Change on the Board of Directors

[Kmcalpin]

The Official site reports that Leann Thomas has stepped down as a director.  I suppose this was only to be expected following the payment of monies due to her father Les Hutchison.

[Busta Nut]

Nae mare dealig with Les in any way. Good.

[Goggles & Flippers]

Les' involvement has been a relatively benign experience. The Ying being one crazy transfer window in particular and a degree of arrogance and a lack of empathy with the fanbase that a very healthy bank balance affords. The yang being the magnanimous behaviour that he wrote off upwards of £1m? of the money he originally put in and didn't want to get that returned plus the fact that we are now a fan owned club.

However some of the things he came out with as highlighted in the former point means that contribution and his efforts may not be fully appreciated or recognised and to be fair there are many things that probably went on behind the scenes that will either enhance or reduce his standing. Maybe in years to come this will be revealed and his stock will go up or down. What can't be ignored is he facilitated and bankrolled where we are now.

What is clear now Les is repaid and his daughter has relinquished her seat is that seat can only be taken up by a member of the WS exec board to give the WS members 3 seats. There needs to be a few key questions put to the whole WS membership as to the strategic direction of the club over the next 5 and 10 years respectively. I think many would  endorse what has been overseen by Jim McMahon and Flow already but it should still be green lighted in the same way it would have if Boyle was still the owner. The WS is not an additional revenue stream alone for the club and it shouldn't be regarded as such.

I've repeated what someone very astute said me me years ago. There is no point in replacing one old guy in a grey suit with 7 old guys in grey suits. All you will have done is replaced the single owner who can make a decision immediately with a committee that takes 2 weeks to debate and agree on a course of action. What is the point in being fan owned if you continue the old stuffy traditional business practices at the expense of innovative new fresh ideas and ways of working focused on the owners themselves.

[Electric Blues]

Aye, Les might be a prick, but he's OUR prick.

 

 

(For the avoidance of doubt, I don't know Les from Adam. He may very well NOT be a prick at all.)

[Great Balls of Shire]

According to the piece on the radio on Saturday when he came in , the club were 2 weeks away from administration.

i wasn’t aware of that , although I hear people saying now it was fairly common knowledge.

If that is the case we do owe Les a great deal of gratitude and he has offered very generous repayment terms, as well as matching the contributions with his own money

I felt when he was talking on the radio on Saturday that he wanted everyone to know that he had played a major part in the whole thing  , which can’t be denied.

[weeyin]

I've never met Les, had any dealings with Les and not even sure I've listened to any of his interviews so I can't comment on his likability.

There is no doubt, however, that he imposed a structure on our club that even the Directors admitted had become so lax that we were losing money when we were doing well in the league, and had no contingency for poor seasons or relegation.

The scouting model, transfer model and governance model have all been dramatically improved and Les is responsible for all of that. We need to make sure we don't slowly fall back into our old habits and get carried away when we have relative success, or start spewing transfer income on wasteful projects. First point of order should be building a cash reserve that won't be touched except in emergencies.

[Big Stall]

1 hour ago, Great Balls of Shire said:

According to the piece on the radio on Saturday when he came in , the club were 2 weeks away from administration.

i wasn’t aware of that , although I hear people saying now it was fairly common knowledge.

 

Yea, I have never heard any of that either. 

I had always assumed that we learnt our lessons from admin and were never likely to get ourselves into such a situation again.

 

[Big Wispy Flossy]

Les was never there to be anybody’s mate. Notwithstanding the financial input, he was there to steady a ship which was in danger of capsizing under LD’s watch

[steelboy]

12 minutes ago, Big Stall said:

Yea, I have never heard any of that either. 

I had always assumed that we learnt our lessons from admin and were never likely to get ourselves into such a situation again.

 

I'm sceptical about the admin threat and especially the Argentinian consortium.

I suspect it was just Boyle trying to get rid of his shareholding.

 

[weeyin]

1 minute ago, steelboy said:

I'm sceptical about the admin threat and especially the Argentinian consortium.

I suspect it was just Boyle trying to get rid of his shareholding.

 

I agree about the admin threat. I expect we'd have found a away to keep afloat without that, probably with Boyle's assistance. Although it does seem we were operating on a business model that was 100% reliant on JB propping us up which, as Gretna and others found out, is unsustainable and dangerous.

I was dubious about the consortium, but given some of the stranger developments down south and at clubs like Partick Thistle, it might not have been as wide of the mark as I thought.

[Yassin]

ANNOUNCE SOLANO

[steelboy]

Given that Argentina is an economic basket case with a disastrous currency how likely is that any Argentinian would want to invest in a Scottish club when GBP was sky high?

Boyle's shares were in trust at that point with our directors being the trustees so for the sale to go through the likes of Weir and McMahon would have had to agree to it. Yet they were the people warning against it.

[weeyin]

1 hour ago, steelboy said:

Given that Argentina is an economic basket case with a disastrous currency how likely is that any Argentinian would want to invest in a Scottish club when GBP was sky high?

Depends why they wanted to invest. A look across to New Douglas Park shows how weird and sketchy some of these deals can be.

[Busta Nut]

Les was weapon years ago, he's a difficult weapon still.

 

He did some good too.

[Yassin]

24 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

Les was weapon years ago, he's a difficult weapon still.

 

He did some good too.

I'm very intrigued by this Busta- Les beef. Charity boxing match for the Well Society?

Edit- although I am actually quite concerned he orders a hit on you.

[Kmcalpin]

18 hours ago, Goggles & Flippers said:

Les' involvement has been a relatively benign experience. The Ying being one crazy transfer window in particular and a degree of arrogance and a lack of empathy with the fanbase that a very healthy bank balance affords. The yang being the magnanimous behaviour that he wrote off upwards of £1m? of the money he originally put in and didn't want to get that returned plus the fact that we are now a fan owned club.

However some of the things he came out with as highlighted in the former point means that contribution and his efforts may not be fully appreciated or recognised and to be fair there are many things that probably went on behind the scenes that will either enhance or reduce his standing. Maybe in years to come this will be revealed and his stock will go up or down. What can't be ignored is he facilitated and bankrolled where we are now.

What is clear now Les is repaid and his daughter has relinquished her seat is that seat can only be taken up by a member of the WS exec board to give the WS members 3 seats. There needs to be a few key questions put to the whole WS membership as to the strategic direction of the club over the next 5 and 10 years respectively. I think many would  endorse what has been overseen by Jim McMahon and Flow already but it should still be green lighted in the same way it would have if Boyle was still the owner. The WS is not an additional revenue stream alone for the club and it shouldn't be regarded as such.

I've repeated what someone very astute said me me years ago. There is no point in replacing one old guy in a grey suit with 7 old guys in grey suits. All you will have done is replaced the single owner who can make a decision immediately with a committee that takes 2 weeks to debate and agree on a course of action. What is the point in being fan owned if you continue the old stuffy traditional business practices at the expense of innovative new fresh ideas and ways of working focused on the owners themselves.

I agree with the vast majority of your post with one exception, which I've highlighted. Les Hutchison and Alan Burrows (and indeed Jim McMahon) have said that the fans ie the WS members still need to continue contributing to the club.  Yes it should only be but one stream and all other income streams should be maximised but our contributions need to continue.  That is essential. The WS needs to build up a healthy fund to cushion us when the bad times return, as they will at some point. So far so good in that our debt has almost been paid off, but monies will be required for other purposes. From now on though the money will be reinvested the club as opposed to former owners. Quite how it should be spent, at a strategic level,  should be matter for consultation with the members. 

[weeyin]

I think the smartest thing the Society did was to encourage monthly direct debits. It's a much easier and more predictable way to bring in funds and reduces the need for regular "please give us a donation" pleas. I'm assuming most people will be happy to let their contributions continue if they can, so that should help keep things ticking over.

[Busta Nut]

42 minutes ago, Yassin said:

I'm very intrigued by this Busta- Les beef. Charity boxing match for the Well Society?

Edit- although I am actually quite concerned he orders a hit on you.

Ach he'd probably take me.

[stv]

Without Les our club would have been fecked . Thats a fact. He was the man who put his money where his mouth was, and his buisness expertese . With no hidden agenda other than saving the club and getting a proper structure and people in place for the future. It has worked no one can deny that. 

[Busta Nut]

that's true

[GregyScotland]

I have seen Les taking a bit of stick now on a few places such as Twitter conversations and cannot get my head around why. He has helped modernise the club, ask the questions that needed asking and move the club onto a more stable footing rather than the cut throat approach we had become accustomed to. Also from what I can see helped Burrows clean up the mess that was left behind from LD's iron grip on club affairs. LD I was told by a few folk was an utter control freak and the club wasn't in great financial shape under her management yet I dont remember a great deal being said at the time.

 

[steelboy]

Is it not the case that his restructure has been already restructured?

The playing side is the most important part of the club and he fucked that by appointing Barraclough. Fair play to him for writing off his debt but that money ended up in the pockets of Barraclough, Nathan Thomas, Joe Chalmers, Louis Laing, Kieran Kennedy, Anthony  Straker, Wes Fletcher, Jake Taylor and Theo Robinson. 

[joewarkfanclub]

Les is a hardnosed businessman. You dont make the money he has made without ruffling a few feathers. Quite often that doesnt make you very likeable.

TBF though, I dont need to like Les to be thankful for what he did for our club. He may have made mistakes, but he was the right man (maybe the only man) at the right time.

So thank you Les.

[dennyc]

51 minutes ago, steelboy said:

Is it not the case that his restructure has been already restructured?

The playing side is the most important part of the club and he fucked that by appointing Barraclough. Fair play to him for writing off his debt but that money ended up in the pockets of Barraclough, Nathan Thomas, Joe Chalmers, Louis Laing, Kieran Kennedy, Anthony  Straker, Wes Fletcher, Jake Taylor and Theo Robinson. 

And was his much lauded innovative scouting scheme not replaced by the bloodhound that is Martin Foyle?

He did bale us out of the financial mess created by Boyle and Dempster though so let’s be appreciative of that. But everything he touched did not turn to gold.

 

[steelboy]

52 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Les is a hardnosed businessman. You dont make the money he has made without ruffling a few feathers. Quite often that doesnt make you very likeable.

Going by his own words he made his money in the privatisation and eventual closure of Scottish industry.