Pretty much agree withe above.
Will wait until after tomorrow's match to make further comment, hopefully I will be in a position to make wonderful positive comments on the great win and the style in which we achieved it.

Chris, for you to say that you left the Trust because the trust was too close to the club. In defence of the trust board I can say you are absolutely wrong, in fact you are way off the mark. The trust is proud of the fact that they are independent of the club, and always have been, and always will be. When you set up the Trust, where were you for the first seven years that I was the Chairman?
The money raised by the trust in support of the junior teams is fantastic, over the past few years they have contributed well over £100.000.

Message to the trust board. If you are going to make statements on social media, make sure the content is passed before going into print

What the trust do is great. No one can knock that. However it's all secrets now unless you attend or join, not everyone cares that much to be perfectly frank and those that do are starting to care less.

The club is going backwards at a alarming rate IMO, nothing positive has come out since the fantastic support shown at the World Cup. Another wasted opportunity and I have to say the board are just too old and set in their ways. Leigh have a fantastic new board and are absolutely soaring both on and off the field and all that has come from some terrible few years, that shows what an be achieved with desire and ambition, we have already started making excuses only 3 games in that we can't compete.

Malcolm and Chris's little discussion above is quite telling.
I particularly like the comment about them and us...
There is a [ithem and us [/i in my opinion, but, then there is the fan who's not got a job on the inside, who isn't a member of a trust, they are just the people that turn up and pay full whack, buy a golden gamble, a programme, a shirt from the club shop, a couple of drinks, a bite to eat, chuck money in whatever bucket collection is going round, for gods sake don't listen to them, they are only your customers



Lets stop treating the club like the property of the [i1986 I was in the bootroom reunion club[/i.

Well never have another 1986 without wholesale changes, its gone.. it was a one off.

Time for the Board to get a hold of the situation and start pushing forward with fresh ideas, I don't want see how far the Board, Trusts and Club gets without punters, because its not very far at all, It can take years to win a Customer, but only seconds to lose one. Oh and please don't be afraid to get rid of people that have been down their for decades, freshen the god dam place up for before its too late, and while im on it, Rhino! kindly move upstairs and let a hungrier coach have a shot, your mojos gone, you've got the lads scared to play attacking Rugby, they are in straight jackets every Sunday and its woeful viewing.

Theres a whiff of decay down there.

Mal in all due respect don't post about things you clearly have no idea about. You also were not involved in the trust in my latter 2 years involvement. I seem to remember (although I could be wrong) that you resigned over wranglings within the Trust over the club repeatedly coming to the Trust to purchase things for the club such as a t-shirt printer or laminator and a host of other things and certain trust board members not bring happy. Or should I say the club approached you and not the trust which should have been the proper channel. It's still the same now with yourself and Hilda involved in the club as you are/were it's very tough to have an independent stance as the club has a hold over you. It was these continued issues and disagreements plus my continued work commitments and 4 kids etc that stopped my involvement as my time just wasn't there.
Finally when I was one of the original founders of the Trust way back then we met in the Barum Top pub and laid the foundations which is now the trust.....long before you got involved!! We set up all the legal stuff and got everything in place and I was proud to be involved ..... So again please wind your neck in about stuff you had zero involvement in or know nothing about. Again as someone back then who was in my twentys, setting up the Trust which was extremely time consuming my time started to be quickly taken up with my job etc but I don't really see why I should explain myself. I've stated to many people that the Trust is too close to the club to be truly Independant. The club pulls the strings with people like yourself and Hilda who sit in the Trust board. They use you to influence the Trust from inside the club, which I saw first hand so please tell me how it's changed..... If indeed anything has...??

Last post about the trust board being in the clubs pocket is spot on in my opinion

Does anyone older than three know what was said then?

I was not aware that some of the fans thought the club directors pulled my strings, to the point that I would influence the Trust board in favour of the club.
I have nothing to do with the Trust, not on the board, not a member.
If I've upset you I'm sorry, not my way of working.
If the fans think the Trust is in the pocket of the club they should join the Trust to make a difference.
This is my last year as a volunteer at the club.
I'm already looking forward to next year, being a fan and not worrying about the club or it's future.
Chris, keep doing what you do, keep the club on its toes.
Remember the future's bright it's Blue and White.


have a nice day all, and let's have a great game tomorrow.

Malcolm, next year will be interesting for you then, you can become a member of the disgruntled terraces, and be taken for granted, expected to turn up, told to bring friends, expected to buy shirts, hand over money, and be completely sidelined and ignored by people on boards and trusts that have been doing the same things they have for decades, you can bow to Queen Hilda, and chuckle for the 14th time as Dave Fleming recounts a story he hasn't aired for a season and a half. You better get your throat cleared though because despite the Rugby being poor, you'll be expected to cheer the house down and sing your little heart out. Don't forget to turn up next week too, they need your cash. Oh and don't forget to be really excited when our huge announcements are raffles and journeymen second rowers.

Ya just put a big cheesy grin on this old man's face. Don't know if I'll be tough enough to do what needs to be done, one thing, I aint crossing my old mate Hilda Hardy, she's too tough for me.

It's a shame this thread has developed into a fall out,
The question I posed (Can someone let us know what went on) resulted in the following retort



Perhaps that was an ill conceived response, but despite all the pages that have followed we still do not know the content of the meeting.

So for the benefit of all of us, some of us are members, but could not attend.
WHAT THE """" WAS DISCUSSED.

Sad to see that this is Malcolm's last year, I will not get involved in the fall out that seems to have developed on this thread, but I will say that people like Malcolm will be difficult to replace.
From me Malcolm a promise, for all you have done, I will buy your season ticket for 2015. East Stand Concession.
From what it looks like, there will only be me and thee there.

HJ I actually don't think this thread is that bad. In my opinion it's great feedback For the Trust and gives them something to discuss. It's a captive audience and they should be aiming to get as many people as possible to join. It's a thankless job and I've said it before, lots on here have an opinion on how things should be done.... Well give your time to the Trust, new ideas are welcome. It's not that easy to commit your time each week though as I found out sadly and I'd still love to help if I could as I'm pretty passionate about The Trust. Sadly I just can't due to work, hence why the majority who sit on the Trust board are retired and have a bit more time to spare. I have nothing against any of the Trust board either as they are all lovely, great people and we all want the same thing..... However I do think the Trust board needs refreshing with some new young blood who can have an influence and look at fundraising through a new pair of specs.... I also believe the trust should continue to help the club but make greater strides to seperare itself and deal with the club on its own terms and not the other way round. Stephen Pearson openly told us when he took over he wanted little to do with any sort of Trust as it would get in the way..... I think until any sporting trust has a strong voice (lots of members) giving it financial clout it will always be the clubs patsy..... Just think 1000 members paying 10 quid each to be a member every year plus all the fundraising on top could do....! That was my vision for the trust and still should be but it needs to be trusted and not be seen as a closed shop by fans either......

By the way I also think Mal is a top bloke and have all the time in the world for him! But I have my opinion on stuff and will always give it straight.... I don't profess to be right either but I'm sad the club brings the shutters down at the first sign of negative feedback. This in my opinion is gold dust in terms of info and should be the springboard to go to the next level. Sadly our club doesn't do negative feedback which is a real shame as people are turning away in their droves....

No further comment from me, Dads Army is on BBC2 now

I thought I had some salient comment to make after Dads Army had finished, but no, Morecambe and Wise are on.
Will be in touch tomorrow.

Whats on after John? Ryan's got me watching the cube but he's going to bed soon

I think later on there is a program called " Match of the Day"
Never watched it myself,

Hang on I minute Chanel 5, kick boxing.

Did Adam Robinson stick his fingers in his ears when you were discussing things, or does he know the handshake?

I completly agree with you that the Trust was set up by supporters for supporters and that is just what all the Board members are "supporters ", nothing more nothing less.
I have been a supporter since 1953 and have seen a good many ups and downs and during that time have been lucky enough when the Club has had particularly bad times to be able to financially support them as I had a business .
When I retired a few years ago I decided to put my bit of spare time to good use in trying to help fundraise for the Under 20s as when I was in business I used to sponsor the youngsters as I believe in enableing local kids to play for their own Town team.I am extremely proud of the work that the Supporters Trust do in regards of fundraising and it frees up the money that the Club would have to spend on them .
I cannot answer the question as to why you do not receive the e-mails as I do not have lists of members but if you pm Jon Crowther (Faxforlife) I am sure he will sort it out for you .
I can however answer the question as to wether or not we get free season tickets / meals etc .
The answer is a resounding NO and I do not expect to get anything for free from the Club I don`t do anything and expect something for it . I buy a season ticket which allows me one free meal (like every other season ticket holder) I pay to park the car in the Club car park so I don`t have to carry the buckets too far from the ground . We even spend a good deal of time organising events and like everyone else pay for the tickets because we are fans so why shouldn`t we ,that includes sponsoring players etc . I don`t have a ticket to go into the hospitality post match ,why should I ,everything I do is on a voluntary basis and I do it to help the Club out .I know times are tough at the Club at the moment but is the answer for all of us to start turning against each other ,Chris is right plenty of food for thought here.

Running an Independant club supporting organisation ( trust, supporters association ) can be a truly thankless task , when I resigned as a Director at Leigh my wife ( Dick Jones on here ) took up the position of secretary of LISA ( Leigh Ind Sup assoc ) , originally founded to help bail the club out in a period of financial difficulty

The original stated purpose was to pay a players contract, and we had several interesting discussions about the money raised being used to pay bills, travel costs, being tipped into the ' Black Hole ' of the clubs bank account, not to mention a near riot when I suggested due to potential salary cap issues that like the Fax Trust LISA s funds could pay for junior development ( basically take ownership of it )

We have recently had fans and club directors suggesting that LISA was underperforming when compared to other official club income streams , suggesting the volunteers that run it should concentrate on increasing its membership and organising events to raise funds

The type of organisations only really come to the fore when crisis looms , our last big successful push was on the back of us loosing the support of our former Chairman, the late Arthur Thomas after the collapse of his business due to a serious bad debt

In the past LISA along with the agreement of the club has tried to engineer ' Exclusivity ' of information about signings and the like at meetings, Although the information has usually quickly been passed on

It seems things at Fax are a little tense at the moment, the pressure created by the new structure and the financial ' carrots ' available from the RFL seem to be causing fall outs

Well I am astounded at the response made on here and it makes me wonder why bother donating my time and effort for years and years with the Trust and prior to that Supporters Club with this kind of attitude.
My post was innocent enough and no I don't regret it apart from maybe potentially hurting the Trust's reputation. My point was that the meeting was a MEMBERS meeting open to all but we do want people to join the Trust to give them something for their money, i.e. informative meetings. A player and a Board member very kindly came along to talk to us and some of what Mike said he asked us not to repeat which we respect as the Shay and the rent is a very emotive and still delicate with the Council subject.
We do put things discussed normally in our Newsletter again one benefit of being a member, the point of having a membership fee is to raise money and to have a database of fans to call upon to help raise money for the U20s.
We do not get freebies and benefits to hand out to each other and I resent the accusation most of the Board have put in a lot of money over the years towards the U20s and previous incarnations of the 'youth' team.
Do people expect us to put everything we discuss on this message board so they can read it yet some don't and won't join the Trust, come on you would not expect to get anything from say the National Trust or RSPB unless you were a paid up member so why the Fax Trust?
Blimey things are bad enough this season and I feel like I have said earlier, why bother?

I didnt quite finish my post ( pressed the wrong button )

Yes things at Leigh have turned the corner after a period of stagnation ( due to the afformentioned loss of benefactor ) where we had a minimal directorship and a volunter CEO who despite the difficult situation did well to keep the club in business

We now have a new board, who have brought with them a new impetus and enthusiasm ( as well as a financial safety net ) and a well structured plan for the future , just in time it would seem with the changes afoot

I dont agree with all their idea's but they are doing a good job up to now, maybe something a little similar is needed at Fax ( a couple of new directors or a new CEO/ General manager perhaps ) to bring back the feel you had a couple of years ago

All the best

Fax4life. I suggest you read and digest your original post and subsequent ripostes. I didn't mean to cause a stink, just think your original post is tactless, abrupt and thoughtless.

But then again, I was unaware that there is a rule that states the further you live from Halifax and less likely you are to make midweek meetings, the less you care about the club and the less you need to know about the place.

I'd love to know how you suggest people help out at the club or feel positive about the club when they're not allowed to have first clue about what's going on.

Indeed, your last post will further drive speculation and innuendo. Well done

I think it's maybe a frustration that it is perceived that not enough communication and/or activity is coming from the club. Then, a post appears which suggests the club has given out information but it's for members only. I don't think there's any great conspiracy but just unfortunate timing. The club should re-engage with fans because the perception is (true or otherwise) that activity is drying up.