WC Boggs

I get it you were just asking a question, don't sweat it. No harm no foul.

Yes, the get the chairman brigade like to forget that the chairman and the board battled to keep the club afloat during the Covid crisis. While other clubs fell into the expensive Pixelot rubbish AI camera trap under pressure to get live streaming going, our chairman and board resisted it. They asked for a demonstration of it. They didn't get one. Instead they went to the local university Film and Media department and secured the assistance of students only too happy to get experience for their CVs at a fraction of the Pixelot costs. There were teething troubles sure, but the board's actions in getting cost viable live streaming going and raising money via a fan appeal saved this club's financial ass. That is why the club's bank account remained healthy and the club sustainable through it all. We owe our survival to the chairman the board and former trust board member Robert Clubb for assisting in setting up online payment, but hey we had a bad season so blame the chairman alone as usual. I thank you for your comment and extend my best wishes for Cowdenbeath's league survival. The last thing we need is yet another club running an unsustainable model via a sugar daddy chairman replacing you.

No one has been identified as doing that. No one has been identified as casting a new member's vote without their consent either. The Trust board accepted the people they are complaining about as members. The Trust board took their money, therefore those people are entitled to vote, whether via someone else or not. If the Trust board don't like that, they can always put a constitutional change to prevent it and explanation for it to the membership. That is when we finally get the AGM They postponed over a police complaint that went nowhere.

As the events in this fascinating discussion were kicked off by you, I'll start with you. The chairman does NOT pick the manager. That is an outright falsehood from a man who clearly has no conception of the concept of group board participation and responsibility on that other decisions made. You place sole responsibility for poor on field performance solely on the chairman and launch a resolution to have him alone removed from the board on that excuse. You present no evidence of wrongdoing, or personal contribution by the chairman as a cause of those poor performances, but single him out. Well, you're not on. You attempt to gather support for the chairman's removal based on another falsehood, that only the chairman will go from the board as a result. Director Colin Rowley has made it abundantly clear, that those involved in group decisions will not stand by while the chairman is singled out for removal and will resign if your ridiculous resolution succeeds. Were I on the board, I would also resign in those circumstances as a matter of personal integrity, having contributed to the selection of managers in board votes. Mr Rowley is entirely correct to make the full consequences of your action clear!" I read comments like surely Colin could take over as chairman in the interim? Anyone who knows Colin knows that is not going to happen. Even if Stuart stepped down voluntarily that would happen. Colin's business commitments make it impossible to put the necessary hours in that Stuart has to put in. I also read, surely the board wouldn't be so irresponsible as to mass resign when the season is still ongoing. The board didn't time your resolution Mr Liston, you did. It's not them who's pushed a situation where the board feel integrity bound to stand with the chairman. That was you! You could have waited until the season had ended, it's not like there's long to go. That at least would have shown some semblance of responsibility and understanding of the possible consequences, but no not you! Instead we have a situation where the board, myself and many other fans have had enough of such unfairly targeted and irresponsible resolutions as yours. The entire board could go, who knows, perhaps staff too? I don't know and you certainly don't. It's just you want Brown gone and consequences be damned.. I move on to the Trust board's handling of multiple applications for membership and multiple AGM votes being submitted via two individuals. While I can accept that 50 is an excessive number and that it was not wise given the fever resolutions stir up, no violation of the present constitution has occurred. You quote rule 45, one member one vote.. Regardless of how many have consented to one individual submitting their votes, each member still only have one vote. My daughter submitted mine on my behalf with my consent. I still only had one vote, so bringing up rule 45 as a possible violation and speculating on it, is no more than look squirrel Mr Liston. As no violation of the constitution had been committed, the Trust board going to the police over "voting irregularities" was quite frankly irresponsible kneejerk stupidity. No one has been charged or even interviewed by the police. Oh yes the Trust has released a police statement that if their allegations could be proven the matter could involve fraudulent activity. Except it has NOT been proven, which is why the Trust is covering their ass by saying they are no longer pursuing the matter through the police, supposedly to avoid damage to the club and trust board's reputations. The allegations had already found their way to the national press though, so the club's reputation has already been damaged as a result of an unnecessary and futile complaint to the police, that has come to nothing except legal advice costs. If the Trust was so concerned about the club's reputation, why did it include that little gem about "if the matter could be proven......" which keeps the social media speculation going over a police action the Trust have dropped? A police action collapsed likely being a more accurate description than dropped. The Trust now say they will seek to resolve the matter by other means. Those other means were available to them from the start. It's a pity they didn't use them, rather than running to the police with a complaint about a non crime. The outcome of which was the club's name getting dragged through the mud over unproven allegations of voter fraud. I come to the other parts of your resolution. John Daly should not have made that generalized comment on fans, despite the abuse he was receiving from a despicable minority. He should have made a full and proper apology for that gaffe. He can defend himself on that one, as I feel the last thing the board need at this time was a loose canon going off in communication with the fans.. Amalgamate the two boards? There is a decade old history of warfare between those boards. One member in particular has a track record for it from his time on the previous board. Coincidentally or not? the present board is going down the familiar route of seeking voting rights on operational matters under the equally familiar excuse of accountability. The same recipe for civil war as the last one. The Trust board is supposed to work in cooperation with the Exec board within it's own remit. It is not part of it's remit to attempt to insert itself into operational decision making under the excuse of accountability. Were your resolution on amalgamation to be passed, that is precisely what would happen. Two rival factions on an amalgamated board, battling for control over every operational decision made. People would be out of their minds to think of that as any kind of move providing peace and stability. Of course vital to winning that battle for control would be the removal of the chairman.. What a coincidence Mr Liston. Your resolution is nothing but an enabler for a factional civil war within operational decision making and yet another example of a resolution without thought to the consequences. Unless you welcome such consequences? I strongly oppose the resolution to remove Stuart Brown and amalgamate the boards. I urge other Trust members to consider the consequences that Mr Liston does not and oppose both. He does make one salient point in his resolution though. "The club doesn't need two boards." I entirely agree. Especially when the Trust board has served as a vehicle to be exploited by power grabbers and malcontents far too often. My apologies for the length of this, but I haven't been on here for a long time and there was a lot of catching up to do on comments here.

Oh hell, not you too? Please tell me it's not the local council?

At this horrible point in Berwick's history. I'd like to make the point that it's important to understand, that even in the lower leagues, teams are getting round the rules, by benefactors funding key players out of their own pockets. That's how some teams get around the fair play rules in the league you just dropped from. It happens where you're going too. To progress forward revenue has to go up, whether it's renting out an artificial surface, being a hang gliding centre, or whatever. It's that and or, getting people involved in the club willing to put money into funding key players out of their own pocket with no return but success. Stadiums do not win matches and if that's where the board thinks the solution lies, it's time they went. Your revenue was stagnant, so was ours. You had no one putting money into funding a better side, neither did we. Well, both clubs need to do something about it, or we could be meeting up for a party in the lowland league. At least Berwick own their own ground. Better what you've got, where you can work to make it pay, than what we've got, when we can't make a penny by investing for revenue. Everything has to be looked at that can boost revenue and I mean everything. From better and expanded hospitality, to renting out as a place for farmers to hold a produce market in the summer if you have to. When it comes to hard cash for investment in a better side, there's no level playing field out there. Ways have to be found to make that ground pay. Good luck people. Some of us will miss you.

Feel for you Berwick fans. Feel free to relay the following observation to your current chairman. If you think you can find 4 million for a new stadium, why didn't you find one tenth of that to stop this happening ya clown? More to the point now, find it to get them back up. It's pathetic trying to plaster over what you've done with pie from the bloody sky.

I assume Berwick will be in the Lowland league next year, unless God is determined to kill them. I'm very sorry to see them facing the drop, I like their fans. Survive and return people.

Yes you can.

Experienced or rookie, most times it's a gamble either way. When you're struggling in the basement league, a rookie or somebody with a chequered management history is all that's likely to apply. The rookie at least has a chance of proving to be better than the sacked guy with experience. God, we can suffer when he isn't though.

I thought we'd offer the job to Ian Murray if Airdrie didn't go for him. I thought wrong. It seems our board were so taken with Kev, that they were willing to risk a backlash from fans by picking him over anybody else. A brave decision, but looking early days like the right one. Murray did take the Airdrie job and good luck to the man. I hope he does well for you.

I have now checked back on this and find I made an assumption that Duffy was one of those invited that is actually wrong. Duffy was in fact never contacted by the club at all. Not by phone, email, telegraph, carrier pigeon, smoke signals, ham radio, or semaphore. I am still correct, that no No 1 target emerged until after the interviews were conducted. No offers were made prior to those interviews. Kev impressed more than anybody else at those interviews and the board made him the No 1 choice on that basis at that time. If you can't handle that, your problem. Kev's the man end of.

No they were not. A shortlist of available experienced managers were invited to apply, as well as the job being advertised on an open basis. There were more than two on that list and all were notified on the same day. Being invited to apply, is not the same thing as being offered the job and you certainly don't offer the job to all of them at the same time. There was no No 1 candidate from day one. What the board have said is, that after the interviews Kev was seen as the No 1 option from that point. What Duffy and Aitken turned down, was an invitation to apply. They were never given a job offer. Something that would have been pretty bloody pointless when they had no interest applying.

I'm going on what I was told by two board members. What are you going on other than hot air?

Just trying to keep in Stuart Cosgrove's good books mate.

To be precise, both Duffy and Aitken were invited to apply, not offered the job. Both declined. Kev was so impressive at his interview, that he became the No 1 choice and may well still have been, even if Duffy and Aitken had applied and Murray not opted for the Airdrie job. Well done though, you nearly got something right.

You can field a player released after the transfer window as a trialist, or sign him as an amateur short term till January I think. Lovely result for you at Elgin, enjoy.

John Neill signing is a bit of an eyebrow raiser for Stirling fans that's for sure. During the brief spell he was joining in training with us, Mackay was I am told impressed with his fitness. I have no idea if he's a good signing for you or not. but good luck to him and yourselves.

What's the story here - is Brown the good guy? Seemed sound enough to me a few years back. It's all gone on too long to give a simple answer. Two boards clashing, alpha males on both clashing. It all got too personal. The trust board went too far in pursuit of Brown on the exec board and did it without the consent of their membership, ergo the fans. They also parachuted somebody in as their chairman and the membership objected to it. Result, some trust board members resigned, rather than be associated with it and the rest were facing a no confidence vote by their own members. They duly staged a theatrical walkout at a meeting and gave fan abuse and intimidation, as an excuse for not facing that vote. That excuse was of course, total crap. On top of that there was an investment bid for control, sparked by the internal civil war. The same people went to war over that too. Then the exec board went to war with itself over the investment control bid. Even fans who had issues with Stuart Brown, backed him rather than the people obsessed with getting him, from the beginning. Stuart's not a bad guy at all, but was lucky not to get his head on a spike, for wanting Martyn Corrigan to replace Stuart McLaren as manager. That's the condensed, sanitised version. The whole thing would go into volumes. By now just about every body has hit the floor except Stuart Brown's. He does want to step down, as he's been put through hell, but not until he can leave a stable club behind him. Trust me, you never want to experience anything like it at Berwick.

PS, if anybody knows Dave Paxton, please say hello from Shug for me. Can't be there myself this time. A good man Dave and sorry not to be having a pint with him this weekend.

I am really sorry. We've been going through all this for over a year now at Stirling and it's been a nightmare. I've always known the Berwick fans to be a good and decent bunch of people, who'll be nice to you if you're nice to them. I wouldn't wish this crap on them. Eventually we'll come out of it when the bodies have finished hitting the floor. Hopefully it won't be anywhere near as bad, or prolonged for you. In our case it was kicked off by the most incompetent assassin's in history. All they've succeeded in doing, is assassinating themselves and everybody who supported them. About the only man still standing is the man they tried to assassinate in the first place. With any luck your assassin's won't be any more competent. What a lot of fuckwits learned at Stirling is, that the only ally worth having is the supporters. I'm sure you'll deliver the same message with equal force. All the best to you all, but meanwhile we've got a match to play out. One thing I've learned, is never disrespect the opposition. So, respect, ladies and gentlemen of the black and gold. Let's get to the game.

The last I knew they certainly intended to. http://www.stirlingalbionfc.co.uk/2018/06/12/volunteers-required-match-programme/

Your stereotypical reference to all mainland Scots as "southern gits" is certainly an opinion. I'm happy to leave that to speak for itself on you.