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HibbyRod
05-02-2015, 05:46 PM
Hibernian Shareholders Association

I have posted this on the Private Members Board too.
I was the first Secretary of the Edinburgh Hibernian Shareholders Association which was constituted on 1st May 1990. (It latterly seemed to drop the "Edinburgh" bit and became known just as the Hibernian Shareholders Association.

The Directors were:

Ewen Stewart, - Chairman (a Fund Manager)

Ramsay Dalgetty, - Deputy-Chairman (a QC, and latterly a Judge after moving to the Southern hemisphere - Tonga I think)

Ron Herkes, - Treasurer (I think he was a CA)

Rod Cranston, - Secretary (Working in Sales in the Print Industry) (That's me by the way.)

As some of the directors moved on, etc., others took up the vacancies. These included Paul Herring, as Deputy Chairman - and Brian Monteith as Chairman.

The Association was constituted to help the club to stave off the Mercer takeover bid.

I'll never forget that day. An abiding memory was going to Easter Road that evening trying to find out what was happening, and seeing Ewen there standing on the steps shouting out what information was available through a hand-held megaphone. He had been in the meetings with the Board giving his input with the finances, etc.

There were meetings in the 50 Club, and the Shareholders Association was formed out of the original discussions with Club Directors during the coming weeks.

Out of all the trials and tribulations we ended up with about 230/250 active Members of the H.S.A.

A Constitution was formed, of which I still have a copy - I'll come back to this later in this message.

Once the take-over was thwarted, Sir Tom gained control of the Club.

These were very worrying and stressful times, and The Association was well attended at the meetings and some events that were organised through time.

Initially it was £3 a year to join. :-) Latterly this went up to a fiver. :-(

There were various events organised and had nights attended by Sir Tom Farmer, Dougie Cromb, Kenny McLean, Alex Miller, etc.

After 5 years or so I had to step down from my secretarial duties from the Association due to changes in my circumstances, having to travel to Leeds, London and Manchester, etc. for my job.

At some point, after about 1995 or so, the membership started to decline in numbers. I believe this was a natural consequence of people then feeling that the threat to Hibs was diminished, and the ship was sailing smoother after the horrible period of Mercer's attack.

The membership dwindled and, as I understand, the Association drifted and has become dormant.

Brain was the last Chairman as far as I know. At this stage I cannot confirm if the Association was officially wound-up, or is lying dormant. Brian does have the paperwork and will be able to confirm.

I have tried to contact Brian to determine exactly how things stand at this moment. I think he is on holiday at present, and I have left him messages to contact me.

Given the current situation re. Hands on Hibs, I can say with certainty that no-one can speak for the membership of the Hibernian Shareholders Association given that it is either dormant or wound-up. Also, events today may change things for the better going forward together in supporting our Club.

In any event, as I mentioned earlier, I have a copy of the original Constitution. If there is a wish to resurrect the Association by the previous members, and with the potential additional shareholders being created this might be a helpful starting point?

I also think that the Club would assist in getting things sorted out if there was a wish to start up a new and growing Hibernian Shareholders Association.

Hope this has been helpful in some way in putting a short resume of how things developed and subsequently drifted away.

Regards, Rod.

ancient hibee
05-02-2015, 05:51 PM
Interesting background which puts the present situation into perspective..

So the media claim we have someone speaking on behalf of the shareholders (who isn't)-someone speaking on behalf of former players(who isn't)-how's Mike Riley getting on?

Eaststand
05-02-2015, 05:55 PM
Hibernian Shareholders Association

I have posted this on the Private Members Board too.
I was the first Secretary of the Edinburgh Hibernian Shareholders Association which was constituted on 1st May 1990. (It latterly seemed to drop the "Edinburgh" bit and became known just as the Hibernian Shareholders Association.

The Directors were:

Ewen Stewart, - Chairman (a Fund Manager)

Ramsay Dalgetty, - Deputy-Chairman (a QC, and latterly a Judge after moving to the Southern hemisphere - Tonga I think)

Ron Herkes, - Treasurer (I think he was a CA)

Rod Cranston, - Secretary (Working in Sales in the Print Industry) (That's me by the way.)

As some of the directors moved on, etc., others took up the vacancies. These included Paul Herring, as Deputy Chairman - and Brian Monteith as Chairman.

The Association was constituted to help the club to stave off the Mercer takeover bid.

I'll never forget that day. An abiding memory was going to Easter Road that evening trying to find out what was happening, and seeing Ewen there standing on the steps shouting out what information was available through a hand-held megaphone. He had been in the meetings with the Board giving his input with the finances, etc.

There were meetings in the 50 Club, and the Shareholders Association was formed out of the original discussions with Club Directors during the coming weeks.

Out of all the trials and tribulations we ended up with about 230/250 active Members of the H.S.A.

A Constitution was formed, of which I still have a copy - I'll come back to this later in this message.

Once the take-over was thwarted, Sir Tom gained control of the Club.

These were very worrying and stressful times, and The Association was well attended at the meetings and some events that were organised through time.

Initially it was £3 a year to join. :-) Latterly this went up to a fiver. :-(

There were various events organised and had nights attended by Sir Tom Farmer, Dougie Cromb, Kenny McLean, Alex Miller, etc.

After 5 years or so I had to step down from my secretarial duties from the Association due to changes in my circumstances, having to travel to Leeds, London and Manchester, etc. for my job.

At some point, after about 1995 or so, the membership started to decline in numbers. I believe this was a natural consequence of people then feeling that the threat to Hibs was diminished, and the ship was sailing smoother after the horrible period of Mercer's attack.

The membership dwindled and, as I understand, the Association drifted and has become dormant.

Brain was the last Chairman as far as I know. At this stage I cannot confirm if the Association was officially wound-up, or is lying dormant. Brian does have the paperwork and will be able to confirm.

I have tried to contact Brian to determine exactly how things stand at this moment. I think he is on holiday at present, and I have left him messages to contact me.

Given the current situation re. Hands on Hibs, I can say with certainty that no-one can speak for the membership of the Hibernian Shareholders Association given that it is either dormant or wound-up. Also, events today may change things for the better going forward together in supporting our Club.

In any event, as I mentioned earlier, I have a copy of the original Constitution. If there is a wish to resurrect the Association by the previous members, and with the potential additional shareholders being created this might be a helpful starting point?

I also think that the Club would assist in getting things sorted out if there was a wish to start up a new and growing Hibernian Shareholders Association.

Hope this has been helpful in some way in putting a short resume of how things developed and subsequently drifted away.

Regards, Rod.

Very interesting stuff and thanks very much for a very informative, well detailed post Rod

GGTTH

Bostonhibby
05-02-2015, 06:02 PM
Great timing and a top trip down memory lane, I recall a few of the events around that time -your efforts in producing all this in the way you have is a wee piece of Hibs history in itself as it helps give a bit of context to what the Association has been saying recently, and with what authority they say it.

It was certainly relevant at the time in question when we really were under threat without a doubt and what a shame to see it exploited in the way it has been recently. Thanks for putting the record straight.

GGTTH

Pretty Boy
05-02-2015, 06:43 PM
Excellent explanation and certainly puts the current situation in some kind of context.

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

Islington Hibs
05-02-2015, 07:31 PM
I posted this on a different thread earlier- I've put it here as this seems the relevant thread and yes Rod's comments are entirely correct.

So copy of earlier post
Yes I with a few others founded the shareholders association just prior top the Mercer takeover as it was clear Hibs were in serious financial trouble. Duff and Gray were supportive of us and although I thought (and still do) that they were well intentioned they were clearly out of their depth. The key people, in SA, were Rod Cranston, Brian Monteith (who subsequently became an MSP), Ramsay Dalgetty QC who left the UK to go to Tonga of all places and Glenn Ross was involved too. Glenn is an art dealer. There were others too. With the exception of Brian I have lost touch with the others.

We held fairly regular meetings - I would guess 50/60 usually turned up, an annual dinner and award . We presented a crystal trophy to the club and as HibbyRob says 'for Services to Hibernian' and we were pretty active with good shareholder interest. We continued under the Crombe/ O'Malley years and found both these characters to be good straightforward honourable people.

I moved down to London in 1997 and thus could no longer commit much time to it and as others have indicated when STF took over there seemed little point as the shareholders were diluted down to virtually no influence. Indeed there would have been no shares if STF had not effectively gifted them to existing shareholders. To my almost certain knowledge it has been inactive for at least 15 years.

The Association was properly constituted, indeed I almost certainly still have a copy of the constitution somewhere. It would be a great idea to re-constitute it when the new issue is over, although it would have to be for others to do. If there is demand to do it I would be happy to dig out the paper work, old membership lists and the constitution which could be used as a basis?

What I would say is that the problems the club face are totally different to 1991 - then it was financial an dour very existence, now it is getting back to the SPL and being consistently in the top 3 or 4. That is not to say a reconstituted Shareholders Association would not be a good idea.

Mikey
05-02-2015, 07:40 PM
That is not to say a reconstituted Shareholders Association would not be a good idea.

A reconstituted Shareholders Association would be a great idea if only to stop the likes of Glenn Ross from hijacking it in such a disgusting manner. If it's currently dormant it would be great if the current custodians could get together and decide whether they want to get it going again or hand over the reigns.

We're about to get an influx of new shareholders so there's bound to be renewed interest.

marinello59
05-02-2015, 07:45 PM
A reconstituted Shareholders Association would be a great idea if only to stop the likes of Glenn Ross from hijacking it in such a disgusting manner. If it's currently dormant it would be great if the current custodians could get together and decide whether they want to get it going again or hand over the reigns.

We're about to get an influx of new shareholders so there's bound to be renewed interest.

Aided and abetted by a compliant journalist it has to be said.

Jack
05-02-2015, 08:58 PM
A reconstituted Shareholders Association would be a great idea if only to stop the likes of Glenn Ross from hijacking it in such a disgusting manner. If it's currently dormant it would be great if the current custodians could get together and decide whether they want to get it going again or hand over the reigns.

We're about to get an influx of new shareholders so there's bound to be renewed interest.

I have asked for the Shareholders Association to be added to the agenda for the next Working Together meeting, next Wednesday 6.30 West Stand if you've not been before but want to come along make yourself known beforehand blah blah.

Basically to ask the club how they could help with setting this up. Something along the lines of including something in a future mail shot that includes the 1,700 current shareholders and also the new bods that will be joining us now and in the future.