History of Shiretrust

shiretrust took quite some time to germinate having first been discussed, at supporters club meetings during season 2001/2002. As is usual in supporters clubs like ours it took some time to get over the hurdle of "can anyone without vast resources of cash, really make a difference?"

Eventually we came to realise that either we did something which may or may not succeed but, hell, we hadn't simply sat back and watched the killing off of one of the oldest 100 clubs in the world we actually tried to make a difference.

We have discovered that there is a vast well of goodwill in the football community for the plight of the long suffering Shire supporters, from all around the world and, not least, from our most local of rivals. It is heart warming to see the messages of support come in from football supporters, some of whom have been in the same desperate plight as the Shire, and some of them have come out the other side having survived the asset strippers and even gone on to better things. That other folks have gone through this and come out the other side gives us hope that we are doing the right thing and that maybe, just maybe, there is hope for us yet.

One thing is for sure, if we do nothing we will get our deserts, no Shire in the future, So having taken the big step of deciding that forming a supporters trust was the right thing to do we held an inaugural meeting in Westfield Community Centre, Falkirk in July 2004. This meeting was well attended and unanimously voted in favour of the forming of a trust of Shire supporters and volunteers formed an action group.

From this action group an acting committee was formed consisting of 1) Tadek Kopsywza as acting Chairman, 2) Drummond Calder as acting Treasurer and 3) John Watson as acting Secretary. It was the responsibility of these 3 guys to determine the proposed future format and constitution of the supporters trust and to bring this back to the membership for endorsement.

It was quickly decided that the draft constitution as developed by many clubs through Supporters Direct was the right way to go and the only real bone of contention was as to whether the proposed trust should adopt the rules as put forward by Supporters Direct or alter these to totally reflect the position of the Shire fans at the current time.

After much debate it was decided that there was little to be gained, and much to be potentially achieved in the future, by adopting the draft constitution as proposed than to make amendments that may prove costly to revoke in the future.

shiretrust moved then on to the launch meeting which was well attended in the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk. Impressively there was a good turn out of supporters of Falkirk FC who demonstrated their support by not only attending the meeting but speaking very eloquently in support of the forming of shiretrust. The main speakers were Dennis Canavan MSP, Councillor David Alexander in whose ward Firs Park resides and James Proctor from Supporters Direct. All gave their full support to the formation of shiretrust and it is incumbent on the future committee of shiretrust to ensure that these good offices are used to the fullest extent.

Much work then ensued in ensuring that the trust was in a sound position to move to the next stage in the formation of a supporters trust; the first AGM.

The 1st AGM was held in the Thornhill Community Centre, Falkirk on 15th of February 2005 at 7pm, which caused a conflict for some members as the rescheduled `Shire versus East Fife game was played on the same night. However, a good turnout attended the AGM.

Following the reports by the acting office bearers, who have seen shiretrust through from inception to this inaugural AGM, the election of committee members was declared by Jim Laing of French Duncan, the auditors to shiretrust. The election had been carried out under the Single Transferable Voting (STV) system. This had been felt, by the acting office bearers to be the best system for electing an entire committee. In future years there will only be a few posts up for re-election.

Ian Ramsay, Scott Fraser, Linda Stewart, Drummond Calder, Ian Fleming and Tadek Kopsyzwa were elected. Subsequent to the AGM the first committee meeting confirmed the office bearers as Ian Ramsay chair, Drummond Calder treasurer and Linda Stewart secretary.