jags Trust.

Kieron Dempsey attended his first Partick Thistle FC board meeting as the new JT rep at the end of last week. More details will come out over the next few days, but after a period of interruption we are delighted to be back in the club boardroom representing our members' views.

The newly-elected Jags Trust Board meets up for the first time on Monday, 15th September at 7pm in the Maryhill Community Halls. We will bring you news of the meeting as quickly as possible and a full set of minutes will be available at a later date. It's not intended as a public meeting, but members can attend if they wish to observe the JTB in action. This one could be long on procedural matters, though, so be warned...

And remember: you can still sign up to the 1876 Club in time for the first monthly draw! Get in at the beginning!

JAGS TRUST MAIN WEBSITE - TEMPORARILY OFFLINE

A little unscheduled maintenance going on tonight!

Please bear with us while we try to get the website back online. In the meantime, have a look around our lovely little blog.

SUICIDE PREVENTION WEEK 2008 - ‘Don’t hide it. Talk about it’

The West of Scotland has one of the highest young male suicide rates in Europe. Just the sort of guys who go to football games. In pursuit of one of the Jags Trust objectives in community involvement we thought it appropriate to highlight Suicide Prevention Week 2008. If it helps someone out there, it will be worth it.

In Scotland alone an average of two people die every day from suicide. The Mental Health Division of the Scottish Government Health Directorates and Choose Life NHS Health Scotland are working to change this statistic by dispelling the myth that talking about suicide promotes suicidal behaviour.

The national suicide prevention campaign - ‘Don’t hide it. Talk about it’ - will be launched during Suicide Prevention Week (SPW) (8 –14 September 2008). The campaign is a key element of implementing Choose Life, Scotland’s 10 year strategy and action plan for preventing suicide. Choose Life was launched in December 2002 and sets out a plan for national and local action to prevent suicide and help those affected by or bereaved by suicide. Specifically, this means raising awareness of suicide and its prevention and encouraging a better understanding of its risk factors among the general public. The aim is to encourage people to seek help early and to empower others to help those at risk.

The Key campaign messages are:

If you are feeling suicidal, don’t hide it – talk about it

It’s OK to talk about feeling suicidal

Talk to someone you trust, or phone a helpline (Breathing Space 0800 83 85 87 or Samaritans 08457 90 90 90).

There will be a host of local and national activity during SPW. Each local authority in Scotland has a dedicated Choose Life Co-ordinator who will engage with their local communities in order to raise awareness of local suicide prevention events and activities. The national campaign will consist of a week long programme of radio advertising, online advertising - via websites and MSN Messenger and Hotmail - and a week long programme of coverage in the Sun newspaper.

JAGS AND TIGERS

Another exciting prize has been secured for 1876 Club members! 

In conjunction with Glasgow Tigers we are pleased to offer the following: A family day out (for four people) to an agreed meeting at Ashfield in 2009 which would include entry to the Stadium, a chance to meet the riders and a pits tour and a chance to watch one heat from the centre green, right in the heart of the action!

The Tigers season starts up again in March 09 and this will be one of our additional monthly draw prizes, so sign up to the 1876 Club now and give yourself a chance to win! 

In addition we are in conversation with Borders to see if we can have our discount arrangement for all 1876 Club members extended to all Scottish stores.

Thanks to Borders and to Glasgow Tigers for their continued support. And thanks to Ian Adam (www.ianadam.co.uk) for the great photos.

BARGAINS AT BORDERS

We can announce that Borders (whose Buchanan Street branch has a massive selection of books, CDs and DVDs) have generously agreed to offer an ongoing 10% discount to all card-carrying 1876 Club members, excluding any items already reduced by more than 10%.

They will also offer a number of special 20% off weekends over the course of the year if members provide an email address for vouchers to be sent to. This is in addition to vouchers which they are already providing as part of the prize for the monthly draw.

Many thanks to Borders in Glasgow who have been incredibly supportive of what we are trying to do. The Jags Trust is delighted to make this the first exclusive benefit available to Thistle fans through the 1876 Club.

WHAT IS THIS 1876 CLUB?

You can read the detailed version on the main website, but here are the basics: 

At the moment, the Trust owns around a million shares in the club, given in return for the money raised by Thistle fans around the world during the dark days of the Save the Jags campaign. However, we all know that a one-off injection of cash doesn't get the job done and so one of our aims is to increase that shareholding, year after year. It's a sign of our continuing commitment to moving Thistle forward.

The 1876 Club, launching this season, is the main way we're trying to do this. We're taking out a sponsorship package with the club called Thistle Partners. For £5,000 or so that the club gets from us now, the Trust get a number of places at matchday hospitality for all games throughout the season. These provide the basic prizes that will be given out in a monthly draw to lucky 1876 Club members.

On top of that, we're working hard to secure some exciting extra prizes to spice things up a bit and we're negotiating a range of discounts and special offers that will be available to every 1876 Club member, so that you can be a winner even if your name doesn't come out of the hat at the end of the month. Keep checking back here for details!

A deal to buy extra shares in the club is not quite finalised, but it has been agreed in principle with the board. The plan is for us to buy shares in batches of 15,000, each batch costing around £6,000. As soon as the funds from the 1876 Club hit that mark, the money will go from us to the club. Then we start working towards the next £6,000.

It's no secret how tight things are for Thistle and how hard it is to find outside investors. Any extra money that goes in from us will ultimately make life easier for Ian McCall as he tries to sign up a team to do us all proud.

For only £10 a month, you can be a part of this:

you get an entry in the monthly draw (£20 will get you two!) 

you get exclusive access to the discount deals we're putting together

you get to invest in the club and see the Trust strengthen its influence

you get to help the manager take us to the SPL.

Sign up to the 1876 Club today. Download the standing order form and send it to us care of Firhill. Tell your friends about it and sign them up, too!

WELCOME TO THE JT BLOG

This is a new site we will be using to bring you the fastest news of what's going on with the Trust. With the elections over and the new committee about to meet for the first time, we'll be picking up the pace again with a number of events around the club and out in the community.

The big news for Trust members this season is the launch of our major fundraiser, the 1876 Club. We'll be adding more details about the thinking behind the scheme, the benefits for everyone who signs up to it and the great prizes to be won, so keep an eye on this page for some exciting offers. We will also try to explain more about the Trust and why you, as a Thistle fan, should join up to be a part of it.

In the meantime, why not check out the photos and videos from our highly successful Player of the Year night? And leave us a comment - we're always keen to hear what the members have to say and to answer any questions you might have.