Periodically, AFC trust meets with AFC officials to discuss issues of particular concern for Trust members. Accordingly, Gordon Duncan, Una Tod, Bill Ellis, Mike Rennie and Jennifer Moffat representing the Trust met Willie Miller, Duncan Fraser and Chris Gavin at Pittodrie on Tuesday 21 April 2009. In a full and frank discussion lasting 1½ hours, the main topics covered (with brief details), were:

Open Letter: Not unsurprisingly, this dominated the discussion. Willie was upset that we had done this in the manner we had, hence his response to us in his subsequent letter in the EE. There has been an open door policy for any fan groups to discuss matters with AFC and it was perceived that we had violated that. However, we responded by indicating we felt we had no alternative to taking this approach, in this instance.

AFC believed we had done this primarily for publicity when nothing could have been further from the truth. It was explained it was written in the hope that matters could be improved in the future. Because we were highly critical of some aspects of AFC performance, we were perceived as being negative. The fact that we represent a relatively small number of fans/shareholders and also that we did not get a quorum for the first AGM was raised, so it is important we get as much member support as possible in future.

We highlighted the fact we have rightly praised AFC for areas such as stabilising the club performances, reaching an operational break-even point in successive seasons and for the establishment of AFC Youth Academy. This matter has now been concluded.

Stadium: The Trust was initially very positive in supporting the proposal for a community stadium, working in partnership with the Ultras, raising a petition with a significant number of signatures and presenting it to Aberdeen City Council. Our preferred option was the Kings Links area. However, AFC insist that Loirston is the only option that can deliver the proposed community stadium, as it is currently envisioned.

AFC Trust, without being in any way negative, is very concerned about stadium funding. Some of the Trust concerns raised are centred on the current economic climate, the slump in housing development and the possible decrease in the value of Pittodrie, the current funding gap and possible project cost escalation.

Duncan Fraser assured us that the design aspects, such as positioning of away fans in the proposed stadium, have been considered and will be acted upon. There will be a series of consultations with fans at locations still to be announced and Trust members are encouraged to feed any ideas they have to us via the Trust website.

Other matters: Because time was running out, the matters of attendances, the role of the fans representative etc. were only briefly discussed, with no real conclusions

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