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Thanks Jay. Good news that the annual funding agreement ran out when Les was repaid. Hopefully when we sell Theo for £10m, the Club will be in a position to repay their debt to the Society. Making that a priority would certainly boost the Society bank balance. Onwards and upwards. Appreciate your openness throughout this thread

In total tangent.... watching Partick v Raith. James Brown for Raith went down feigning injury..... Thistle player raging and said to him. " Get Up .....Get on up........Get up...Get on up" Ah'll phone my taxi 😜😜😜

A minor knock for Obika is a paper cut 😂😂

Really pleased for him.

In terms of the precise annual figure, it was roughly in that ballpark. It may have been close to £120,000, but essentially the majority of the funds raised on an annual basis went into the club as a loan. The loan to the club remains & hasn't been written off. Just also to clarify, the Society putting cash into the club on that annual basis ended when Les was paid off. It no longer happens. Instead, the majority of members pledges remain within the Society finances, which thankfully allows us to now be in a position to highlight that £750,000 we have. I imagine things would be a lot more negative regarding the Society's ability to be the majority shareholder going forward if there was the prospect of a £750,000 gap in 18 months, and we had a few quid. And on the point around whether the arrangement with Les was communicated to members or not, I can only play the massive cop-out card & say that was before my time, so I genuinely have no idea how members were informed about that, if at all (I say that as someone who was a member at the time but has obviously forgotten).

Delighted for the big man. What a transformation and thank feck now it's a 2yr deal he's on. ( Which if I had said 4 months ago would have been the most hilarious comment I have ever made on this forum) FEED THE BAIR!!

I just wrote a rather large reply to this & then lost it so hopefully I manage to remember everything again... This is absolutely the kind of thing that should be accessible & transparent though. I can only really speak for the time I've been involved in the Society, since early 2017, but when I joined the board, the club was still very early on in the "repay Les Hutchison's loans" journey. You may remember that, at the time, there was the Double Your Money campaign, where every penny raised by the Society would see Les cut his loan by the same amount. However, also part of the loan agreement, was that the Society would put - if memory serves - around £130,000 into the club on an annual basis (in the form of loans). This effectively meant that, as a result of the Les Hutchison loans to the club, the model of the Well Society changed from being that contingency fund to investing in the club on a yearly basis. Alongside that, there is also the reality that, albeit infrequently, there may be the odd situation where the majority shareholder is asked to invest a sum in the club for a genuinely important reason. The example I'd maybe use to flesh that out a little would be if there was an injury crisis in January & the playing budget was already maxed out, would an owner elsewhere be able to reduce the chances of relegation by increasing that budget slightly to cover a target? And if so, should the Society do likewise? As I say though, very much not a regular occurrence by any means. Beyond that, in more recent years, there has been a process in place to allow parts of the club to apply to the Society for a sum of funding. The funding is capped & an application has to be submitted that details what the funding is for, what the benefit is, and why the funding can't be sourced elsewhere. The Society Board has to agree as a majority to accept any of those applications, and a number have been rejected during my time. Those that have been accepted are usually publicised at the time, the defibrillator outside the ground & a couple of youth teams travelling to Ireland to take part (and win) a cup competition spring to mind. The sums spent on successful applications are small in relation to the kinds of big sums we're talking about and even then, the Society Board would point blank refuse any application if the club itself was in any sort of financial trouble or it just wasn't viable or deemed as worthwhile. And then there's the usual admin fees, other expenses, and the staff salary that the Society pays on an annual basis. I am not aware of any ongoing funding of or donations to the likes of the Community Trust, outwith any requests they've had regarding funding in the past that we've possibly agreed to. That for me is a - albeit second attempt - rough outline of the Society's financial approach as I understand it. There's no doubt that the model of the Society switched during those years following Les Hutchison but, in more recent years, there's been a conscious effort to switch back to the original model, hence the ability to build up £750,000. All that said, if you're looking for more specific figures, I would absolutely contact the Well Society by e-mail. None of this should be a secret.

Thanks for the update Jay. And for highlighting that the potential funding gap in October is a worst case scenario, but something that has to be planned for. Makes perfect sense. But as for the other point, and acknowledging that the bucket collection is a relatively minor matter, can you clarify whether Society monies have been/are being utilsed to support worthy causes such as the Trust or have been/are being provided for projects that the Football Club wished carried out? And if so, to what extent and who authorises that expenditure? There is a sizeable gap between the Balance you quote above and the total received from Members to date. I keep coming back to the reason the Society was established in the first place (as a safety net) and to the fairly narrow purposes any funds ingathered were to be used. I appreciate that may be looked upon as history, but as fans and Members are being asked to dig deeper, then I believe they are entitled to know where their contributions are likely to end up. It is one thing providing security for our football Club (a Contingency Fund for emergency use only), but an entirely different thing supporting charitable causes or funding what might be looked upon by some as non essential projects. Have the lines between Club and Society Funds become blurred?

I agree with what you say Denny. I emailed the Society on Sunday to query why the bucket collection was in support of the Community Trust and not the Society. The answer I received was that the theme of the day is that MFC is a club for everyone and the Society wanted to help celebrate the great work that the Community Trust does, and to encourage its members to think of donating to them (the Trust) as a local charity. The Society hopes to get lots of people signed up, or rejoining on the day, which will be worth more to it in the long run than a one off collection. Now, thats laudable in principle, but to me, is contradictory to what is happening right now in terms of working up an investment proposal. I don't undertand how getting more fans to sign up or rejoin on the day is mutually exclusive with a bucket collection in aid of the Society. Lets be clear, a bucket collection on its own will not make a huge difference financially. The impression that I have, maybe wrongly in fairness, is that the club needs an injection of significant investment by October. That news alarmed me and possibly many others. Many of us want the Society to plug any hole with its its own proposal, which it is working up as I type. Given this situation, many members, like me, have restarted monthly subs or increased them and quite a few new members have joined this call to arms, specifically to help it financially. At this time, the Society cannot afford to ignore any potential source of cash, however modest. I believe that every penny counts just now. I just find it odd that the Society will be raising funds for a sister organisation at this particular time, when it is in need itself.

If they have a shortlist then Lennon will be on that 😅

I take your point but it begs the question as to why The Society has possibly been donating funds to the Trust in the first place. That is not why the Society was created. Worthwhile cause that the Trust undoubtedly is, my understanding is that the role of the Society is to generate funds for emergency use by the Football Club when required. And I believe fans contribute on that understanding. If fans wish to contribute directly to the Trust then all credit to them. I hope they do. IF, and I repeat IF, funding has been provided to the Trust or elsewhere can someone confirm the total sum involved over the years and also confirm who decided such funding was proper use of fan contributions. Are we talking £100s or £1000s? The more I read, the more it concerns me that (in the past?) undue pressure may have been put on the Society Board to finance expenditure beyond the remit of the WS. From the figures provided previously, there appears to be over £1m of subscriptions gone forever. Members are entitled to know where those funds went. Especially as they will likely be asked to increase subscription amounts.