It's back to normal for this weeks programme. As well as all the regular not to be missed favourites we have three must read articles.
Read how close East Fife came to being Scottish Champions. Have look at a publication about EFFC which is only very slightly less interesting than JC's chart-topper. Read an interview with Bobby Linn for an insight into his time at EFFC.
SPF explains why he wants EFFC to play in hoops and white socks.
Finally a mention of another regular article,VFA Holland in which John Anderson continues his obsession with Raphael Van der Vaart's girlfriend.

p.s. the SPF article has been withdrawn at the last moment.

Em it's me that puts the gratuitous fotos of the Dutch players' wives & it's Yolanthe Sneijder that normally features ! Mrs VdV is a worthy substitute IMO! Big brother actually hates Wesley Sneijder but I've heard that WS speaks highly of him too!
The Boaby interview is actually a good read!

Apologies to John Anderson and sympathies to Pauline for her husband's obsession with WAGS.

Instead of my fantastic article, you might want to do an article promoting, and informing people of, the Trust, how to get involved, the plans for the Trust, etc. You might get more than 3 people at your next meeting

LOLZ, him telt

Be interesting to see what Bobby says considering the way he left?

Yes,put firmly in my place by the supporter who doesn't attend games because of the way the club's run and doesn't attend Trust meetings because of the way the Trust's run.
If he can go all bubbly so can I. SPF's twenty eight page article on terracing construction and strip design is now spiked.

Very true...St Pauli is just an internet troll. He doesnt support the club in any way whatsoever.
He is an East Fife CRITIC...not supporter. I'd suggest that all East Fife supporters refuse to respond to his posts as all he wants to do is slate everything..even volunteers like NTOC who dedicate hours of their own free time for the cause.
Its often said that supporters are entitled to criticise as they pay their entry fee...well SPF doesnt even do that.

Is the "Lloyd Young is the greatest" piece still in?

How is the trust run? Have you ever told anyone, or are only a maximum of three people allowed to know the secret at any given time?

I defence of SPF, he was mentioned on the original post on this thread so surely he has the right to reply.
Personally, I think he makes plenty valid points.

Do a search and you will find a wealth of information on the aims and objectives of the Trust movement. Prior to the AGM I made an open invitation for non-members to come along on the night and join so I can only assume you were not really too interested and haven't been too interested since the EFST
was founded. I will be at the game on Saturday and be delighted to talk to you about the Trust although I have a sneaky feeling ...............

Where did you do this?
Presuming you did, why did only three people turn up?

Presumably because they wanted to. To my shame I wasnt able to go. I heard it was three people in addition to the Trust Board members, unless you dont count them as people which I certainly do. Anyway amazing things have been achieved by a small group of committed people. Take a look at the programme production or the Sticky on the AGM or annual accounts.

You, bizarrely, bringing me into your threads with your hilarious quips is great, don't know why, but thanks. I obviously have to respond (sorry Mr Fife, etc). I'll only stop posting my views on East Fife, on this unofficial forum, when GoF bans me or the Rankin/Twigg-controlled board kills off East Fife completely (27 previous years of paying money home and away - a team who still and always will be my team as long as there is an East Fife in existence, means I'll keep posting). I'll post what I like about East Fife whether I put money into this regime or not.

No, I'm no longer a supporter, obviously. You are the one calling me that (yet again - bizarre).

I don't go to Trust meetings because of the way the Trust is run ? Where you getting that ? Maybe I don't go because I don't go to watch the team anymore. You want to ask yourself why no one else is interested in going to the Trust meetings, though - not why I don't go. You are the Trust Chairman after all (the leader of the Trust, charged with rallying the troops and inspiring people to get involved, getting members involved, taking their views on board - not necessarily charged to sarcastically mock members on another thread for not turning up to meetings).

You're right about what I think of the way the Club is run.

Maybe you should replace my phantom article on terracing and hoops with how looking into building some terracing (even by merely enquiring about local business sponsorship, fan fund-raising, applying for any possible grants) would be "suicidal". Would be a much more interesting read (short of your plans for the Trust article).

Thanks for the mention once again.

Well said that man.

Folks might be tempted to join the trust if you didn't come across as patronising and ego-maniacal. You started a post having a dig at someone and you clearly get very defensive when people shoot you down for it.
Stick to selling programmes and grow up.

You might change, although i have a sneaky feeling............

Well Mark you are just as deluded and just as naive sadly.

If everyone had the same attitude as SPF then there would be NO club in existence as NO ONE would go to any more matches anymore.

You have to be incredibly THICK not to realise that.

Stop being so melodramtic for goodness sake. What a ridiculous statement to make.
The guy quite rightly defends himself. He never started the conversation. If he chooses to not go to games that`s his call. There are hundreds just like him for all sorts of reasons.

And you call me thick?

Well as they say,if the cap fits wear it but in an attempt to be neither patronising nor ego-maniacal here goes.

supporter, read post dated 16/12 headed Trust AGM

opinion,I am flattered that you have taken the time to post your opinion of a humble programme seller.

You both obviously have an advantage in that I don't know who either of you are (unless opinion is really my wife ?)but I will be in Sid's bar for a drink before the game. Introduce yourselves and let me try and persuade you to join the Trust or not to leave as the case may be.
Say what you think rather than type it anonymously as I will not be offended.

In an attempt to be concilliatory my initial comment was an attempt............this is not working. I had a dig,SPF replied and I don't think either of us will lose much sleep over it.

Love him or hate him, SPF certainly has a right to reply to the original post taking a shot at him for no reason.

As someone who has been involved in the Trust from the start I would love to read about them doing more. From afar, I'm puzzled as to what the Trust's current involvement with EF currently is apart from the programme and raffle.

To do that they need more people interested and actively involved.

As a start there should be a meeting and/or online discussion to see how to achieve this and what the actual point of the Trust now is.

Going down the life membership route seems to have been a killer more than a boost to interest and activity.

Also updating the website with info of what the Trust need and what they stand for would be a start.

It's hard to imagine that the Club actually value or fear Trust input as they must surely see it as a small percentage of the support.

This needs to change.

In my own humble opinion this current trust set up have tried their best but have grown dated, boring and ineffective. I`ve seen nothing on AFTN nor the trusts non existent website to convince me otherwise.

Maybe they need help but threads like this (and quite a few others recently) do nothing to help nor encourage anyone to join.

What are the reasons for joining the trust?
What are the incentives for joining the trust?
What do the trust do?
What would the trust like to do?
Any local business involvement in the trust?
Is there more to the trust than programme compiling, programme selling and raffle tickets?

Thanks. I've read it. I've had more encouragement to attend a west wemyss community council sub-committee meeting.
I suppose at least they would have an agenda.

Are you Derrick Brown in disguise?

I mentioned in a programme piece that that this might be a good time to have a Trust forum to review achievements and get the its aims for the future refined.
Theres no doubt it has achieved a lot but awareness an interest has tailed off in proportion to the general interest and feelings of apathy and disengagement around East Fife as a club. That is as much my fault as a member as any office bearer.

The times are changing with reconstruction finances being rearranged and the difficulty we have as a club in pinning down the long terms plans of the owners/major shareholders who ever they are. My view is if we are going to have an East Fife we need the Trust, Supporters Club, supporters and local community to work together.

Id like to catch our chairman and Trust board rep today to see if I can help arrange this. Are any others on here interested in taking that idea forward.

As expected supporter and opinion did not take the opportunity to express their concerns about either me or the Trust.
Again a personal opinion but I am quite pleased with what the Trust has achieved within a club which is in an almost impenetrable position i.e an "absentee landlord" consortium with a near majority shareholding managed by a Factor with no previous EFFC history and a divided loyalty.
The previous post by Sparky is perhaps the most rational request from this thread (at least I know who he is ) and having had a very brief discussion with a couple of Board members agree that a meeting to address the past,present and future of the Trust is a good idea and a meeting will be called at the earliest opportunity.
It will be good to meet the anonymous posters in person and be able to move forward with a member driven agenda.

Personal opinion etc.etc.
GoF,I am sure your questions are genuine and well intended so as such are appreciated.
What I do find a bit hard to swallow is that you will no doubt support the right to free speech from any of the frequent anonymous posters on AFTN and their right to use profanities against other individuals,players etc.
Why has one of your infrequent posts been directed at a bit of relatively
mild mickey taking. Perhaps the use of knobhead or sh*t for brains would have been more acceptable and no rebuke posted.
Why did the rebuke come from the top and not one of your website guardians on this side of the Atlantic ?

It wasn't a rebuke. Just a throwaway comment that anyone has a right to post a response to a thread mentioning them.

The main point of my post was about what the Trust do now and how we need to get more interest in it moving forward. Disappointing you took the small part at the top as the main point.

And I might not post much but I do read everything.

Hi NOTC,
I didn't manage to catch you today but mentioned the meeting idea to a tall chap who had clearly chased you off your usual lucrative programme selling plot.

Hopefully we can arrange something soon and If I can be any help in meantime please get in touch.

Interesting times ahead with all the league chatter and Trusts and Supporters need to be ready for the challenges to come.

Shouldn't you have started with the main point of your post and kept the trivia for the end ?
At this point I should attach a cartoon face which seems obligatory now to explain the true intent of the post but I suspect you know already.

p.s. Sparky, thought is safer not to leave myself vulnerable to the anonymous posters who think progranmme sellers are ego-maniacs. Step up Liam and Innes.

I think we're both on the same page NTOC

I'll try and make any meeting you have for the end of the month!

Count me in for any future meeting. Anyone else???

Just wondered in this season of review and reflection if perhaps it wasn't time to look at the role and purpose of this web site. Whilst I'm all for people having the right to be heard I find this divine right in democracy to also have responsibility as well as rights. I actually find that people anonymously posting and being actively supported to do so is the biggest insult to democratic right. If you can't say what you have to say under your own name perhaps you suffer from little man syndrome but I'm sure the anonymous posters will disagree anonymously. Personally I think this site has done harm to east fife more than support it and perhaps there should be a meeting of interested parties to review it. Oops is there a management structure to organise that I'm not sure but there will be an anonymous answer I would imagine

▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ +1

This site isn't a publicly-owned service nor has it a duty to anyone (short of monitoring personal abuse/racism etc). It's an unofficial site. What's a meeting of interested parties going to do, force GoF to shut his site down?? How ridiculous. It's simple, don't visit or post on it if you don't like it. Start your own registered site and ignore this one. Ask the Club to restart it's registered forum they shut down.

You can't tell someone how to run their personal website/forum. I think you know that anyway.

If this site is responsible for reminding us that Martin Black exists, that's good reason to have it shut down.

Their does seem to be a lot of interest in what the trust is doing or not doing.People are calling meetings other people are volunteering to come to future meetings and others are saying its all gone wrong.Being one of the three people who attended the last meeting why did the posters on this website not turn up to the last meeting and speak out.

Why would anyone want to meet you? Three people at the agm is a sign. People know about the trust but whatever the trust stands for - you tell me - is not lighting their fire. The trust needs some new momentum if it is to regain any purpose. That can come from within. There have been real achievements in the last ten years but in some respects the trust has stood still. You say you are quite pleased with achievements, but we have reached a point where not enough people are interested any longer. Why is that? Sorry, but it's time to move on with a new voice. In fact a voice would be progress, never mind a new start.
Shelf life, and all that.

Despite describing yourself as not a fan I'd hope that you might have something positive to bring. Folk like Allan, Eugene, Liam and many others give countless unpaid hours of work towards the club we love. Why not tell us what you can do personally for East Fife? Over to you.

To explain, once again, to everyone that wants a registered forum.

There is nothing on a registered forum that will make people anymore identifiable than they already are.

I can add sign up facilities tomorrow if that's what everyone wants. Not a problem.

But...

Anyone can then set up a gmail or hotmail email address, register an account under any name they want and post. If they want to remain totally anonymous they can use a proxy IP.

They can then do that multiple times if they want to post under different names. I have at least a dozen email addresses I could use that would not be identifiable as me.

All it does is make it longer to log in and post for everyone.

If people really think an unofficial forum is part of the reason that a football club is in the mess it's in with getting interest, attendance and success, then maybe that lack of overall awareness of what is going on is as much of a problem as anything.

It might be a pain having to sign in to the site GoF, but it might deter those that are only out to create mischief etc, not to bother visiting the site? At present, any SPF, not a fan or supporter can post on the forum and might not bother seeing as they are obviously anti-East Fife people?


On the other hand, maybe if the moderators of the site simply enforced the last line of the forum statement at the top of the page -

Enjoy the forum and please respect your fellow fans and posters and their viewpoints. -

and where this is patently being infringed, delete the posts!

Anti East Fife people my arse.
This whole thread has blown way out of proportion.
Started with NTOC having a childish dig at SPF and when people bite back he spits the dummy out the pram.
He seem`s to think it`s all about him (as previously mentioned) and no-one really gives a hoot tbh. Small man syndrome.
Everybody is anonymous, everybody is hiding, come and speak to me blah blah. Why? You important like?
Maybe a reason why the trust is stagnant

Time we moved on i think.


ps
this forum is great. Free speech. Why change it unless to ban the dirty mob but like Gof said, anybody with savvy can bypass that with a proxy.

I was trying to be amusing with the first paragraph of my post above, as was NTOC I believe when he first posted, but unfortunately that is not allowed by the so-called "FREE SPEECH" advocates, LIKE YOURSELF!!!

That is why this forum has become a pain, it is because the "FREE SPEECH" is only for your self and others who agree with you! The "FREE SPEECH" is also, apparently, so that you and your and your mates can type expletives away to your hearts content!

PS - The forum CAN be great (and funny), but unfortunately, it can also be full of crap, particularly the slagging of players, directors and VOLUNTEERS!

PPS - BTW, it was SPF who decided to have a go at the trust with his first post and it wasn't intended to be funny!

So all the other fitba forums that are moderated via registration don't work? Pie and Bovril seem to manage this fine.
What I find laughable is the guys that put in all the unpaid work for East Fife get all the shite from the anonymous posters who do f**k all for the club.
The trust was set up by supporters of EFFC in a democratic fashion. If you want to join it is open to anyone. You can elect, unelect, put yourself forward for the committee if you wish. You are however required to do so in person.

Therein lies the problem LF, they would have to drag themselves away from their keyboards and they cannae dae that can they! This is the 21st century and personal involvement is just so last century!

Well said Lochee Fifer.