click here to view meeting archives

Rangers Supporters Trust AGM

Partick Burgh Halls

Sunday 18 July 2004

 

The meeting opened with a minute's silence for Rangers great Alex Willoughby, who died recently.

Between each section there were to be two mini-presentations by Board members.

The three biggest projects the RST has undertaken this year were the mass mailing to 13,000 existing shareholders, (the biggest aspect of this being the transfer of paper records on to disk - every single one had to be done manually.) the fans survey (now published on the Trust website) and the Trust dinner, which was a real success both in terms of finance and raising the Trust's public profile. In addition to this, the RST ran 5 competitions for members, held 4 open days and issued 4 editions of the Blue Spirit.

To help improve communication, the Trust has installed an answering machine for Trust members to ring if they wish, and we are currently testing a member's only email list. If successful, this will be rolled out to all members. A magnificent RST banner, based on the last treble winning side's highly successful away strip, was produced and we were able to give out a free pen to every Trust member and an inaugural badge to everyone who signed up in the first year.

Three Board changes were made during the year. As these have already been covered on this website, and as full details will be repeated in the next edition of The Blue Spirit, in the interests of brevity, these are not repeated here.

The final project concerned Davie Cooper. At this point Colin handed over to Simon Leslie to explain more.

 

Simon explained that next March would see the 10th anniversary of Davie Cooper's death. The Trust has decided to hold a dinner/dance in the Cooper/Thornton suites at Ibrox on March 26th . The money raised from this will go to the Davie Cooper Foundation, for kids with disabilities. Davie Cooper's brother and his mother are Patrons of the charity along with Gordon Smith, Terry Butcher and others.

Questions were then invited from the Floor on the preceding presentations, but none were offered.

 

As well as being in regular contact with the Financial Services Authority, who regulate us, and Supporters Direct, we have had contact with the following bodies: Rangers Lotto, The Blue Order, Nil By Mouth, Polmont Young Offenders Institution, Rangers Registrars, UEFA, Hearts FC, Scottish Executive and Kick Racism out of Football.

Rangers Lotto – As full details will be published in the next edition of The Blue Spirit, in the interests of brevity, these are not repeated here.

The Blue Order – The RST made a donation to TBO, as we totally support their aims and objectives. We also held a joint fundraising night with them. The Darts Night in the wee Rangers Club was a great success and we thank all those involved.

Nil By Mouth – We have had extensive dialogue with them. We submitted a list of 41 questions to them, all from our members. We did receive a formal response to them all, although we only found some of them satisfactory. These were in turn forwarded to the relevant members. The outcome of these dialogues is that they now respond to complaints or allegations of bias and will answer any reasonably polite email. They have extended an offer that the next time we fail to see them condemn any serious act of sectarian violence against a Rangers fan, to let them know and they will publicly condemn it.

Polmont Young Offenders Institution – In December the Chairman attended a workshop involving 8 inmates. His main role was to point out the effects of media distortion. The Trust has also been asked to help 12 different students with their University dissertations, and Colin has done so.

Rangers Registrars – As a result of Rangers refusal to accept our proxy mandates last year, or our motions, which had to be submitted 6 weeks before an unannounced date, the secretary has written to both the club and the registrars to seek guidance on how these documents be prepared. This was, of course, the reason we have to have our AGM on a Sunday in July. As full details will be published in the next edition of The Blue Spirit, in the interests of brevity, these are not repeated here.

UEFA – We have lobbied UEFA to commemorate Rangers new World Record of 50 League Titles. This was in response to an email from a member.

Hearts FC – We have had extensive dialogue with Hearts. Hearts Trust has refused to support us in our fight against the ludicrous banning of the Union Flag at Tynecastle. We have had extensive correspondence with Lothian and Borders Police regarding this. As full details will be published in the next edition of The Blue Spirit, in the interests of brevity, these are not repeated here.

Scottish Executive – We contacted the Executive regarding the re-introduction of standing areas, as we know some of our members are interested in this. However, the bottom line is that it would contravene statutory law, therefore any debate at this juncture would be pointless.

As the final external bodies we have been in contact with all relate to our Anti Racism Project, CG handed over to the RST Community Relations Manager – Allan O'Brien.

 

Allan O'Brien outlined the plans for the Walter Tull Trophy to be played for by Spurs and Rangers. Tull was the first black Rangers and Scotland player. In addition to this RST will play Spurs Trust on 28th July at the Firhill Complex. He also passed round both trophies for the audience to examine. In October, The RST in Association with the Scottish Asian Supporters Association and 7 other trusts will play a tournament during Kick Racism Out of Football and Black awareness week. This will take place between 14th and 16th October 2004.

Again, questions were invited from the Floor at this point, but none were forthcoming.

 

The Chairman then continued with his report with a report on the Trust's meetings with the club and the media. Colin thanked Vice Chairman David Tweed for organising the RST questions at the Rangers AGM. Slightly different tactics will be used this year, but should be just as effective.

New Vice Chairman, David Tweed, should also be congratulated for his superb report on the crowd debacle in Stuttgart, which was presented to the club, and for his attendance at the recent NARSA Convention.

The RST has visited a number of RSCs during the year and Trust members appeared on 2 BBC Sportscene programmes.

It is fair to say we have enjoyed a good reception from the media generally, and we must deal with them in order to fight the PR war.

The Trust has had three meetings with the club. The main items discussed at the last one with David Murray and Martin Bain were Finance, Fans Representation and Media relations, although a whole range of other topics had been discussed at the two earlier meetings with John McClelland and Martin Bain. We are happy to answer any questions on this. Malcolm McNiven will cover it further in his report.

 

George McGee asked about the flag ban at Tynecastle and suggested that, as the next game against Hearts at Tynecastle was on September 11th , it would be appropriate to hold a joint Union Flag and American flag day. All in the room thought this a good idea. George also asked for clarification on the meetings with the club. He agreed to wait until after the Secretary's report.

John Tannock asked if Rangers had indeed rejected further tickets from Stuttgart . As full details will be published in the next edition of The Blue Spirit, in the interests of brevity, these are not repeated here.

Andrew Smith said that he felt the Trust at times did not communicate enough with the members. The Board agreed this could be the case. Colin stated that we are currently looking at ways of improving this. In particular, the new members only mailing list being tested may be useful in this regard.

William Barr suggested that Rangers should have a professional full time PR officer.

John Johnston thanked the Board for the work done throughout the first year.

Neil Buchanan voiced his concern over a recent article with Alex Rae and his trouble with Aberdeen fans on a recent journey and felt that the club should control what the players say a little more.

 

Malcolm McNiven gave an overview of the Trust first year's trading. As a full set of accounts was posted to all members, full details need not appear here, although details of Malcolm's coverage of the accounts should be contained in the next edition of The Blue Spirit.

At the end of year 1 the RST had £3445 in the bank. Malcolm then invited questions from the floor.

As there were no questions, Malcolm suggested that the first year's accounts be accepted. William Ross proposed the accounts be accepted and Neil Buchanan seconded it. A vote took place, and the accounts were adopted unanimously.

Malcolm then gave a report in his capacity as Trust Secretary. He stated that the most important thing is to grow as a Trust and proposed that members could help this by introducing 2 new members each.

On the Share-Save Scheme, he reported that the Trust had to postpone it because of regulatory problems with the FSA and the admin burden involved.

Malcolm accepted that the Trust's administrating could be better but the Trust aimed to improve this in the next year. He also urged anyone who has spare time which they could give the Trust to help with the admin work to let him know. He also outlined that Trust Board members involves a great deal of commitment with fortnightly meetings lasting 2 – 3 hours as well as time given to various RST projects.

Malcolm also explained that the RST had put forward a plan that would involve an issue of shares to be paid for through a substantial share save scheme, with the money being administered by a Board elected by supporters. Our suggestion was geared towards Youth Development, although clearly now there has been other developments in this area. He recently met with David Murray and discussed further ways to substantially reduce the club's debt, including an open offer of shares. Mr Murray acknowledges Rangers have a “rump” of debt, and takes responsibility for it, and is actively looking at a number of solutions. He could not go into specifics, as this would breach Ofex rules. On the “3 year plan” he believes that 2 years into it, it has been successful in stabilising cash flow, although it is to the detriment of the team on the park. On the topic of supporters representation he advised Malcolm that he was committed to this, and the Trust will meet with him again next month to discuss the finer details. A time scale of 3 months is expected.

At this point Malcolm invited questions from the floor.

David McPherson, raised concerns that the mailshot to the 13,000 Rangers shareholders was done when the Trust was in its infancy and was maybe too early. He asked if there had been a good response from it. Colin Glass replied that there was only one hostile response. Malcolm McNiven stated that the Trust might consider doing the mailshot again at a later date. We did get some members from doing it the first time around.

Stephen Smith asked if David Murray would put his hand in his pocket. Malcolm believed that he would have to.

Ross Craig asked the RST Board if they had heard that Rangers couldn't raise the £40m needed to build the Casino. Malcolm McNiven replied that he had not heard that, but wouldn't be surprised. Ross also stated that he had heard that Auchenhowie was to be sold to Cala Homes and Rangers were to invest in a joint training facility with Celtic. The Board would look into this.

 

At this point there was an interval.

 

William Barr, asked if the RST has a policy in place should David Murray say no to the Trust. Mark Dingwall assured him that once the Trust has finalised negotiations with Mr Murray, details would be made available to all members and an EGM would take place to discuss them.

Neil Buchanan asked if the RST could look at a scheme similar to the Chelsea Pitch Owner's scheme. Colin Glass asked Neil to forward details of this to him and the Trust Board would look at it.

Ross Craig asked if the Trust Board had heard that plain clothes stewards were sitting in amongst the fans and if the Trust had a policy on it. CG replied that the Trust had no formal policy on this, but was horrified. Hopefully, this issue should be addressed by supporters' representation. John Gilligan advised Ross and all members that the best thing to do would be to ask a question about it at the Rangers AGM and as many Trust members as possible should do this.

Richard Watson proposed that the Trust sever all contact with the media, and after several members expressed their satisfaction with the way the Trust had conducted its media relations, no member seconded the motion, so it was not put to a vote.

Richard Watson also asked if what the RST view on the Ulster Flag. Colin Glass advised him that they held the same view as they did of the Union Flag and pointed out that the Ulster flag was incorporated in the Trust Logo.

Charles Nicholson proposed that the RST raise a motion at the Rangers AGM requesting that an adequate period of notice be given to shareholders of the clubs AGM to allow time for motions to be submitted. Malcolm McNiven seconded this. This motion was carried unanimously .

William Barr proposed that any request seeking the RST support for a share issue should come back to the RST members to seek approval. This was seconded by Stevie Tyrie. This motion was carried unanimously .

Daniel Green proposed that the RST write to Mr Murray asking him to attend the Rangers AGM. This was seconded by Pearl Watson. The Trust Board and the members felt that this would not be helpful to the Trust, a vote took place and the motion was rejected by a majority .

John Tannock proposed that the RST ask the club to actively appoint a PR Officer. This was seconded by Campbell Smith. This motion was carried unanimously .

Nick Leckerman proposed a motion be adopted opposing the further sale of the club's fixed tangible assets, such as Auchenhowie. This was seconded by Kevin Edgar. This motion was carried by a majority .

 

As there was no further business, the meeting closed with the Chairman thanking the members for their attendance and continuing loyalty to both the Trust and Rangers Football Club.