Tuesday 3rd July 2007
Unfortunately the Lochmaben Childrens sports Gala was cancelled due to the poor weather. We would like to thank Vera Thorburn and the Lochmaben organisers for allowing us to come along and we look forward to better weather at next years event. Some of us did manage to attend this years Supporters Direct event in Glasgow. Some 31 Supporters Trusts were represented from all over Scotland. This year the newly ensconced SFA leader Gordon Smith opened the event with an upbeat speech. After watching Scotland's U-20's against Japan the other night, he might have a few sleepless nights between now and the end of his tenure!! The main interest was to get a 'horses mouth' update from other Trusts on how they have progressed over the last 12 months and to learn what has gone well and what hasn't. One or two continue to have issues where a Chairman controls >75% of a club especially regarding having supporters views listened to by their Boards. Several Trusts have moved from a position where they thought they would never have an elected member on the Board to now having an established supporter present at Board meetings. Trusts, such as the Sons Trust , have managed to come to a sensible agreement, where the Trust not only receives shares for each investment they make but they have a large say in where the money goes. You always leave the SD conference feeling just that bit more confident that models like the Sons Trust are the way forward, particularly for clubs outside the Old Firm.
Monday night saw a two hour marathon session Queens Trust meeting with several projects discussed and issues reviewed. We will be starting to print summaries of these meetings on this board shortly. Some of the burning issues were the upcoming events at Moffat and the Junior Blues 'Train with the first team' event this Thursday night where 16 Junior Blues will get the chance to train with Jim Thomson and meet the first team.
We've also designed some Junior Blue posters, which some kind supporters have started to distribute throughout the region and we are now finishing off the Summer Holiday edition of Blue & White.
