Jags Trust AGM
Thursday night sees the Jags Trust hold their Annual General Meeting at the Aitken Suite at 7.30pm. This could be one of the most important of such meetings in the history of the trust and its relationship with the club. The election results will be announced and this could see the removal of the Jags Trust Board Representative position for at least the next two years.
In addition, the Jags Trust Board itself will undergo massive changes with Graeme Lang and Dave Johnstone standing down to complete the changes brought by the resignations of Jim Alexander (now Director at the Club) and Tom Hosie (now member of the Alan Archibald Testimonial Committee and club programme editor) earlier in the year. Possible new members of the new trust board will be Donald Ross, Raymond Rose, Colin Quinn, Fiona Harvey, Ailsa Connel – Wilson and Greig Forbes – remaining members will be Sandy Wilkie, Alan Heron (re-election), Margaret Forsythe and Kieron Dempsey. Going by the election statements and previous statements on places such as the forum the make up of the board could be quite polarised and promises to be quite a radical trust board – time will tell.
The election of the board representative will show whether the trust members have prefered to vote for the removal of the representative’s position on the club board in favour of its replacement by another mechanism such as the Jags Trust board meeting with the club board on a regular basis or to have the position evaluated over the year for consideration at a later date while at the same time pressing the club on the issues raised by the membership. This could be an interesting outcome as the result directly affects the election of the other candidates onto the trust board as one available place is lost if Kieron Dempsey loses the election.
The other major event of the AGM is the ratification of the resolution made at the recent Special General Meeting regardibng the trust’s position on the board of the club in light of the introduction of universal Directors Fees by the club. Although the club have offered a way to the trust to pay this with no extra outlay on that already planned, the members of the trust felt that the trust should have its positon on the board purely by right of its shareholding and the fans’ unique position in the saving of the club during the save the jags period. The debate at the SGM has divided into the ‘pragmatists’ (fee payers) and the ‘principled’ (non fee payers). Both sides made good points duiring the debate with the resolution being supported by all but one member present.
Whatever the outcome of the election and the ratification process, Thursday’s meeting promises to be an interesting one.