MarciaBlaine

I think McCall says about as much as he can say, realistically. It's a shame that one of the sponsors has received a nasty letter. Don't think that's productive. But McCall mentioning it in the times a) keeps fan discontent in the public eye b) thereby puts public pressure on the board and c) publicises the fact that sponsors are uneasy about the ramifications of the situation. I don't think McCall is daft and would know these are the effects of him mentioning it in the press.

If I was a BBC director I'd have someone set up with a camera in the Aitken Suite at 5:59pm tomorrow. You'd have to imagine the Trust guys will be talking to some pretty stony faces at best. Another way to get a visual and some publicity, for those who feel they can go? It doesn't take many people to fill a camera lens.

I think you're right about overt protest, at least for now. It really needs a tipping point to be meaningful and not look daft. Shame, I'd be up for it!

Some more practical suggestions for people are (apologies if I'm repeating myself here from earlier): Contacting the club as much as possible. Here's the thing: A single complaint about 10 things is brushed off as easily as a single complaint about one thing. 10 single complaints are ten times the work, hassle, pressure. I know this from an awful former existence answering complaints! So each time you don't spend money, contact them. Each time you have something new to complain about, communicate or ask, send it in. Just about every organisation (and hopefully PTFC) have a system for managing the huge amount of contact they get. It needs to be logged/referenced, handed over/between people, signed off and completed. They need to be able to look back on this and have a record of how it was dealt with, and that takes work. Equally, they need to know who's dealing with item X or Y at any given time, which is again a major hassle for them. They're not mass-deleting emails in a shared Outlook box (at least I really hope they're not!), they're trying to run a CRM-style system where every one of your messages goes onto the big 'to-do' pile whether they like its content or not. So multiply, multiply, multiply. Don't make yourself easily ignorable -for example: if they can spy one of your CAPS LOCK EMAILS, sweary f*****n letters or shouty phone calls from twenty paces, each one of them will be easy to dismiss. So be firm but polite. Don't get personal. Ask genuine questions. Be a horde of midges, not a Tasmanian devil. Reply to previous messages - this can often get you to the front of the queue and will also somewhat validate your contact as legitimate rather than ignorable. It also often obliges people to respond because it's part of an ongoing conversation. Try not to be 'cookie-cutter' - for example 20 people sending in an identically-worded email with the signature changed. It's again easily dismissed because whoever has to deal with it has already decided what to do with it when they read the first one. I know it's more effort but it's worth it. Worth noting that you can make your emails extra midge-like by attaching a picture (say, a picture of the tenner you didn't spend - also an effective visual [see below]). This makes the email literally 100 times bigger in size for their servers and the mailbox size is likely limited in some way. So gumming up the mailbox is an option and it may also put your emails to the front of the queue by default As it's a numbers game, it's also imperative that you stack up the numbers by not giving up! You'll absolutely be expected to tail off after a while ("Och, it'll die down by tomorrow"). Anyone can handle a wee spike in workload. Nobody can handle it perpetually. Visibility is everything, so try to find ways to let others see the discontent mount up. Basically, find ways to hang this dirty laundry in public, otherwise it's just you talking to a screen. An invisible crisis isn't much of a crisis. This is tricky but things like social media are an obvious one. The press can be awfy lazy these days and will take social media messages and reactions as indicative of the whole support. *edit to add on visibility* Press attention is huge. There's a saying in the Cooncil that half a page in the Evening Times is worth a couple of thousand complaints! People care deeply about how they're portrayed in public. Still on visibility, any kind of repeatable image is gold dust. I used the example earlier of chants at games versus a visual, though equally a video clip of a disgruntled stand chanting is 1000 times more effective than a sentence about it. But for example there's a reason why companies always (ALWAYS) include an image in their tweets - people are drawn to a a visual and the data behind social media engagement backs this up by an order of magnitude. So always remember that visuals (particularly shareable ones) win over words. (I'll note that t-shirts are visual Phil...) Seize the memes of production! A simple slogan wins the war of the story - something that encapsulates our message succinctly. There are actually fairly scientific ways to do this (the book I read on this was from the Centre for Story Based Strategy in the US), and countless examples of it working well. In my view this messaging is best arrived at by having a wee group of folk to talk through the issue. But the key messages/slogans can also self-germinate if they hit the mark and are shared widely. Some thoughts anyway. I realise it looks like I'm putting myself about for leading the charge but I literally don't do leadership! I'm a firm believer in the means matching the ends - in this case bringing about group ownership by working as a group. So I'd be happy to work with others on this. ETA: I know I've repeatedly said "the club" above but the same holds for contacting the Trust (or the media) etc too

Or look at it the other way - the new arrangement effectively inflates the remaining 25% of shares to the full 100%

I hope you feel better soon! I'm still waiting to see what the broader approach is for TJF - if they are to be a vehicle for protest then I'll support that 100%, but if not I'm certain another body will evolve (and I'll gladly be in it).

"Whilst we are experienced and successful business professionals, as individuals, we have no experience of running a football club. We believe in the current board, who have skills and knowledge we do not possess. We hope to learn from them as we work closely together." "In addition, we think having members on the club board could cause a conflict between their duties to the club and their responsibility to the fans." "As majority shareholders, we will put questions raised by the fans on the agenda of every board meeting. The trustees will meet the club board immediately after every board meeting, then report to the fans all non-confidential information discussed at the meeting within 48 hours" Ooft. Where to start with that? The idea that the club is separate from the fans and what's good for one may not be good for the other is... well it's certainly bold.

Thanks again. I suppose what I'm really wondering is, with all that said, what is the mechanism for the remaining shareholders to steer the club? Aka who's actually in charge of strategy and how do they exert that control?

But what are the mechanisms for it? How could they be expected to coordinate or set a strategy? The fan ownership model lets this happen, for example, annually. A single controlling entity can do the same. Recently, you'd assume the direct overlap between 3BC and the club chair allowed it to be a moot point.

Great, thanks. A quick search suggests that no club board members are shareholders. Sorry again if I'm being daft but who therefore externally controls or directs what the board do? How do they exercise control? Are the board there forever like Supreme Court justices? I recall that Beattie and Co were able to wrest back control but how was that done and how could it be done in future?

Thanks. Can anyone clarify: are the details of shareholders in the public domain now? Companies House doesn't seem to have anything since 2016.

Maybe a daft question but if the majority shareholder can't attend (or presumably vote on matters at) the club board, how are club board members appointed or removed? Who decides?

Jeezo I've had chairs in the pub for longer than him

I guess we might find out more this week per my post above. As a member I'd still like them to work towards it and I don't think the fan ownership genie is going to disappear back into the bottle, so they're best placed.

Eek! Well I've read a book or two on this stuff... That said, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the idea of anyone 'leading' it as such, but I'd definitely be up for contributing to something that's more of a co-ordinated and organised collective effort. I would also add that a community group (which is essentially what this is imo) needs a community to work well, building on existing bonds between like-minded people. That's what I think TJF got so right recently with face to face interactions at games, barbecue, etc. I think that's key to the success of any such effort. So a pure social media campaign for example won't cut it in my view. I'd suggest we need to see what the TJF board feel is right for the future of TJF before we can know what other group is required. Given everything that's happened, I'd expect them to make further statements this week.

100% it needs to be organised and in a group. I just think asking TJF to be the good cop and the bad cop is too tricky, and I think the delicate balancing act they've had to perform this year shows that. (Deep apologies for the mixed metaphor)

This bears re-reading given today's news.

I actually don't agree. Separating the (TJF-cheerleading) campaig/pressure group from the prospective fan-ownership group (TJF) seems like the smart move.

Here you go https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/club-statement-9/ The time for asking TBC to be consistent or do the decent thing has sadly passed imo

You might want to look into coach hire companies, as you can drive a bus through what’s been announced today.

100% this - a picture tells a thousand words and can be re-shown on websites and papers later. Turning our backs en masse at a certain minute?

Ok, here’s a concrete (and no doubt imperfect) suggestion: Each fan goes to the next home game with one of those daft cardboard celebrity masks you get out of corner shops (or cuts one out of a bit of paper). On the 71st minute, the stand all put them on *backwards* to become “faceless fans for a faceless fans’ group” AND we become completely silent - “the silent majority” It would get the message out about the chair’s attitude to us, the insufficiency of the solution proposed, our power as a bloc and would portray what the club is without us - eerily empty. Plus it’d provide a great video/visual stills for the press. Putting something out there anyhoo. (I knew I’d seen this somewhere - Birmingham fans did something similar https://www.birminghamworld.uk/news/birmingham-city-fans-hold-faceless-mask-protest-against-clubs-owners-before-sheffield-united-clash-3556268 )

Here’s the mysterious Mr Shand https://www.murraybeith.co.uk/news-press/news-press/the-scotsman-multiple-benefits-of-setting-up-a-family-trust-or-foundation.html And oh lordy the irony: ”However, Scots-born Carnegie sounded cautionary notes about money and giving, in an article The Gospel of Wealth written in 1889. He warned those inheriting vast wealth frequently squandered their fortune on “riotous living”. He also counselled against leaving a fortune to charity, as there was no guarantee it would be used wisely. He worried that there was no certainty a charitable organisation would use the money in an acceptable way for the donor and for what he/she wanted to achieve.”

I agree that intimidation and nuisance for sponsors is counter productive. Sponsors certainly have leverage though, and polite interaction to, er, leverage their leverage (?) is entirely valid imo.

There's also the more 'performative' types of protest such as, I dunno, everyone in the stand wearing a mask with a blank face on it to show the disregard TBC have for the faceless paying masses. These things can be effective if they provide a stark image/talking point and get the message across without words.