Quarterly Board Bulletin

The squad requires to be strengthened and every effort is being made behind the scenes to add a further two or three players.

Quarterly bulletin from the DAFC Board of Directors

Our baptism to the SPL has been far from easy but there are still many games ahead to put some points in the bag.The most frustrating issue to Jim McIntyre and his team has been the sheer scale of injuries and the long term nature of these.  However, we can draw some comfort from the quality of football we played at both Parkhead and Ibrox.

It is obvious, however, that the squad requires to be strengthened and every effort is being made behind the scenes to add a further two or three players.

To finance this the Board of Directors have put in place a number of initiatives to raise additional finance to ensure that the Club balances its books.  A major ongoing project is the launch of the 2011 Pars Executive Club which is progressing reasonably well but is still below target.  Anyone interested is welcome to call Karen Masterton on 01383 724295 or email karen@dafc.co.uk  All monies raised from this scheme will go directly towards strengthening the squad.

Other major areas where everyone can help range from achieving as high a gate as possible at our upcoming game on Monday 2nd January against Celtic .We had over 8000 home fans at our clash against Raith Rovers last season, so please encourage as many friends and family to come along and get behind their local team!!

The Club Lottery - Pars Club Draw has been relaunched and we need as many fans to join up - if we manage to get 1000 members that will generate £1000 per week straight back in to the club- you can join by simply clicking on the link on our home page or going straight to www.theparsclubdraw.co.uk

Plus many more initiatives such as booking places at Jim Leishmans Burns Suppers coming up at the end of January, buying a Mid Season Ticket, booking hospitality which gets great reviews or booking your family or birthday celebrations at East End Park - all of these really do help us to increase our revenue which in turns helps us to turn out a stronger squad on the park.

Several other projects are underway to increase our income sources but these will take some time to come through.   Work on the new full size all weather pitch at PItreavie is planned to start in June 2012.

Youth and Under 19 squads are progressing very well with some promising talent coming through.  We are actively seeking sponsors for our Youth Squads and Jim Leishman is working on this project as a priority.   The Board would also like to thank all those who turned out to support us in our Sponsored walk in aid of Youth development and community - this raised well over £4000 for these schemes and we were delighted with the turn out on the day.

On the cost front targets to reduce our costs have been set and steady progress is being made.  We are installing two Portacabins which will allow us to sell all walk up Match Tickets from these Portacabins in the very near future, as well as still being able to sell tickets from the Ticket Office and Shop. This step will remove cash from the turnstiles and enable us to reduce our Stewarding costs further. The St Johnstone game saw the beginning of a much reduced Police presence at certain games and again will significantly reduce our costs.

Numerous suggestions have been received regarding income generation and cost reduction have been received from our fans and we would like to thank you to all those who took the time to write in with these suggestions.  Fife Police and Fife Council will also have to be consulted in this process as well.  All cost savings will allow us to strengthen the squad further.

Since the SPL's announcement regarding Safe Standing areas we have had numerous enquiries from fans about this - at present one of the Board is examining the cost implications of this and will report back to the Board by February.

Finally, the Board would like to thank our loyal support. Winning promotion at the end of last season was a high and we all celebrated at the time. Seven months on and life is very different but if ever the Manager and squad need your vocal support it is now.

A loud large home support is worth another player on the park.  Lets see what we can do against Celtic !!!

A good New Year to everyone.