Your trust needs you..

Dear Supporter,

Now more than ever, The Honest Men Trust needs to be in a position to promote supporters views on the fortunes of our Club. On and off the park, Ayr United FC is experiencing difficulties. Whilst the team has made a poor start to our Second Division campaign, off the park the Clubs’ financial plight is causing grave concern. The days of a ‘White Knight’ investor ploughing money into a Scottish football club are over and the traditional way of running a football club is no longer sustainable.

The Honest Men Trust believe that a community based co-operative is the way ahead for Ayr United FC. If such a model can be successful at some of the world’s biggest football clubs, like Barcelona and SV Hamburg, then it can also prove a successful model for a club like Ayr United. With that in mind, the Trust has given a cautious welcome to the recent announcement that the Clubs’ major shareholder is investigating the possibility of changing the clubs’ status to that of a Community Interest Company.

However at this critical time in the history of Ayr United, it is vital that the supporters have a genuine voice to have YOUR say in the future of YOUR club. That is why I am inviting you to join/renew your membership of The Honest Men Trust for the 2010/11 season.

Your £10 annual membership fee for an adult is 50% less than the admission money to a home match at Somerset Park this season, yet it could go a long way to securing the future of our beloved club.


Yours faithfully,


Callum Yorke

Chairman

15 Years - Who would Believe it.

On 23rd September the Aberdeen Branch Ayr United Supporters Club celebrated it's 15 year anniversary. After travelling to games from The Granite City for a few years together, Colin Inglis and Dave Smith decided to get the now famous Aberdeen Ayr United Supporters Club flag made up and on 23rd September 1995 the flag was unveiled for the first time at Links Park where Ayr ended an unwelcome 18-month away winless streak by defeating Montrose 1-0.

From this humble start, through a number of coincidences and fuelled by a minor publicity blitz in the Granite City, a number of Honest Men appeared and joined the Supporters Club and soon minibuses and/or multiple carloads were running to a number of games. Indeed, for the Hearts cup game in 1998 and the CIS Cup Final in 2002 full buses were run from Aberdeen.

Travelling from so far to many of the games has required that attendees often have to create there own entertainment. To name but a few memories, members past and present will be unable to forget kazoo protests in Inverness, being a panda in Livingston, The Stormtrooper in Larbert, Rennie's dsylexia, OC's travel directions, the Coupar Angus K*ll*e pub, the Player Of the Year nights out, the heid of a monkey song and actions (invented by ABAUSC), the limo to Brechin, balloons at Alloa, etc. That's before the football even begins.

Through the years, many people have joined the Supporters Club but, like the mafia, none can leave. Hence, the Aberdeen Branch now has members scattered aross the globe from New York to Kuala Lumpur to Stirling and Ayr. The hardcore members are firm friends now and despite the disparate locations continue to support the Honest Men in whatever way possible.

It is now 5 years since the ABAUSC set up the now ABAUSC Quiz Night in Aberdeen. Run in February each year, all proceeds raised are evenly distrubuted between the Ayr United Youth Academy and, in memory of Ally MacLeod, Alzheimers Scotland. The quiz continues to go from strength to strength and to date the quiz nights have raised an incredible 40,000 GBP for these worthy causes.

The founder members may be aging now, but with a "refuse no-one" policy any Honest Men who find themselves up north should contact the group through their website at www.albinoanaconda.co.uk or on facebook.

Here's to another 15 years