Hamilton Academical Supporters' Society

AGM Minutes
Wednesday 19th January 2011
Function Suite, New Douglas Park

Present

Board Members: Donald Anderson, Graeme Brown, Paul Daly, Kenneth Fee, Alan Hutcheson,
Ian Kelly, Darren Jameson, Tom Marchbank, David Ogg, Craig Rankin and 6 Trust Members.

Apologies

Ken Berry, Derek Bright, Jim Bright, Douglas Bryden (Snr), A L Hamilton, Gilbert Mowat,
Ross Ryrie, Stephen Shilton.

Proxies

Name Proxy

Jim Bright David Ogg

Douglas Bryden (Snr) David Ogg

Ken Berry David Ogg

Meeting

Minutes of Last Meeting

The Minutes of the AGM held on 18 Feb 2010 had been circulated. Kenneth Fee
proposed and Donald Anderson seconded the acceptance of the accuracy and
adoption of these minutes. These were adopted unanimously.
Chair’s Report – David Ogg
1. This has been a further year of retrenchment. With the Football Club
generally going well there is little to excite supporters about having or supporting a
Trust, but I’m pleased to say that reasonable numbers of you have been prepared to
continue to support the Trust. Support and actual offers of labour remain a different
thing. The Trust Board still suffers from a degree of inertia, although we are
committed to keeping the Trust alive and well for the foreseeable future.
2. There has been limited dialogue with the Club in the last year, with our wish to
host a meet the manager evening being well known in club circles. It was with some
disappointment that we noted the holding of a MTM evening under the auspices of the
club rather than the Trust. Moreover, supporters were given less than 1 weeks notice
of this event. I understand that attendance was poor, although boosted by the
presence of a number of the club youth teams.
3. Given the poor attendances at last season’s winter programme events, the
Trust did not run a winter programme this year. However, such events do remain an
option and if there is a demand for them we will oblige. In terms of participation,
there was Trust Table at the Accies Annual Youth Development Fundraising Dinner in
Glasgow. Les Gray made tickets available to Trust members for £25 (rather than
£45) and we took 15 members and friends to the dinner. Graeme Brown represented
the Accies Trust at the Supporters Direct Scottish Conference and reported his

Anderson, Donald - 12-Dec-03 Page 1 of 4

 experience on the website. I have attended 2 Supporters Direct Training Days in the
course of the year.
4. At the SD conference Graeme heard about CAFÉ, the Centre for Access to
Football in Europe. CAFÉ aims to champion disability issues in football.
Subsequently, Graeme, Ken and I met with Keith Ferguson, the Scottish rep, and
Alistair Brown has since agreed to take this issue on behalf of the Trust Board. There
will no doubt be more to report next year.
5. Graeme has continued his fine work as webmaster and has introduced the
monthly match poster idea, which we will continue to develop. Ian Kelly has recently
started to contribute to STV local and we hope to welcome Gillian Provan, the
Hamilton Editor for these web pages, to the quiz later this evening.
6. David Hamilton’s Accies Memory Bank project, which I reported on last year,
remains a work in progress, but the other project I mention at this time last year
came to successful fruition in the summer. I’m sure the Trust will wish to
congratulate Ian Kelly on the production of his book, with the support of the Accies
Trust, which has now sold some 350 copies, which I suspect exceeds even Ian’s most
optimistic expectations. Congratulations, Ian.
7. Ian Kelly and David Ogg had met with Neil Doncaster, SPL CE, on 5 Jan 2011
to discuss the SPL reconstruction plans. The Trust remains grateful to Neil for his
time in what was a very fruitful meeting in terms of enhancing supporters
understanding of the constraints involved league reconstruction. We were able to
reinforce the general supporters’ view that a 10 team top flight held little attraction
for the paying spectator no matter how attractive it may be in a financial sense.
8. Last year I appealed for a potential Trust Secretary to join the Board. Ross
Ryrie answered the call late last year and I look forward to his assuming this
responsibility in the near future.
9. I remain grateful to all the Trust Board members for their support during the
year. I note particularly the hard work carried out by Treasurer Ian Kelly and
Webmaster Graeme Brown. If you would like to help in any way, or have Accies
orientated ideas which the Trust may be able to help you to take forward, please
don’t hesitate to get involved.

There were no questions to the Chair concerning the report, which was adopted
unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report – Ian Kelly
Ian Kelly reported the total income for the year as £55.92. Major items for
expenditure were the Hampden Museum/Richard McBrearty evening and the
2010 AGM. The PO Box cost 125.75, there were website expenses of 69.80 and
Supporters Direct Subs of £50. FSA membership cost £55 per year.
The trust still holds £3,000 shares in HAFC.
Copies of the financial statement for the year ended 31 st August 2010 have been
prepared and will be forwarded to the FSA as required. These will be
accompanied by the report of the Independent Examiner.
Darren Jameson proposed and Craig Rankin seconded the adoption of the
treasurer’s report, which was adopted unanimously.

Page 2 of 4 Anderson, Donald - 12-Dec-03

 Independent Examination for next AGM
It is hereby resolved that subject to the provisions of section 4A of the 1968
Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act, the members of the Society
shall not require an audit for the accounts covering the current financial year
ending on 31 August 2011 when they are presented to the next AGM held in
2012.
The members of the society agree that the Accounts for the financial year ending
on and for which reports will be laid before the following AGM do not require a full
audit provided that:
• The total income for that year does not exceed the threshold laid down by
Supporters Direct for audit exemption (currently £25,000)
• An Independent Examination of those accounts is carried out in place of the
full Audit
• The Independent Examination is carried out in line with the best practice of
Supporters Direct as set out in the Guidance Notes.
• A report from the Independent Examiner is included within the Accounts and
circulated to members.
The Society notes that
• The Independent Examination does not carry the same weight as a full Audit
• The members of the Trust instruct the Board to identify a suitably qualified
practitioner to undertake the review
• The Board shall agree the appointment of the examiner and shall agree the
terms of that appointment in writing
• Supporters Direct has no liability in respect of any Trust Accounts
• Supporters Direct will use the report of an Independent Examiner when
considering your Trust’s eligibility for membership as against criteria in its
membership policy.
The resolution was proposed by Tom Marchbank and Alan Hutcheson and passed
unanimously.
Board Membership (as elected at 2010 AGM unless stated)

Name Position

David Ogg Chair

Ian Kelly Treasurer

Ross Ryrie Secretary (Board Member

from 23 Oct 10)

Alan Hutcheson Communications

Donald Anderson

Darren Jameson

Alastair Brown

Tommy Jordan

Paul Daly

Craig Rankin

Anderson, Donald - 12-Dec-03 Page 3 of 4

 Euan Simpson

Graeme Brown Webmaster

Kenneth Fee

Tom Marchbank

No applications to join the board had been received prior to the meeting. Tommy
Jordan had not indicated that he was prepared to stand for re-election and had
failed to attend any Board meeting in the previous year. The Trust Board, as
detailed above, and excepting Mr Jordan, was re-elected unanimously.
Any Other Business
Darren Jameson noted that there was a number of issues concerning supporters
that some may look to the Trust to assist in resolving. These issues included the
seating arrangements for home Old Firm games and stewarding in general.
There was little appetite for Trust involvement in such issues at the present time,
but Board members would continue to monitor the situation.
The Trust wishes to thank Alex White at Chambers Catering for hosting the
meeting and continuing to support the Trust. The evening’s programme continued
with an informal discussion on League Reconstruction and concluded with a quiz
which was thoroughly enjoyed by all participants.

Page 4 of 4 Anderson, Donald - 12-Dec-03