Following a request from the Hawkhill and Carlton branches, the outgoing Trustees will facilitate an Extraordinary General Meeting on Saturday October 2nd at 12pm.
The outgoing Trustees have also put in place procedures to ensure that The Hibs Club will remain open this week. We thank Michelle, our outgoing bar manager, for her help and continued support in allowing this to happen.
The Trustees were surprised and disappointed at what happened at the AGM on Saturday 25 September.
Contrary to suggestions on certain forums, no formal reasons were given for the members who had put themselves forward for election withdrawing on the day.
The current Trustees gave notice of their intention to resign as long as ago as October 2019. All branches have been aware of this and have repeatedly been asked by the Trustees to prepare for an AGM to elect successors.
It has been suggested to the current Trustees that the nominees present at the meeting refused to stand because no handover procedures had been put in place and they were unsure what the roles would involve.
This seems scarcely credible given the nominee for Chair from Southern Branch has served in the role before and the Emerald Branch nominee for Vice Chairman had unsuccessfully stood for Chairman in the past. No other nominees were present at the meeting.
Moreover, the current Treasurer has stated that he would be on hand to provide a handover.
Local businesses have been approached to provide estimates for the cost of outsourcing the Treasurer’s role if, as was seen yesterday, nobody from our 3000 members was willing to volunteer for the role. These estimates were discussed at meetings of branches chaired by the Southern branch member who reneged on his nomination as HSA Chairman at the AGM. Notice of those meetings and a summary of those discussions were shared with all branches.
To ensure there can be no further confusion, the current Trustees have agreed to shadow those members elected as Trustees until the end of HSA’s financial year in January 2022.
It has been put to us recently that being involved in running HSA is a labour of love. That is true.
Too many members don’t seem to realise that The Hibs Club is a business. Trustees oversee an operation with a turnover of £500,000 that consistently, including throughout Covid, returns a profit.
To do that in your spare time while managing work and family commitments requires a huge amount of dedication. We have all served because we love Hibs and we love The Hibs Club community.
That becomes harder when you come under personal attack.
“It was anti St. Pats Wankers. Half witted cvnts.”
Hibees Bounce, GordonSmith7, Wednesday 22 September, 2.21am
That quote about the Trustees was posted on a forum by a prominent members of St Patrick’s Branch. We’ll admit that the relationship between that branch and the HSA has not always been easy, despite the current interim Chairman of HSA being a member of that branch.
But all members of every branch should ask themselves if volunteers who put themselves forward to help our Club deserve that level of public abuse.
The run up to this AGM has been toxic. It has cost us one of our best assets in our bar manager who has decided that her well-being will be best served by working elsewhere.
We will facilitate an EGM on Saturday 2nd October to elect our successors.
We ask all branches to work with each other to find a way forward with a new committee that will build on the work we’ve done to ensure The Hibs Club remains at the heart of the Hibernian family for generations to come.
And we ask again that all members conduct themselves in a civil manner at the EGM. In the aftermath of an AGM that was distressful for many of those present, the Chairman of one branch subjecting the Chairman of another branch to verbal abuse and threats is not helpful and should not be condoned by any of our members.