dynamite

Terrible situation. Best of luck to Toni, you & the rest of your family.

Terrible situation. Best of luck to Toni, you & the rest of your family.

Terrible situation. Best of luck to Toni, you & the rest of your family.

No it’s not a clickbait title- for once!  
 
So after 6 years of fundraising, I’ve finally decided that it’s finally time for me to finally hang up my gloves, and finally start to draw the curtain down on my overly-long involvement in what was actually only supposed to be a one-off fundraiser.   There are lots of random, unrelated and non-controversial reasons behind my decision, the main one being health-related, so that’s the end of that discussion! 
I’m sure many of you will be delighted at the news of my retirement, because let’s face it, I’m an annoying cunt, even on a good day.
What I don’t want to do though, is leave either Erskine or the many Loyal Fund Members suddenly in the lurch, so I have hopefully come up with a workable exit strategy…
We have already just recently paid £2500 for 10 Erskine & Combat Stress Season tickets renewals  for the coming season, and we still have a few hundred quid left in the bank to cover Europa and Cup tickets for the next couple of months, plus our previously promised donation to Bravehound, so we’re good for a while. 
We will shortly launch the RM Erskine Fund 2019/20 New Season Membership/Donations thread just as we had planned to do.  But this time, it will run only for about one month, giving any members who wish to continue their support into next season an opportunity to do so. After which, we will stop accepting donations into the current Fund account. 
The money raised from that fundraiser, added to the money that we already hold in reserve, should mean that we will have enough money to maintain our spending for the rest of this season (albeit on a reduced budget), and also still hold enough money in reserve to pay for next season’s season tickets, which will be approx £2500 and will be due in May 2020, which means we will be providing continued support using just our existing (plus next month's) resources, until May 2021, which I think is not a bad exit strategy. 
Of course, that’s using just our existing (plus next month’s) resources.  After I end my fundraising involvement, it doesn't mean that other Members can’t keep things going in all sorts of ways – it just means donations won’t go through my bank account, so you’ll need to work something out yourselves for that side of things.  (off the top of my head, I can think of loads of options, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some fully workable ideas).  I will of course be fully available to the Fund in an offline advisory capacity for as long as my input is needed.
So may I take this opportunity to thank Everyone who has so wholeheartedly supported our efforts over those many years.  I only made the outlandish demands I made, because I knew there were People like you there to meet them. And together, I think we made enough of a difference for it to have been ultimately worthwhile. 
 
So there you go – that’s the plan.  Keep your eye out for the season 19/20 Membership Fundraiser thread which will be along soon, and let’s make it a good one. 
Oh and don't forget, you've got a Dug to feed too!  

I just received mine, posted to sunny TX.
There was a note from "Tom" asking me to make a donation to www.justgiving.com/tables to cover the extra postage. I just wanted to say thanks to Tom for not holding the delivery back and that I've made a suitable contribution.

I just received mine, posted to sunny TX.
There was a note from "Tom" asking me to make a donation to www.justgiving.com/tables to cover the extra postage. I just wanted to say thanks to Tom for not holding the delivery back and that I've made a suitable contribution.

I just received mine, posted to sunny TX.
There was a note from "Tom" asking me to make a donation to www.justgiving.com/tables to cover the extra postage. I just wanted to say thanks to Tom for not holding the delivery back and that I've made a suitable contribution.

Mein just buckled from that kick to the stomach.... weird, don't see that too often. He just looked up at Alves and waited for him to punch him.... must have seriously winded to just sit there