Wellesley Inn

Thursday 3rd August 2006

7.30pm

The recent changes at Bayview have been greeted with a variety of emotions and comments.This meeting is a chance for us all to meet and express and discuss what we feel we have or have not achieved and where we go from here.

It is essential that we hear views from all sides of this debate.So even if you are thinking " not another meeting" I would ask that you make the best effort to attend this one.

We need and value every opinion.

Dave whilst I can appreciate your motives for another meeting,I feel that the pathetic attendences at the last 2 meetings confirms that people aren`t really interested in turning up to "another meeting"

I would love to be proved wrong though.

It's my theory that if you can get double figures to attend any meeting that doesn't involve free beer or women taking their clothes off you are doing well.

I'm assuming Dave is offering neither of the above, but i'll certainly be there to voice my opinions and hear the opinions of others, and sell tickets for Saturday night probably

The vice chairman said last night that Derrick was given the position of treasurer/secretary as no one else at the club could do it.Apparently,until they train the lassie(Leona,I assume) to do it then he has to stay.You now know why I sat on my own last night.I fear the East Fife I have supported for 60 years has died and I have been too busy treating the wound that is Derrick to notice.

I think there is still enough to be done to warrant another meeting .

Is it not that it would cost too much to get rid of him but as a paid employee he has do do as he is told or he could face the boot. Knowing Derrick it won't be long before he falls out of line

Dave if you believe that which I don't think you do the new team are taking us for mugs. The only difference from Db is that they appear to be nice about it.

The fact that no one else could do it is a complete farce. McKay was secretary for some time and if he could do it anyone can. As for treasurer it says little for the business acumen of our new board members that they both feel they cannot look after the finances of the club. I did think they were successful businessmen or was I mistaken. The fact that Leona is to be trained up seems to be a misdirection to say the least.

They are starting to confirm my initial fears that they talk the talk but have no real concerns about our club.

Another point I did not mention, if in the unlikely event that what they said is true why did DB have to be retained in these positions as a paid employee?

It also highlights the possiblity that even stepping down as chairman, DB is still pulling the strings as he has achieved what he has been angling for for some time! ie a paid position and the continuing ability to .... Work it out.

another one

You are correct,I do not believe it.I sat on my own to get my head round the fact that I was expected to believe it.

I don't know what is worse,do THEY actually believe it to be a valid reason or that they think that I am gullible enough to believe it.

We are being asked to trust them.I am afraid that even at this early stage actions speak louder than words.So far all we have had is words.We will be told that we are asking for too much too soon but we do not have the luxury of affording time.We could be in terminal decline.

Read Martin Black's post to Bruce Black,he puts it admirably.

Meeting to address East Fife fans' fears

This is the headline previewing Thursdays' meeting in todays'"Courier".

Have stickied this for you Dave. Sorry i forgot earlier.

Can't make it tomorrow night but let me know how it goes and I'll stick a report up in the News section.

Thanks and will do.

In every other walk of life, this would be the way to proceed:

SITUATIONS VACANT
Senior football club seeks administrator to fulfil secretarial duties on a part-time basis. Experience an advantage. Salary by negotiation. Apply in writing, along with a CV and references, to Bayview Stadium.

The argument that "no-one else at Bayview could do this job" is yet another slap in the face for supporters. Talk about 'jobs for the boys'. The only reason Brown is in this job is because the other directors want him to be in it. There must be thousands of people out there - and at least 100 women - who could do that job.

Advertise the post. Accept Derrick Brown's application. Interview him. Appoint a more suitable candidate - preferably someone who will be able to devote the necessary time to the role, rather than someone who is already in full-time employment elsewhere.

It's a stitch-up, and it is so badly executed that it tells us a lot about Gray and Collumbine.

Just want to clear something up as some seem to have the wrong idea about the secretary job at the club. It is not the shorthand/typist job that some envisage. It is a legal requirement for companies to have someone responsible for ensuring legal requirements are complied with eg forwarding the necessary information to Companies house and other administrative duties re the running of the club. As the directors can testify to he has already failed on the passing of information to Companies house and for this he normally would not be considered for this position.

However as Forest fifer said elsewhere this is probably the deal he negotiated to stand down as chairman. The board is split down the middle 4/4 as d Hamilton has obviously switched sides and only by Brown's agreement could they get him to stand down as chairman. The paid aspect of his position is the clever bit because if the board split changes it makes it that much more difficult to oust him from his new postion.

In some ways the intervention of Sid has made it more difficult to get rid of Brown as I suspect some existing shareholders have been united in opposition to his opportunistic bid and unfortunately this means that to oppose him they have to support Brown. So it is uncertain that an EGM would be able to get him off the board. (There may also some problems with proxies as has been suggested. Possibly they were awarded to Brown for supporting favourable share deals).

To my mind the key factor is the Twigg shares and Sid does not seem to be progressing in this area. He may be looking for too much of a bargain.

Not wishing to defend Brown and Collumbine...BUT

Its not easy to get someone off a board of directors if they have a right to be there. He still has shareholdings and proxies that entitle him to a seat. Displacing him as chairman would just be a straight vote by the board hence why this could be accomplished.

As for the job itself it will hopefully works thus:

As an employee he will be accountable to the board and have a number of key duties to fulfil should he fail in this then he would be subject to dismissal. Surely an accountable DB is better than DB as chairman...

we were told by a board member on monday that brown has lost his proxies.

How did the meeting go?

twas alrite.

Some goods points made for continuing the protest, some good points made for calling a truce.

No-one could understand why brown had been kept on. There was discussion and speculation about this, but the bottom line is that we just don't know. The general feeling is that there are questions needing answered. A meeting with Sid & willie (and maybe the rest of the board) is to be sought. The aim being to get some answers and hopefully put our minds at ease - it would also be an oppurtunity to put forward suggestions on how to help solve the problem. Some suggestions were made last night about how to remove Derrick - although I won't go into the details here (incase he's reading) but it looks as if Derrick could be nailed on a number of issues.

Oh, and an aligation was made that one of the protestors has been "pinning" a board member's wife!

That's about it - see you on the mound on Saturday!

I certainly am with all this stuff, and probably most people are. A suggestion. Why don't we just get back to being supporters and leave the sorting out of the mess that is D Broon to those who are responsible for that, ie the new chairman, vice chairman and the shareholders generally.

Thats a great idea and has worked all through history, sit on the fence and let the dictators rule. Wonder why German isnt our first language. You may think an extreme comparison but I think not.

I would love to go back to my seat in the stand, buy pies, programmes, 50/50 tickets, Black n Gold, the new football top, beer and crisps at the bar etc but not until the poison that is Derrick Brown is removed from all duties at East Fife. I am in no doubt that he will be back stabbing and tricking his slimey way into a decent pension.

By the way the jury is out on Gray and Collumbine until I see that they respect the supporters, present evidence suggests not but I am not privvy to what goes on behind closed doors and they may yet come up trumps.

What a great idea Bored. I'm so sorry that the fans have been actively protesting until now. What we should all do is leave our task half way through and see what pans out.

I arrived late at the meeting but the outcome was certainly a determination to continue with the protests given the current situation. That said, there was a definite willingness to sit down with Willie Gray and/or Sid Collumbine...

Bored, what makes you think most people are bored of the protest. The numerous postings on this site, the poor home crowds, the attendance on the mound, and the feeling at last nights meeting suggest otherwise.

You are right in that it is in the hands of Willie & Sid to sort out. The protest is there to apply pressure to ensure they do. It also puts pressure on Derrick & his supporters. The protest is working - albeit slower than we would all like. Twelve months ago, Derrick ran the show - now he has no such luxury. He has had to conceed on the share issue (twice), after fighting so hard against it. He's had to conceed on letting Sid on board, having fought so hard against him. He's had to conceed the Chairman's position, and he's had to conceed control in the board room. Derrick's demise has been aided by the protest - why stop now when we're yards from the finish line?

Don't get me wrong, I want the protests to end too - but only when the aim has been achived and not before.

He also has had to conceed on the choice of manager. And I'm sure there are alot of other things to come that won't be to his liking either.

The meeting was attended by 25 to 30 fans with as many again apologies and calls of support received.I was very satisfied with the numbers as these meetings tend to go over much of the same points giving rise to the why bother syndrome.

I think that ex I-10 covered most of the points so no need for me to repeat them.

The two main things to come out of the meeting were the determination to see the protest through to a conclusion with Derricks' total removal from the club coupled with a strong desire to understand Willie and Sids'plans for removing him and their vision for taking our club forward.

A meeting ASAP was called for and if a definite time-table for Derricks' removal could be found then the protesters felt that the return to supporting the team inside the stadium could be a distinct possibility,something that has always been at the top of our wish list.The instant removal of the secretary/treasurer,however,remains the ideal solution.

There was no wish expressed throughout the meeting to impede the new regimes'progress in any way as the club needs to start its' rebuild before it is too late but those present were insistant that Willie and Sid need to remove Derrick,probably the only obstacle to our survival,sooner rather than later.

I omitted to say that I appreciated the fact that Jean came along and gave us a different insight to things.It has always been a disappointment to me that those fans who do have another point of view have felt unable to come and express them.

I am glad to hear that things went well, after a lot of doom and gloom people seem to have been rallied to finish off the job, and there seems to be fresh ideas about how it can be done. I feared that the tactics had become a bit too "rigid" and thus ineffective, now I am confident that this is not the case.

As I have explained to Dave, on Saturday I will probably watch the game from inside the stadium, I have suffered a bereavement, someone very close to me and my mind is elsewhere at the moment. I move to London at the end of the month too, so I’m glad to see that the Down with Brown movement is in good hands to finish the job we started.

Who is Jean and what was his/her point of view, seeing as though it has been raised here?

what you gonna do about it like??

Igor sorry to hear about your bereavment.genie If you cared to turn up you would have heard her views,which she is entitled to say,even though we might not agree I would say she made some people think about the protest,I never joined the protest because the trust did not get their shares,like devonfifer I was upset that the supporters club gave brown money,which now seems he puts in his back pocket,it was meant to help the management for things,not pay the browns morgage,jean claude van dam you are just like brown FULL OF SHIT and I would not be suprised if you were brown or one of his cronies.