Launch of The Pars Business Club

This is an invitation to all local businesses - they don't need to have a connection with the club at the present time ...

Dunfermline Athletic Football Club was formed in 1885 and over the past one hundred and twenty-nine years it has had its fair share of ups and downs. Perhaps this was truer at no time more so than in the past eighteen months during which serious financial problems threatened the club with extinction.

Thankfully due to the efforts of a host of the club's supporters, the Pars survived administration and are now very much on the mend. There is now universal agreement from everyone involved that this cannot be allowed to happen again, and with some amazing fund-raising from the likes of the Pars Supporters Trust, the Centenary Club Lifeline, and the work of the supporters' clubs, Jim Jefferies has been able to bring in new players and to extend the contracts of some of the club's most talented youngsters.

And now it's the turn of the business community.In the past local businesses in the Dunfermline area have contributed so much to the development of the football club. There has always been recognition that a successful and healthy football club brings with it benefits to the business community, and vice-versa. So with everyone now looking to build a platform for the football club's future success, business entrepreneurs are coming together to form their own Pars-supporting organisation.

Dunfermline Athletic Business Club has been formed to engage the business community of Dunfermline and to create a networking group of like-minded business and retired business people who have an affinity with Dunfermline Athletic Football Club.  If you would like more information or are interested in joining please contact garry@1885club.co.uk.

To be known as the 1885 Club, the two main aims are to raise funds and assist Dunfermline Athletic to maximise its potential on the playing field and support community and charity events linked to DAFC.  It will do this through a series of fund-raising and social activities, but membership will also have a wide range of benefits for all who join, including regular contact with the manager and players, and with the DAFC Boardroom.

Manager Jim Jefferies had this to say about this latest development::-

"This is wonderful news and a real endorsement of what we and the Board are trying to achieve at Dunfermline. I think that it is really important for the football club to have good links with our local business community, and I will be supporting this venture by going along to meetings and chatting to businesses about how we can build a stronger relationship."

The 1885 Club will be launched on Friday 28^th February at a special Breakfast at East End Park from 8.00am till 10.00am, and the club's first guest speaker will have his very own views about the state of Scottish football. He is none other than radio commentator, author and former Scottish Sports Journalist of the Year Bill Leckie. And after Bill's 'debut' appearance, the new club has lined up a really interesting mix of business and football personalities to sustain their meetings over the year ahead.

The club received a fantastic boost this week with the news that Flora Rennie, wife of the late Mel Rennie, the former Pars Chairman and benefactor, has given a donation to the club to help it get established, and will come along to the inaugural meeting.  Garry Davidson, who has headed up the organising group added:

"This is a wonderful gesture from Flora.We all know just how much Dunfermline Athletic meant to Mel, and if anyone could get local businesses to identify with the Pars, he could. It is so fitting that Flora has undertaken to join us and I hope it will encourage others. This is an invitation to all local businesses - they don't need to have a connection with the club at the present time, and we are keen to involve people from all types of business. We've already got a number of people signed up including Board members who have all committed to becoming a part of this exciting venture.

Included in the membership package are the following:
?Meet industry leaders from across the UK at regular network meetings
?Get updates from the Management and Directors of DAFC
?Access to the DAFC Boardroom and Directors Box on home match days with members attending on a rotational basis
?Annual flagship event for members and guests
?1885 Club Player of the Year
?Unique hospitality events at East End Park
?Annual away day hospitality "1885 Day Oot"
?Social events held throughout the year
?Special discount packages for advertising packages and events held at the club
?Meet and greet other business clubs throughout the football community
?Free advertising on the 1885 Club website

The cost of membership is an initial joining fee of £50, followed by a monthly subscription of £25.  Alternatively an annual fee of £290 can be paid. For more information please contact garry@1885club.co.uk