The Trust made themselves abundantly clear just a month ago with (another) strongly worded letter to Roland, setting a fortnight ultimatum to set up a meeting. Which they were 100% right and justified to be doing.
The fact that a meeting with just Katrien and not him was offered last week on a day he was actually at the Club was quite frankly an utter pee-take and (yet another) kick in the eye to the Trust.
With that in mind I would without hesitation tell them to poke it. Or at the minimum state there is nothing to be gained from talks at this stage with those two and privately and publicly reiterate again the desire to ensure a meeting with Duchatelet on his next scheduled non-matchday (naturally) visit.
AFKA has hit the nail on the head in his post above, but the following above stood out for me..
- This isn't what The Trust requested. - The Club have had the opportunity to provide The Trust with what they requested, but they failed to do so. - What is being offered by The Club would appear to be pointless.
That said, as someone who was immensely critical of The Trust, I would like to say that regardless of the choice they make - I can see how it is a difficult one to make, and there is no ideal solution that will keep both sets of supporters happy.
(a) If CAST decide to meet, I fully expect the club to milk it for everything it's worth - like Target20K - and for it to be used as an attempt to placate the fans going in to the close season. I fully expect there to be a backlash against CARD which damages their credibility for some fans, and we will further be divided.
(b) If CAST decline to meet, the club will make use of this by saying that they've tried to open dialog with the fans but we were too stubborn to accept. There will still be a backlash from the fans - albeit smaller.
There's no ideal solution, and we all need to stick in this together - and dare I say it - accept the surveys as a good (and democratic) means of deciding the response to the invite.
For me? I'd prefer they were told - in no uncertain terms - that the request was to meet with the organ grinder and not the monkey. Holding a meeting with Roland's Pawn (Katrien) and The Spineless Wonder (Murray) is not going to provide anything of any great use, those two individuals have personally ensured that they should never be trusted again.
I disagree with your stance, but wholeheartedly agree to stick by the trust and other supporters regardless of the outcome.
Declining the meeting would be a mistake in my opinion. As others have said, it gives them the opportunity to portray CAST as unwilling to work with them, and as a result, working to harm the club.
Meeting them has risks, but by participating, CAST is in a position to refute any wild claims they make after the meeting.
It is important to limit the participants. There's no point in meeting with all the management. At this point Miere & Murray should be enough, as the issues are philosophical not operational. An important issue that need to be determined up front is who the decision makers are. How much autonomy do Miere & Murray have? They either dig themselves into a hole by saying they have the power to make decisions without Roland's veto, making them totally responsible for the bad decisions, or they are simply advisors. If it's the latter, then the meeting can end, as this only makes sense if the decision maker is there..
Given the level of mistrust, why can't they just stream it? At this point private meetings only add a layer of opaqueness that we don't need, because what's missing to everyone other than the participants is not so much what was said, but how it was said.
Murray is not needed there, only squirrel face(basing this on that Duchatelet is never going to talk to us).
Murray is only a shield when squirrel face is f***** on an answer. We should say we only want Meire to attend so she can be a lamb to the slaughter.
My preference is for there to be no meeting, pointless, say, no and explain why.
IF there is a meeting, it should be away from the Club's premises; with an agenda authored by the Trust; only if Duchâtelet is in attendance; and chaired by a professional conciliator/mediator (paid for by the club).
As others have said, while RD is obviously aware of the basic position of the club, I believe that KM and RAM-O must surely have kept him in the dark on so much of the overarching day-to-day fuckwittery that has been going on at almost every level throughout all of the Club's operations. He needs a comprehensive list and the opportunity to say he knew (or not) but did nothing.
Murray knows all about message boards, and his sincerity in meeting fans can be judged by the fact that he spent his time at last November's fans meeting checking message boards on his phone.
My preference is for there to be no meeting, pointless, say, no and explain why.
IF there is a meeting, it should be away from the Club's premises; with an agenda authored by the Trust; only if Duchâtelet is in attendance; and chaired by a professional conciliator/mediator (paid for by the club).
As others have said, while RD is obviously aware of the basic position of the club, I believe that KM and RAM-O must surely have kept him in the dark on so much of the overarching day-to-day fuckwittery that has been going on at almost every level throughout all of the Club's operations. He needs a comprehensive list and the opportunity to say he knew (or not) but did nothing.
The Trust should also demand a lap dance for every fan from Katy Perry while they're at it.
My preference is for there to be no meeting, pointless, say, no and explain why.
IF there is a meeting, it should be away from the Club's premises; with an agenda authored by the Trust; only if Duchâtelet is in attendance; and chaired by a professional conciliator/mediator (paid for by the club).
As others have said, while RD is obviously aware of the basic position of the club, I believe that KM and RAM-O must surely have kept him in the dark on so much of the overarching day-to-day fuckwittery that has been going on at almost every level throughout all of the Club's operations. He needs a comprehensive list and the opportunity to say he knew (or not) but did nothing.
The Trust should also demand a lap dance for every fan from Katy Perry while they're at it.
And a full one, none of this £20 for one song nonsense.
My preference is for there to be no meeting, pointless, say, no and explain why.
IF there is a meeting, it should be away from the Club's premises; with an agenda authored by the Trust; only if Duchâtelet is in attendance; and chaired by a professional conciliator/mediator (paid for by the club).
As others have said, while RD is obviously aware of the basic position of the club, I believe that KM and RAM-O must surely have kept him in the dark on so much of the overarching day-to-day fuckwittery that has been going on at almost every level throughout all of the Club's operations. He needs a comprehensive list and the opportunity to say he knew (or not) but did nothing.
The Trust should also demand a lap dance for every fan from Katy Perry while they're at it.
But what about the LGBT fans? Or the vegans?
We need to look after everyone.
Also, what do Burnley fans think? We want to be fair to them too. I think the Trust needs to do a survey.
This is Duchatelet, Meire and Murray trying to divide supporters and it could work. I can fully understand why supporters and / or trust members would be upset with CAST should any meeting go ahead.
As a CAST member I have voted no because I think the time for dialogue passed a long time ago and it's quite obvious they're using the trust.
I'm beginning to wonder if the reason we can't talk to Roland is because Daisy is keeping him away from us ...concerned we will tell him what is actually going on rather than the diluted version she gives him?
I'm beginning to wonder if the reason we can't talk to Roland is because Daisy is keeping him away from us ...concerned we will tell him what is actually going on rather than the diluted version she gives him?
He will be fully aware by now surely.
Other wise she'll be guilty of engineering the biggest cover up outside of a Saudi arabian nudist beach.
I just can't help thinking another meeting will result in more empty promises that the trust will then have to get their members opinon on which gives the Belgians more time. Nevile Chamberlain waving a piece of paper comes to mind.
I voted to meet and listen to what they have to say. Purely to not give them the moral high ground of a refusal.
However, reading this thread, I feel that there is a strong danger of splitting the supporters by meeting them.
The worst outcome is that CARD & the Trust become split. Please do not fall out over this guys, that is exactly what they want.
I've changed my mind and feel the invite should be refused.
I've changed my mind also. I initially wanted the Trust to meet them to tell them where to go, but any meeting would inevitably lead to more talks, which is why I now think they shouldn't meet at all.
Comments
Murray is only a shield when squirrel face is f***** on an answer. We should say we only want Meire to attend so she can be a lamb to the slaughter.
Then we'll see what the smug tart is made of.
Anyway, my two-penneth worth:
My preference is for there to be no meeting, pointless, say, no and explain why.
IF there is a meeting, it should be away from the Club's premises; with an agenda authored by the Trust; only if Duchâtelet is in attendance; and chaired by a professional conciliator/mediator (paid for by the club).
As others have said, while RD is obviously aware of the basic position of the club, I believe that KM and RAM-O must surely have kept him in the dark on so much of the overarching day-to-day fuckwittery that has been going on at almost every level throughout all of the Club's operations. He needs a comprehensive list and the opportunity to say he knew (or not) but did nothing.
We need to look after everyone.
Also, what do Burnley fans think? We want to be fair to them too. I think the Trust needs to do a survey.
As a CAST member I have voted no because I think the time for dialogue passed a long time ago and it's quite obvious they're using the trust.
Other wise she'll be guilty of engineering the biggest cover up outside of a Saudi arabian nudist beach.
I voted to meet and listen to what they have to say. Purely to not give them the moral high ground of a refusal.
However, reading this thread, I feel that there is a strong danger of splitting the supporters by meeting them.
The worst outcome is that CARD & the Trust become split. Please do not fall out over this guys, that is exactly what they want.
I've changed my mind and feel the invite should be refused.
Nevile Chamberlain waving a piece of paper comes to mind.
or http://www.castrust.org/2016/04/509670/