Wick Academy Development Fund

[W.A.D.F. (SC032787)]

11) W.A.D.F. has brought the ongoing online message board saga to the attention of O.S.C.R. Particular reference was made to the postings which claimed that a request was sent to us for copies of documents on the 5th of July 2010 to which there has been no reply. This was as assurance against the possibility of a complaint being made to them. The regulator has been notified of these claims and the fact that this request has never actually been received by W.A.D.F.
12) W.A.D.F will without hesitation use the libel laws to protect both the charity, and its management committee members, from any threats, defamations, misrepresentations or allegations which have been made online or via any other medium.
13) In the mean time, the W.A.D.F. annual accounts which had been approved by the management committee at the 2009 A.G.M. and our O.S.C.R. annual return for 2009 were both received and signed by our Secretary before being sent to O.S.C.R. by our Independent Financial Examiner on Wednesday the 7th of July 2010.
14) Having received the relevant documents, O.S.C.R. returned the status of W.A.D.F. on their website to “ACTIVE” on the 9th of July 2010 i.e. the date that the newspaper article was published. Our annual income of £12,017 and checked annual return for the year ending 31st May 2009 were also displayed. This clearly indicated that the regulatory body had now received, processed and fully approved our annual return. Anyone interested in viewing this information can view it online at: www.oscr.org.uk/CharityIndexDetails.aspx?id=SC032787
15) Many of W.A.D.F.’s detractors are under the impression that we have just been in the business of taking money in from the public and have never assisted anyone with it. In fact, up until charitable status was achieved, i.e. at the time when we were still able to, some of our funds were used to bail out and rescue a local football club from the dire financial predicament that they had got themselves into. It is no exaggeration to say that the efforts of W.A.D.F. probably saved that football club from extinction at that time. It is quite ironic then, that so many of those who have seen fit to cause us so much annoyance over the years still have or had strong links to that particular organisation.
16) W.A.D.F. became disillusioned by the lack of effort and interest being shown towards the selling of A-T Lucky Letters lottery tickets by many of those within that football club. They appeared quite content to sit back and be bank-rolled by the efforts of W.A.D.F. rather than be bothered to put in some real effort by themselves. We have no legal obligation to reveal the exact amount of money involved, but it runs to several thousand pounds and appears on our pre-charitable status accounts for that period.
17) The management committee of W.A.D.F became concerned that all the ticket income would be siphoned away and thereby leave nothing for future investment towards the proposed project. They therefore decided to apply for charitable status. In addition this would also bring about future benefits when the time came to apply for additional funding for the project. After due process charitable status was awarded to W.A.D.F. on the 14th of March 2002.
18) The gross income of W.A.D.F. up to our accounting date of the 31st of May 2009 was £260,886.34. This sum was raised almost entirely by the sale of our A-T Lucky Letters lottery tickets and the investment account bank interest that was earned from that.
19) W.A.D.F. has probably sold more A-T Lucky Letters lottery tickets beyond our locality than within it. Many of our regular ticket purchasers worked offshore and knew little or nothing about Wick but were still happy to buy tickets and have a flutter whilst also supporting our aims.
20) The 5 Scrabble style letter tiles drawn at the W.A.D.F. weekly lottery draws were always drawn by independent members of the public. At the outset the draws took place in a local social club and after the demise of that club, it took place in various shop and office premises around Wick. After the weekly draws had taken place, the tickets were then checked in premises which had either been rented as office space or hired on the night for just that purpose. At nearly £13,500.00 the hire of premises has been by far our main expense to date. Our detractors may wish to note that nearly 60% of this outlay was to pay for shared office space that we conveniently rented from the same local football club that we had financially assisted previously. Cost cutting measures saw our accommodation costs being reduced to just £220.00 in the last financial year as we now rely on the goodwill of management committee members for the day to day running of the charity and the housing of any assets etc, and we now only hire premises when absolutely necessary.
21) W.A.D.F. has never received any financial donations or gifts of money from any individuals, businesses or other organisations.
22) W.A.D.F has not yet reached a position whereby we can apply for additional funding but we do have an outline business plan which has been submitted to O.S.C.R. at their request.
23) The net income of W.A.D.F. i.e. the amount of cash in our bank accounts was £132,459.96 as of the 31st of May 2009. This sum easily exceeds that which was originally required as pre-funding capital for the originally planned project.
24) The W.A.D.F. funds are currently held in three bank accounts. One is an operating account and the other two are higher interest investment accounts. All outgoing transactions require to be authorised by any two from three authorised signatories. Due to the continued uncertainty and instability in the banking world, the management committee prudently decided to safeguard the assets of W.A.D.F. by transferring 50% of the accumulated funds that were held in the original higher interest investment account to a new second higher investment account in another bank.
25) W.A.D.F. fully appreciates that the money held in the Fund is fully accountable to the public under the powers and controls of O.S.C.R. but all assets of the Fund belong to W.A.D.F. and are under the jurisdiction of its constitutionally elected management committee. In spite of the misguided claims of some individuals, especially those online, no one has any right to either stake a claim to that money or to tell us, the charity’s custodians, what to do with it.
26) There has never been any misappropriation of, or so called “trousering” of, funds by any of the W.A.D.F. management committee members as has also been claimed or alleged. We take great exception to this obvious slur on our characters as things are actually quite the contrary with many personal expenses regularly being written off, and those expenses that have been claimed have only amounted to around 0.5% of our gross income to date.
27) W.A.D.F. has paid out a total of £97,650 in A-T Lucky Letters lottery jackpot and weekly £10 prizes; a figure which appears to be conveniently disregarded by those who have somehow financially projected that we should by now have in the region of £250,000 in funds sitting in a bank somewhere.

CONTINUED IN ANOTHER POST

[W.A.D.F. (SC032787)]

28) In September 2004, O.S.C.R. initiated an enquiry into the affairs of W.A.D.F. at the behest of a “concerned” member of the public. Although O.S.C.R. never disclosed the reason(s) for the enquiry being called or the identity of the individual behind it, their identity is known to us. It was however, a surprise to discover that it was a community councillor who had voiced their misguided “concerns”, but given the prior aggravation that we had received both individually and collectively from this individual and his associates, it shouldn’t have been. Two of the O.S.C.R. team travelled north in February 2005 and spent over 3 hours meeting with the W.A.D.F. management committee and our invited advisors. In January 2007, after over 28 months of dialogue, enquiries, document handover, compliance requests, etc, etc, absolutely no evidence of misconduct was found on the part of either W.A.D.F. or any of its management committee members and the enquiry was subsequently closed.
29) As a result of the enquiry, several recommendations were made and W.A.D.F. has fully complied with and implemented those to the satisfaction of O.S.C.R. although the “cloud” of being monitored will remain over us for an undetermined length of time.
30) Unfortunately, the complaint to O.S.C.R. has had a massive knock on effect. The adverse media publicity at that time and the subsequent fallout from the enquiry has caused problems with W.A.D.F. not being able to acquire the land that the charity had originally been promised. At that time we were at a delicate stage in the proceedings with both the landowner and the acting solicitors. Hopefully all our efforts won’t now be undone due to the non-availability of land on which to site a facility. Another consequence of the enquiry was that our carefully forged links with several influential people at leading companies involved in this sphere of activity, have now been damaged due to O.S.C.R. demanding information from them to facilitate their enquiry. Is this then to be viewed as a moral, or should that be an immoral, victory for that community councillor? Either way it is the people of our area who may now suffer due to the over zealous action of that egotistical individual.
31) The adverse publicity generated by the unfounded complaint has also had a detrimental effect on the sales of the W.A.D.F. “A-T Lucky Letters” lottery tickets. When the last jackpot was won in April 2009, our committee had already made the difficult decision to suspend our weekly lottery ticket sales from that time. W.A.D.F. however, reserves the right to resume the sale of these lottery tickets at any time.
32) Since its formation, W.A.D.F. has received applications for funding from local groups and organisations, both large, and small. Unfortunately, our constitution and stated objectives do not allow us to support other, often deserving, causes which fall outwith that sphere of activity. Despite allegations to the contrary, any application for funding has received the courtesy of a written reply and an explanation to this effect.
33) Copies of the W.A.D.F. accounts and constitution have always been available by application in writing to our registered address. Unfortunately, almost all requests have come from known mischief makers. For this reason a £10.00 administration fee is usually charged but this can and has been waived at our discretion. The mischief makers have complained about this charge but we are perfectly entitled to make it. Obviously, photocopying, printers, cartridges, paper, envelopes, mailing, etc, etc, all cost charities money which is conveniently forgotten by those giving us aggravation. Anyone showing a genuine interest in W.A.D.F. and its aims should find no problem in willingly paying, what is after all a donation to ensure that any incurred costs by a charitable body are minimised or ideally fully covered. Scottish charitable law does not specify a time limit but anyone who has applied in the approved manner has received the documents that they requested within a perfectly reasonable turnaround time.
34) So far, a minority of jealous individuals each with a pretty obvious personal vendetta, have succeeded in knocking W.A.D.F. off course and have somewhat hampered our progress. However they have failed to dampen our enthusiasm and desire, and more importantly, to stop us from delivering something worthwhile to the community. Unfortunately it would appear that some Wickers are so self-centred that they would rather that the wider populace gain nothing as long as their personal axes are ground. If trying to do something for a community that is as deprived and underprivileged as ours is a crime, then W.A.D.F. and its management committee are indeed culpable and guilty as charged.
35) The motto of W.A.D.F. is “Working For The Benefit Of The Community”; perhaps we should now change this to “Still Trying To Work For The Benefit Of The Community”. Seriously though, let’s hope that common sense prevails for the common good and that the community gets fully behind us and our efforts. Then maybe one day they will all benefit from the work that we have put in so far.
36) W.A.D.F. would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, both near and afar, for the tremendous financial support that they have given to us so far through the purchase of A-T lucky Letters tickets. We had hoped that our project would have been much further ahead of its present position than it is, but we did not envisage that so many “man-made” obstacles would be encountered on route.
37) People involved with developments and projects in other areas have applauded W.A.D.F. for their efforts and are quite astonished when they learn of what W.A.D.F have had to overcome whilst trying to do something positive and good for this area.
38) After this open and frank letter, W.A.D.F. now hopes that the journey will get a little easier. The people that we know we are up against have done a lot of damage so far and won’t thank us for our revelations but we hope that we can regain the all important respect, trust and support of the public that we require and desire.

Andrew J. Carter,
Secretary
Wick Academy Development Fund (SC 032787)
16 Thurso Street
Wick
KW1 5LF

[Crackeday]

"We have managed to obtain copies of the messages concerned and we have sought legal advice on this matter and this will be pursued if our advisors deem this to be necessary. There will be regular monitoring of the situation particularly now that the thread has re-opened and is currently attracting a lot of new comments...."
I notice that you were quick enough to stop the public asking questions but not so quick at providing the information that the "public" requested?
Maybe I am wrong and I will hold my hands up if I am but where is the information that the public requested? Where is the money? How much is there? When (if ever) will we see the finished article? When can we see the accounts?
Too many questions not enough answers maybe we (the public) should seek legal advice as quickly as you have? And by the way who is paying for your "legal advice" is it coming out of the fund??????

[Tubthumper]

Documents have arrived: All that was asked for, and in line with the statements made above by the WADF secretary.

I have no scanner available, wait one while I type out the most interesting & relevant parts.

And as I said in an earlier post, I'm happy that the information has arrived and the WADF have come out and stated their case.

[Phill]

Well that makes a lot of sense.
Good to hear from the WADF itself, some interesting points.

However I do think it is prudent in this day and age when dealing with public / charitable funds, a regular and open communication to the public works wonders.
In this specific case the NOSN appear to have let you down in your reply.

I am more than happy to donate a domain, web hosting, maintenance basic website design and regular updating of a website for the WADF so further updates can be available to all, and this may help dissuade further mischief makers.

[Tubthumper]

It's just dawned on me, although seeking the information contained in the documents was the aim, if I scan and put them on here, they are in the public domain and that may not be acceptable to WADF - can their representative confirm (either by pm to me or by posting here) that putting the entire document on here is acceptable please?

I'll assume that posting the cash balance, income & expenditure/ surplus, committee members, remuneration and some information which I think is key to our interest will be acceptable, considering that the previous posts seek to exonerate the WADF committee.

Audited accounts from May 2010
Year to 31/5//09
Income £10686.64
Payments: £8381.33
Surplus for year 2305.31

Cash balance £132,719.96

Management Report
Committee
Chairman – Jacky Gunn
Vice Chairman – William More
Secretary – Andrew Carter
Treasurer – William Wydmuch
Executive Officer – Allan Wares

“Jacky Gunn received reimbursement of £487.86 in respect of expenses regarding collection of tickets. No other person received expenses.”

Financial Statement
"In respect of accounts the reserves are very healthy. However these reserves are necessary for work that requires to be carried out in establishing the Development Fund's current aim to both raise sufficient money to fund a feasibility study into the building of a purpose built leisure facility and also to retain sufficient funds to prime pump other sources of capital aid."

Principal Activities
"The principal activity of the fund during the period was fundraising through the sale of weekly Lucky Letter tickets.

The Development Fund’s aim was to both raise sufficient money to fund a feasibility study into the building of a purpose built leisure facility and also to retain sufficient funds or assets to prime pump other sources of capital aid.

Any such leisure facility was dependent on the obtaining of a suitable site in Wick or its environs. A suitable site was provisionally offered in Wick but after the adverse publicity generated by a spurious enquiry by OSCR into the running of the Development Fund it was subsequently withdrawn without explanation.

The ongoing fallout from the OSCR enquiry, together with increased competition and the economic climate, has resulted in a reduction in ticket sales which resulted in a corresponding increase in the time it would take to achieve the fund’s principal objective. As a result, the fund vacated office premises the previous year and this year ceased further sales of lottery tickets after payment of the final jackpot prize on 28 April 2009.

In view of the recent announcement of a new High School being promised for Wick, the management committee are awaiting sight of plans to see whether it will now be feasible to use the existing funds to provide a facility within the terms of its principal objective within or adjacent to that building. In the event of there not being significant progress in the following year they will consider distributing the assets of the Fund to other objectives contained within the parameters of its constitution."

From Constitution Issue 3 (Revised 6th May 2010)
4. Membership
”Membership is open to any individual aged 18 or over who actively supports the aims & objects of the Fund and to any group or body which actively supports the aims and objects of the Fund.

The management committee shall have the right to refuse membership or to terminate the membership at its discretion; but the member whose termination is under consideration shall have the right to be heard by the management committee before its decision is made. The management committee shall from time to time determine the level of any annual membership subscription and its period of implementation.”

[Tubthumper]

So we (finally) got the information we sought. And there are answers to the queries that were put. The bank balance is healthy, there is a plan for carrying the fund forward.

As I said in a post earlier on, Wickers should THANK the committee for raising the funds and be GLAD that money has been raised on their behalf. We would HATE for another scandal involving charity funds.

On a personal note (as I said I would do) I would personally like to apologise for bringing the reputations of the committee into disrepute, and specifically (while the frustration was particularly hard to bear) for calling the committee ‘Charlatans’. There is a satisfied smile upon my face that the information is known, and that no shenanigans have taken place.

Although I will point out that the progress of this thread has gone a long way to finally bringing the work that the WADF committee has done, on behalf of the Wick community, to the attention of the public, in a way that the committee themselves have not hitherto managed. For that I have no apology.

[Droopy]

This has been a very interesting thread to follow, more so because like everyone else on here we can sit in our sitting rooms and 'nose' behind the anomimity of the internet.

Peoples identity has been insinuated and broadcast on here with no right to reply. I find this rather disturbing, the fact that its guilty until proven innocent. Its modern day Kangaroo court.

Is it any wonder professional bodies act with discretion and integrity when investigating complaints, and only publish the findings once all the facts and figures have been investigated.....its called civil society, this has been an internet witchhunt

There are indeed personal axes to grind and from what I can see only one contributer to this post (apart from W.A.D.F.) has had the courage so far to post under his own name. He may have been questioning the motives of W.A.D.F. but hes a 100 times any other man/woman for it.

We've probably not heard the end of this and who knows whos right or wrong but for all those who seek the truth, or are 'concerned'......... show genuine concern..... by not hiding away in cyberland.

[jimbews]

behind the anomimity of the internet.
. . .
Peoples identity has been insinuated and broadcast on here with no right to reply.

If anything libellous has been said I think you would find that the ORG is not anonymous.
See "Blocked email domains" statement at:
http://forum.caithness.org/showpost....94&postcount=1
I'm sure that a court order would force the ORG to hand over the (traceable) email address of any member.

And surely there is a right of reply: in fact W.A.D.F. have just made use of it.

[Tubthumper]

I will however point out that I DID send a letter to the WADF on 5th July 2010, requesting documents.

[John Little]

I have not said much of anythin on this thread because it is a matter local to Wick and I do not consider that I have the right to poke my snitch in matters not linked to me.

However, on a broader front I would like to point out that we live in a (theoretically) open democracy where people may be called to account for what they have done in the public's name. It does not matter whether that is done in a council chamber, an elected committee or the local club organisation.

That being so I have to say that personally I cannot regard the unfolding nature of this thread as anything like a witch-hunt, for in that situation there is no true accountability and no opportunity to reply.

To me this is and has been a robust and completely healthy example of local democracy in action - on all sides now- and I applaud it enthusiastically. Something which was festering and causing bad feeling has been well and truly lanced and can now heal.

Good stuff.

[Tubthumper]

Can I just ask one little question regarding items 15-17 post #2 (where the WADF committee bailed out a local football team that was in danger of extinction).
Who were on the committee of the club at that time?

[Happy Guy]

I have not said much of anythin on this thread because it is a matter local to Wick and I do not consider that I have the right to poke my snitch in matters not linked to me.

However, on a broader front I would like to point out that we live in a (theoretically) open democracy where people may be called to account for what they have done in the public's name. It does not matter whether that is done in a council chamber, an elected committee or the local club organisation.

That being so I have to say that personally I cannot regard the unfolding nature of this thread as anything like a witch-hunt, for in that situation there is no true accountability and no opportunity to reply.

To me this is and has been a robust and completely healthy example of local democracy in action - on all sides now- and I applaud it enthusiastically. Something which was festering and causing bad feeling has been well and truly lanced and can now heal.

Good stuff.

HERE HERE! Well said John Little

[cuddlepop]

HERE HERE! Well said John Little

I'll second that and ask why "they" took so long to respond to a request,confused

[pegasus]

28) In September 2004, O.S.C.R. initiated an enquiry into the affairs of W.A.D.F. at the behest of a “concerned” member of the public. Although O.S.C.R. never disclosed the reason(s) for the enquiry being called or the identity of the individual behind it, their identity is known to us. It was however, a surprise to discover that it was a community councillor who had voiced their misguided “concerns”, but given the prior aggravation that we had received both individually and collectively from this individual and his associates, it shouldn’t have been. Two of the O.S.C.R. team travelled north in February 2005 and spent over 3 hours meeting with the W.A.D.F. management committee and our invited advisors. In January 2007, after over 28 months of dialogue, enquiries, document handover, compliance requests, etc, etc, absolutely no evidence of misconduct was found on the part of either W.A.D.F. or any of its management committee members and the enquiry was subsequently closed.
29) As a result of the enquiry, several recommendations were made and W.A.D.F. has fully complied with and implemented those to the satisfaction of O.S.C.R. although the “cloud” of being monitored will remain over us for an undetermined length of time.
30) Unfortunately, the complaint to O.S.C.R. has had a massive knock on effect. The adverse media publicity at that time and the subsequent fallout from the enquiry has caused problems with W.A.D.F. not being able to acquire the land that the charity had originally been promised. At that time we were at a delicate stage in the proceedings with both the landowner and the acting solicitors. Hopefully all our efforts won’t now be undone due to the non-availability of land on which to site a facility. Another consequence of the enquiry was that our carefully forged links with several influential people at leading companies involved in this sphere of activity, have now been damaged due to O.S.C.R. demanding information from them to facilitate their enquiry. Is this then to be viewed as a moral, or should that be an immoral, victory for that community councillor? Either way it is the people of our area who may now suffer due to the over zealous action of that egotistical individual.
31) The adverse publicity generated by the unfounded complaint has also had a detrimental effect on the sales of the W.A.D.F. “A-T Lucky Letters” lottery tickets. When the last jackpot was won in April 2009, our committee had already made the difficult decision to suspend our weekly lottery ticket sales from that time. W.A.D.F. however, reserves the right to resume the sale of these lottery tickets at any time.
32) Since its formation, W.A.D.F. has received applications for funding from local groups and organisations, both large, and small. Unfortunately, our constitution and stated objectives do not allow us to support other, often deserving, causes which fall outwith that sphere of activity. Despite allegations to the contrary, any application for funding has received the courtesy of a written reply and an explanation to this effect.
33) Copies of the W.A.D.F. accounts and constitution have always been available by application in writing to our registered address. Unfortunately, almost all requests have come from known mischief makers. For this reason a £10.00 administration fee is usually charged but this can and has been waived at our discretion. The mischief makers have complained about this charge but we are perfectly entitled to make it. Obviously, photocopying, printers, cartridges, paper, envelopes, mailing, etc, etc, all cost charities money which is conveniently forgotten by those giving us aggravation. Anyone showing a genuine interest in W.A.D.F. and its aims should find no problem in willingly paying, what is after all a donation to ensure that any incurred costs by a charitable body are minimised or ideally fully covered. Scottish charitable law does not specify a time limit but anyone who has applied in the approved manner has received the documents that they requested within a perfectly reasonable turnaround time.
34) So far, a minority of jealous individuals each with a pretty obvious personal vendetta, have succeeded in knocking W.A.D.F. off course and have somewhat hampered our progress. However they have failed to dampen our enthusiasm and desire, and more importantly, to stop us from delivering something worthwhile to the community. Unfortunately it would appear that some Wickers are so self-centred that they would rather that the wider populace gain nothing as long as their personal axes are ground. If trying to do something for a community that is as deprived and underprivileged as ours is a crime, then W.A.D.F. and its management committee are indeed culpable and guilty as charged.
35) The motto of W.A.D.F. is “Working For The Benefit Of The Community”; perhaps we should now change this to “Still Trying To Work For The Benefit Of The Community”. Seriously though, let’s hope that common sense prevails for the common good and that the community gets fully behind us and our efforts. Then maybe one day they will all benefit from the work that we have put in so far.
36) W.A.D.F. would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, both near and afar, for the tremendous financial support that they have given to us so far through the purchase of A-T lucky Letters tickets. We had hoped that our project would have been much further ahead of its present position than it is, but we did not envisage that so many “man-made” obstacles would be encountered on route.
37) People involved with developments and projects in other areas have applauded W.A.D.F. for their efforts and are quite astonished when they learn of what W.A.D.F have had to overcome whilst trying to do something positive and good for this area.
38) After this open and frank letter, W.A.D.F. now hopes that the journey will get a little easier. The people that we know we are up against have done a lot of damage so far and won’t thank us for our revelations but we hope that we can regain the all important respect, trust and support of the public that we require and desire.

Andrew J. Carter,
Secretary
Wick Academy Development Fund (SC 032787)
16 Thurso Street
Wick
KW1 5LF

you said "dampen our enthusiasm and desire, and more importantly, to stop us from delivering something worthwhile to the community," but just what have you deliverede to the comunity after 10 years and having taken well over a quarter of a milion pounds?

why is the field unavaliable? why has is taken 10 years to reach 'delicate' negotaitiosn?

when and where i sthe 2010 AGM?

why do y9ou keep saying that people who quesitopn you are 'vindictive' and that you 'knows who they are'?!

why are you constantly theratening legal action rather than just providfing simplke details? get on with it if you wants to take legal action.

why did renting a room once a week for a lotery draw cost £13,500 ? how come it suddeninly isnt necesary now?

for such massive (3) posts, you seem to have said nothing but made a few threats and starnge claioms.

[pegasus]

sorry to be one of "those giving us aggravation" but do yu have a list of names and adresses of the lottery draw winners over the years?

[Tubthumper]

With the 'libel' laws firmly in my mind, I just want to clarify a few facts. After all, debate and discussion are permissible in civil society, and it's always good to query what someone presents angrily as 'facts'.

15) ...up until charitable status was achieved, i.e. at the time when we were still able to, some of our funds were used to bail out and rescue a local football club from the dire financial predicament that they had got themselves into. It is no exaggeration to say that the efforts of W.A.D.F. probably saved that football club from extinction at that time.
And the Chairman and Secretary of the club (which was threatened with extinction, and was sorely lacking funds (see previous post) were Jacky Gunn and Andrew Carter (returned unopposed in 2002)!
It seems ironic that you raised funds in the club's name, restricted access to them for same club (which you led) and which you say so desparately needed money. How would it have looked if the club HAD become extinct due to lack of cash, while a substantial pot of cash had been raised for it?

It is quite ironic then, that so many of those who have seen fit to cause us so much annoyance over the years still have or had strong links to that particular organisation.
Perhaps they were quite entitled to be annoyed with those involved, for raising a lot of money using the club's name, while in executive positions of the club, then refusing to allow the club access to that money.

16) W.A.D.F. became disillusioned by the lack of effort and interest being shown towards the selling of A-T Lucky Letters lottery tickets by many of those within that football club. They appeared quite content to sit back and be bank-rolled by the efforts of W.A.D.F. rather than be bothered to put in some real effort by themselves.
But YOU were chairman & secretary, YOU refused to let others join the fund or know how much was in it and YOU were supposed to be in charge of the club. Is it any surprise people got disillusioned?

17) The management committee of W.A.D.F [led by the chairman and Secretary of WAFC] became concerned that all the ticket income would be siphoned away [presumably by Developing Wick Academy FC] and thereby leave nothing for future investment towards the proposed project [Which, I am sure, was primarily concerned with building a stadium complex for the local Highland League Football Team, as both of the main movers of the DF were in executive positions with the FC]. They therefore decided to apply for charitable status. In addition this would also bring about future benefits when the time came to apply for additional funding for the project. After due process charitable status was awarded to W.A.D.F. on the 14th of March 2002 [While Mr Gunn and Mr Carter were still Chairman & Secretary of the football club of the same name, which was in dire straits, for which many people thought they'd bought tickets to help build a stadium complex for, which was 'under threat of extinction', and in need of financial help].

I don't get it.

[DeHaviLand]

You're not supposed to "get it" Tubs. You're just supposed to accept this version of events as Gospel, and drop what interest you have in the running of WADF. Now be a good boy, and run along. Nothing to see here. Can anyone tell me where the 'irony' smiley is please?

[lynne duncan]

just imagine WADF if you had had the decency to publish the required informaton in the first place how much of this thread would not have been required, you are a public domain as is anyone who takes public money to fund anything for the public's benefit, and it is shameful that you threaten people with legal action.

the folk of wick have had the rug pulled out from them enough with the debacle of the gala money,
I'm all for supporting the townspeople efforts to raise monies to benefit the town, heaven knows we'll need to continue doing so in the current financial climate.

you want what we want - something to benefit the town - just stop being old brigade (working behind closed doors) and allow new blood in to help you.

[cuddlepop]

If its decided that an "all singing and dancing" Community School is built in Caithness, will there be any need for another sporting facility and if not what happens to the money that has been raised?