RangersStandard Book - Follow We Will

[Carsons Army 4,146]

We both know these details are in the public domain, its not my place to name people on an internet forum but I will pop along to this RST stall 1st game I am at

I will wonder if Big Mark will be on the stall and will he be selling FF fanzines, after all he uses the RST mailing list and postage costs to stuff leaflets about his webpage and fanzine in.

[Fury 256]

Good to see nobody is trying to divert another thread onto their pet topics....

[Carsons Army 4,146]

Good to see nobody is trying to divert another thread onto their pet topics....

Sorry Chris, I never knew you were a Moderator on RM now. I must have missed your appointment.

But I will take your point onboard.

[Carsons Army 4,146]

I will be purchasing the book and I am content knowing where some of the money is going.

Looking forward to it and I am sure it will be a great read.

[Resting in my account 231]

Good to see nobody is trying to divert another thread onto their pet topics....

Christopher I won't take the bait. The topic of Mark Dimgwall arises from us talking about one of the books authors, David Edgar.

I have pre ordered the book and look forward to it, although as I have already said I won't read John DC Gow's input as I don't think any experiences I had will be anything like his given how different we are.

I look forward to your part also Christopher, I have said many times I seen a lot of potential in you early doors, your input could realise that potential with regards to the book

[RST 19]

Thanks for attempting to answer my question the best way you can.

I would say that over 50% of our RSC know who he is and people begin to wonder who The Fat Chap on TV is.

Why would people want to discredit him ? Bannings from his site for trivial reasons ?

for example,

I was banned, never to be lifted. My crime = I asked a question about another fans group and their BBC protest.

Maybe some detest him because they see the RST as potentially a great organisation that he is strangling.

Maybe he is held in contempt by many due to his lies and manipulation.

Maybe it has to do with he financial mismanagement of the RST funds.

Maybe it was his assault on a fellow bear that was witnessed by many.

Maybe it has to do with the constant lies about threats.

Maybe it has to do with his divisive influence on the Rangers Support, why does he not want unity for the greater good of the club ?

I could go on and on.

Surely you understand he has a vested interest in anything related to Rangers because thats where all his income comes from.

Rangers and their fans are a cash cow to him, They put a roof over his head, feed him and put clothes on his back.

Maybe that is the reason why he will never walk away from the Trust, People seldom relinquish power especially when it pays a healthy wage.

I'm not going to go over things that happened years ago and I'm sure my version of some of these things is different from yours but I absolutely take exception to your comment on financial mismanagement of RST funds. Our accounts are audited every year by a very reputable company and they have been passed every year by them.

[RST 19]

I will wonder if Big Mark will be on the stall and will he be selling FF fanzines, after all he uses the RST mailing list and postage costs to stuff leaflets about his webpage and fanzine in.

No he doesn't but he does put RST leaflets in his own mailings.

[Carsons Army 4,146]

I look forward to your part also Christopher, I have said many times I seen a lot of potential in you early doors, your input could realise that potential with regards to the book

I nearly made a very similar post earlier.

I thought Chris was like Madness when he appeared, Baggy Trousers, One Step Beyond, Night Boat to Cairo, Then he went all "Driving in my car" "House of Fun" and "Our House"

[Carsons Army 4,146]

I'm not going to go over things that happened years ago and I'm sure my version of some of these things is different from yours but I absolutely take exception to your comment on financial mismanagement of RST funds. Our accounts are audited every year by a very reputable company and they have been passed every year by them.

So what about the table full of tickets that he took, used and never paid for for almost 2 years.

An interest free loan as such. was the money resting in his account ? Why did the sec resign ?

[Fury 256]

Sorry Chris, I never knew you were a Moderator on RM now. I must have missed your appointment.

But I will take your point onboard.

Just trying avoid another thread on this topic being locked. Can't really be arsed reposting it. Thanks.

[Carsons Army 4,146]

I believe it is time that someone clarified exactly what has been going on with the financial affairs of Rangers Supporters Trust (RST).

The Board of RST had an opportunity to make full disclosure of the matters that I will explain below in the Accounts or at the AGM last Sunday, 19 September 2010. They failed to take either of these opportunities.

I was elected to the Board of RST at the 2009 AGM and appointed as Secretary on 13 February 2010. I resigned as Secretary on 12 August 2010. I remain a member of the Board.

It is the Secretary’s duty to sign the Accounts on behalf of the Board. I refused to sign the Accounts for the year ended 5 April 2010.

I had prepared a statement to read at the AGM but the Acting Chair refused to let me read it out. I asked RST to publish that statement on Thursday of this past week but they refused because the final version of the auditor’s management letter differs from the one quoted in my statement.

I have kept my own counsel on these matters since the AGM but now feel compelled to make these matters known because I consider it my duty as a Director:

1. To explain to the members what happened to their money.

2. To clarify and correct some ambiguous and inaccurate comments that the current Treasurer, Christine Somerville (plgsarmy) has made on this web site.

3. To explain why I resigned as Secretary.

Other than Christine I do not know the identity of anyone on this site. The only reason that I am posting this statement on this site is that last Tuesday a friend drew my attention to the thread about the RST AGM. Since then I have become increasingly frustrated by the speculation surrounding these events and my role in them. As RST have refused to publish my statement I will publish it on a separate thread. This will explain the reason for my resignation as Secretary. However you may be interested in the background to these events.

At a meeting with the auditors that I attended on 4 August 2010 along with the Treasurer, Christine Somerville and the Treasurer elect, Alison Mueller, Christine stated that sometime between September and November 2008, two cheques were issued to RST by followfollow.com totalling £2,690. These cheques bounced. The monies were not fully repaid (bar £30 still outstanding at the financial year end) until March 2010. This means that followfollow.com had a free loan of Trust monies for the best part of 18 months.

Christine has stated in a post on this web site “it was paid off, the majority a few months later”. This would depend on your definition of “a few months”. In fact none of the debt had been paid off by 5 April 2009.

Christine has also stated in another post on this web site “However, to be clear, this was not a loan, interest free or otherwise. Knowing the circumstances, our auditors were very clear about that.” Christine is mistaken. The auditors categorised the debt as a loan in their management letter of 10 August 2010 and did so again (twice) when RST put my AGM statement to them this week. The auditors are correct.

In fact the first draft of the Auditor’s management letter issued on 9 August 2010 referred only to:

• Losses on functions.

• Lack of control over expenditure.

• Failure to maintain an up to date share register.

In my opinion as Secretary the debt gave rise to breaches of Rule 6 regarding the application of our profits and Rules 74 & 75 which refer to conflicts of material financial interest.

In the circumstances, I was very surprised that the auditors had not even mentioned the debt and other important matters in their letter so I sent them an email on 9 August 2010 in which I reminded them of:

"• Income & Expenditure being received and paid by outside organisations e.g. Erskine Appeal, Sam English Committee, Follow Follow.

• The high number of cash transactions and instances where cash income is not banked at all but used to make payments.

• The difficulty of allocating income from incomplete records - all income should be banked by the Treasurer in my opinion.

• The debt from unpaid cheques last year, which as far as I can understand arose from some combination of the first two factors mentioned above, which means that there were breaches of Rule 6, 74 & 75 at least until the debt(s) were cleared this year."

I copied this email to Christine and Alison and neither responded to me.

The auditors stated that they were happy to include the additional points and revised their draft to include comments on all these matters as set out in the Statement that I was not allowed to read at the AGM. I attached a copy of the auditor’s revised draft to the resignation email that I sent to all members of the Board on 12 August 2010.

On Thursday last, the Interim Secretary advised me that subsequently the auditors dropped the reference to the loan in the final version of their letter based on the legal advice received by the Board. I have asked for sight of the legal advice but this has not been forthcoming. They also dropped all references to the cash transactions; no explanation has been given for that, so one can only speculate as to the reasons for the auditors actions in that respect.

It should be noted that the Auditor’s Report issued with the Accounts states that in their opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the Society’s affairs as at 5 April 2010.

I hope I have clarified these matters but I will do my best to answer any further questions that arise. There are some other inaccuracies and questions posed in the RST AGM thread that I will try to answer as well.

Alan S Harris

26 September 2010.

[Fury 256]

Christopher I won't take the bait. The topic of Mark Dimgwall arises from us talking about one of the books authors, David Edgar.

I have pre ordered the book and look forward to it, although as I have already said I won't read John DC Gow's input as I don't think any experiences I had will be anything like his given how different we are.

I look forward to your part also Christopher, I have said many times I seen a lot of potential in you early doors, your input could realise that potential with regards to the book

You'll be missing out then. Sure you'll hear plenty of other people talking about how good his chapter is.

[thehost 11,061]

How much is the Dave Kinnon bloke how much is Gow?

[Resting in my account 231]

Just trying avoid another thread on this topic being locked. Can't really be arsed reposting it. Thanks.

The board tonight has a new found harmony since BluePeter's post and the current debating is healthy and dignified

[RST 19]

So what about the table full of tickets that he took, used and never paid for for almost 2 years.

An interest free loan as such. was the money resting in his account ? Why did the sec resign ?

That isn't the correct story. It was not a debt to the Trust. Who resigned? Ah, I see you are quoting Mr Harris. Let's just say that Mr Harris was not aware of all the facts and his conduct left a lot to be desired.

[Carsons Army 4,146]

Sorry Chris,

But I had to reply to Miss RST and her statement re finance

[Resting in my account 231]

You'll be missing out then. Sure you'll hear plenty of other people talking about how good his chapter is.

I will have to live with that. He epitomises all I think is wrong with our support with his handwringing so I won't give him credence, however good his chapter is.

[Fury 256]

I believe it is time that someone clarified exactly what has been going on with the financial affairs of Rangers Supporters Trust (RST).

The Board of RST had an opportunity to make full disclosure of the matters that I will explain below in the Accounts or at the AGM last Sunday, 19 September 2010. They failed to take either of these opportunities.

I was elected to the Board of RST at the 2009 AGM and appointed as Secretary on 13 February 2010. I resigned as Secretary on 12 August 2010. I remain a member of the Board.

It is the Secretary’s duty to sign the Accounts on behalf of the Board. I refused to sign the Accounts for the year ended 5 April 2010.

I had prepared a statement to read at the AGM but the Acting Chair refused to let me read it out. I asked RST to publish that statement on Thursday of this past week but they refused because the final version of the auditor’s management letter differs from the one quoted in my statement.

I have kept my own counsel on these matters since the AGM but now feel compelled to make these matters known because I consider it my duty as a Director:

1. To explain to the members what happened to their money.

2. To clarify and correct some ambiguous and inaccurate comments that the current Treasurer, Christine Somerville (plgsarmy) has made on this web site.

3. To explain why I resigned as Secretary.

Other than Christine I do not know the identity of anyone on this site. The only reason that I am posting this statement on this site is that last Tuesday a friend drew my attention to the thread about the RST AGM. Since then I have become increasingly frustrated by the speculation surrounding these events and my role in them. As RST have refused to publish my statement I will publish it on a separate thread. This will explain the reason for my resignation as Secretary. However you may be interested in the background to these events.

At a meeting with the auditors that I attended on 4 August 2010 along with the Treasurer, Christine Somerville and the Treasurer elect, Alison Mueller, Christine stated that sometime between September and November 2008, two cheques were issued to RST by followfollow.com totalling £2,690. These cheques bounced. The monies were not fully repaid (bar £30 still outstanding at the financial year end) until March 2010. This means that followfollow.com had a free loan of Trust monies for the best part of 18 months.

Christine has stated in a post on this web site “it was paid off, the majority a few months later”. This would depend on your definition of “a few months”. In fact none of the debt had been paid off by 5 April 2009.

Christine has also stated in another post on this web site “However, to be clear, this was not a loan, interest free or otherwise. Knowing the circumstances, our auditors were very clear about that.” Christine is mistaken. The auditors categorised the debt as a loan in their management letter of 10 August 2010 and did so again (twice) when RST put my AGM statement to them this week. The auditors are correct.

In fact the first draft of the Auditor’s management letter issued on 9 August 2010 referred only to:

• Losses on functions.

• Lack of control over expenditure.

• Failure to maintain an up to date share register.

In my opinion as Secretary the debt gave rise to breaches of Rule 6 regarding the application of our profits and Rules 74 & 75 which refer to conflicts of material financial interest.

In the circumstances, I was very surprised that the auditors had not even mentioned the debt and other important matters in their letter so I sent them an email on 9 August 2010 in which I reminded them of:

"• Income & Expenditure being received and paid by outside organisations e.g. Erskine Appeal, Sam English Committee, Follow Follow.

• The high number of cash transactions and instances where cash income is not banked at all but used to make payments.

• The difficulty of allocating income from incomplete records - all income should be banked by the Treasurer in my opinion.

• The debt from unpaid cheques last year, which as far as I can understand arose from some combination of the first two factors mentioned above, which means that there were breaches of Rule 6, 74 & 75 at least until the debt(s) were cleared this year."

I copied this email to Christine and Alison and neither responded to me.

The auditors stated that they were happy to include the additional points and revised their draft to include comments on all these matters as set out in the Statement that I was not allowed to read at the AGM. I attached a copy of the auditor’s revised draft to the resignation email that I sent to all members of the Board on 12 August 2010.

On Thursday last, the Interim Secretary advised me that subsequently the auditors dropped the reference to the loan in the final version of their letter based on the legal advice received by the Board. I have asked for sight of the legal advice but this has not been forthcoming. They also dropped all references to the cash transactions; no explanation has been given for that, so one can only speculate as to the reasons for the auditors actions in that respect.

It should be noted that the Auditor’s Report issued with the Accounts states that in their opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the Society’s affairs as at 5 April 2010.

I hope I have clarified these matters but I will do my best to answer any further questions that arise. There are some other inaccuracies and questions posed in the RST AGM thread that I will try to answer as well.

Alan S Harris

26 September 2010.

How about you clarify it in another thread then? It has nothing to do with the TRS book.

[Fury 256]

I will have to live with that. He epitomises all I think is wrong with our support with his handwringing so I won't give him credence, however good his chapter is.

Fair enough. At least he puts himself out there.

[Fury 256]

How much is the Dave Kinnon bloke how much is Gow?

Sorry you'll need to clarify that question.

[Carsons Army 4,146]

That isn't the correct story. It was not a debt to the Trust. Who resigned?

See my earlier post, Alan Harris resigned.

Mark Dingwall a member of the RST gave the Trust 2 cheques and both bounced, He had an interest free loan and he dined out on Trust money, He entertained guests on Trust money and then never paid it back for some time.

Is this common financial practise ?

[thehost 11,061]

Sorry you'll need to clarify that question.

How many articles/chapters do each have.

I like Kinnon, Gow is the antithesis of what I want to reaf

[Resting in my account 231]

Fair enough. At least he puts himself out there.

Lol, I personally don't see any benefit of him "putting himself out there". I believe in much more effective tactics in defending Rangers than writing a blog, and the faux fame that comes with it

[Carsons Army 4,146]

How about you clarify it in another thread then? It has nothing to do with the TRS book.

Fair enough Furry.

RST,

Can I direct you to this thread http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=164507

[Fury 256]

How many articles/chapters do each have.

I like Kinnon, Gow is the antithesis of what I want to reaf

Each of the contributors has one chapter apart from me. I've got two.