Fans' Forum: next Wednesday evening

[Danjackson10]

cheers

[flammableBen]

I just got back, pretty interesting stuff.

[Dazzza]

Come on Ben share the love it's getting close to bed time.

[flammableBen]

A fair bit was said and to be honest I'm not gonna type it out now, the minutes(sp?) should be up tomorrow I think. It was an interesting night and it's a shame more didn't turn up. Although I'd say there was more than 75, lot's of people were sitting down the sides instead of standing behind the chairs so it looked like less.

I'll just get something wrong if I try summarising it now so I'd prefer not to. Yeovil will probably get back soon, I'm sure he can give a good account.

[Batch]

I think that the Dazza/John70 post pretty much sums it up. Was pretty dissapointed by the attendance too, but there you go.

Anywho, not much to add really. The description of the chain of events were as pretty much stated by the board statement in a way:

- Power comes on board and invests £1m
- Budget meeting takes place between Sir Seaton and James Wills, Devlin and Power (and maybe Sandy G, can't remeber). Agreed any overbudget should be paid for by Power
-  Full board + Mike Diamandis meeting 3 days before season start fails to ratify the spending already committed to. Disagreement insues.
- Plane crash happens.
- Bill Power withdraws and wants his money back. The club lawyers  say a 33% share purchase HAS gone through, Powers lawyers say it hasn't, it is a loan and must be repaid.

Another point raised was that the relationship between the club and Mark Devlin is strained and it would be a suprise to see it continue despite public statements to the contrary. Apparently the club want devlin to account for some of the 'unauthorised overspend', yet in fact of the £700K quoted, they are talking about a figure circa 5% of that total.

The session ended on a what to do next vote. It was voted to unanimously (I think) to allow Michael and the trust to explore forming a consortium in the hope of raising £2-£3m (estimate) to take over running of the club. The consortium would be of any 3rd party willing to invest rather than a fan based group, though the latter is not ruled out.

Please correct as fit.

oh, and my feet were on points west.

[flammableBen]

I will say that the trust seem to have got suppliers for the pitchforks and torches for the protest after the game on saturday. They're still waiting for empty barrels for fires though.

[Dazzza]

Cheers Batch & Ben.  

Couple of questions if you wouldn't mind chaps...

Had anyone from the respective groups and supporters been in touch with Bill Power or his business partner and were there any differing views, share issue aside from their perspective?

Also interested to know if there’s confirmation that his withdrawal was based solely on medical grounds as reported and would he be potentially involved in or working with any future consortium?

[Fred Elliot]

I am typng up the minutes now guys

i will get them over to Mr Davis in the wee hours for approval, so all being well they should be posted sometime tomorrow.

Cheers

[Dazzza]

I am typng up the minute now guys

i will get them over to Mr Davis in the wee hours for approval, so all being well they should be posted sometime tomorrow.

Cheers

Nice one Fred!  

[Fred Elliot]

My pleasure

[flammableBen]

Cheers Batch & Ben.  

Couple of questions if you wouldn't mind chaps...

Had anyone from the respective groups and supporters been in touch with Bill Power or his business partner and were there any differing views, share issue aside from their perspective?

Also interested to know if there’s confirmation that his withdrawal was based solely on medical grounds as reported and would he be potentially involved in or working with any future consortium?

Nobody has been in touch with Bill Power and from my understanding there is unlikely to be a statement from that side until legal issues surrounding the shares/loan situation has been sorted out.

I think there's hope that BP might be persuaded to gett involved in a consortium organised by the turst/fans however there's no evidence to say that he would and so it's nothing more than hope.

Think that sums it up pretty well, I'm sure someone will correct me if I've missed or got something wrong.

[flammableBen]

Just like to add that Fred is ace, as is everybody else I met tonight. Think I'm going to bed now. I'm a sleepy ben.

[pauld]

There'll be a proper write-up once Fred's done the minutes (cheers for volunteering to do that Fred, top man!), but in essence, some brief bits:

1) We reckon there was over 100 - as others have said, looked like less cos of people sat down the sides, but the Beeb guy who's a lot more practised at counting numbers at meetings reckoned in the region of 120-odd. So I'd say 100+ is comfortable
2) In terms of the clarification of what went on, I hope we presented a coherent explanation of what we believe happened in the events surrounding BP's departure. Essentially, 90% of the major factual points are undisputed and are largely as per the club statement on Monday. The key difference lies in the "there is no rift" element - there is and was a serious disagreement between the two parties (Mark D and Bill Power/Mike Diamandis and Sandy Gray) which we believe amounted to a breakdown in the working relationship between them. And that that, as much as any injury (which is not to be discounted - Bill P is, as we understand it, still in a pretty bad way, albeit not incapacitated), is a key element in the withdrawal of Bill P and his partner from the club.
3) One of the major points of the meeting was then to establish how we moved forward to do something positive to secure the future of the football club, not to sit around complaining about it. To this end, it was noted that the Board had said they would welcome any serious offers of investment, and the meeting resolved to mandate Mike Wilks and the Trust to actively work to seek out such investors and establish a consortium which would be in a position to take the major share in the club. It was repeatedly emphasised that this was not an attack on the Wills family, for whom I think pretty much everyone expressed nothing but respect, and in fact may represent a viable alternative for them actually getting some of the millions they've ploughed into the club back. One of the aims of such a consortium would be to replace the current non-football management of the club, who no longer commanded the confidence of fans at the meeting. However that would not preclude the Wills family retaining a shareholding within the club which may also be a vehicle for them to recoup some of their investment via (e.g.) a ground redevelopment and income streams opened up by such a redevelopment. Which is pretty much the boat they are in now, in terms of hopes of repayment.
4) Absolute total 100% confidence was expressed in the playing side management of the team (ie Dennis and Gus) and that all Town fans fervently hope they will stay and lead us to promotion and onwards. However, in light of Dennis' obvious annoyance at Bob Holt's comments applying pressure to him, I think most people felt the best way we could express this was by attending the games and getting behind the team 100% rather than attempting (e.g.) to get in touch directly.
5) No direct contact has been made with Bill P, although we have communicated our wish to speak with them. It's unlikely Bill P and his partner will want to communicate with anyone, be they fans, press etc until they have a clearer picture of the legal issues surrounding the shareholding/loan issue, but we will seek to establish contact as early as possible
6) The aim of that contact would be twofold - to establish whether there is any prospect of them re-engaging with the football club if the current non-football management were no longer a factor, and to express fans' very keen desire for them to do so.
7) There was overwhelming support for Mark D to return to the club and resume his role as Chief Exec and for that position to be clarified asap

All the substantive points as to what we should do were voted on, and carried overwhelmingly (as in, with usually 2-3 votes against/abstentions). I'm not going to attempt to remember the exact wording now - that will be in the minutes Fred's doing

A huge thank you to everyone who came out and to the Mechanics' Institute lot for letting us have the meeting there.

And now, I'm off to bed, I'm knackered.

[Danjackson10]

Cheers paul

[TalkTalk]

And now, I'm off to bed, I'm knackered.

And subsequently up at god knows what hour this morning to be on Beeb Swindon at twenty past seven for an excellent interview about last night's events.

 :thumbs:

Don't overdo it, Davis.