Saturday's Meeting - Q&A Session
With the three presentation sessions now complete, the meeting was handed over to Charlie Duthie of Wave 102 for the Q&A session. Charlie, after introducing himself to the audience, requested that everyone who wished to ask a question raise their hand, and he would bring a radio mic to them to ensure each question was audible - he also requested that folk give their name before asking their question...
The first question was asked by Steve Borland: "I'm not sure I understand what the Board want in a voting sense. Isn't it a no brainer, do we not need money to run the club. Do we not need investment? What's the board's view? What about when funds dry up?"
Society Chairman Scott Glenday was first to answer; "It's not about what the Board want, it's a decision for the ordinary supporters to make. If the Board made the decision on our own without consulting the members we'd get slaughtered for it and rightly so. It's about what YOU want. We are working to budget. We had an average crowd of around 4600 last season, and this season we will cut our cloth accordingly. We are working hard to generate new income streams and will continue to do so. Membership schemes are currently the Society's main source of income, we have over 500 Gold members paying £10 a month and 37 Platinum members paying £100 a month. This is something most Trusts would be delighted to have"
Fraser MacDonald added "As Scott said, it's about what the fans want. If the Society Board wanted to go one way and the fans wanted to go the opposite way, we'd go the fans' way. I would like to see more people getting involved, and a contested election for the Society Board - we've never yet had enough people standing to have a contested election.
"In terms of finances, it's not about what to do when money slows down, it's about changing the operating model so we stop losing money year after year. If we attract external funding and it's ploughed into the playing staff then runs out, it shows as a loss. We've already sold off most of the family silver, we need to live within our means. But being fan owned does not mean we cannot attract additional funding."