Bump a year.... Eit a year
OTD Three Years Ago: Discussing whether Gianni Paladini was on his way out! 
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=20167And the year before had bumped (Although obviously hadn't actually been said "On This Day")
The links no longer work, I believ
LSA September 2006 8th September
LSA Meeting with Club Representatives on Monday 5 September
Present: Gianni Paladini, Harold Winton, Stephen Paladini, Antonio Caliendo (for the last 15 minutes), Sylvia Dallibar, Victor Stevenson, Spencer Schwartz, Steve Rapjohns, Paul Finney, Steve Russell, Paul Fisher, Joe English. Minutes taken on behalf of the LSA by Julia Hill.
"..
.GP said that he had not sacked Mark Devlin. he had made the position of Chief Executive redundant. He also said that Chief Executives are the biggest scroungers in the world of football. What is needed at QPR is a Club Secretary, to deal with contracts and the League and so on, a Manager of the football team, a Commercial Manager to bring in money and an Accountant. The
different departments at the Club will meet every week and then one person will report to GP www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/05setpoct.html Few Other things
QPR 1st
Whilst talking about Dunga we mentioned how in the company articles we had
noted how there is the entitlement to enable Board meetings to take place by
video conference, thereby meaning that Dunga would not need to travel from
Japan , thus saving money on expenses. GP felt this was a good idea and had
not been aware of this. GG mentioned how there is an 8-hour difference so if
the Board did consider this option then they would have to take the time
difference into consideration.
We spoke a bit more about the voting off of Bill Power and GP said that when
a Board disagrees it is not good, that Bill had resigned and that "we have
taken over the club". On trying to get him to elaborate a little more on
this it became apparent that GP did not wish to talk about BP for any
longer, saying that currently there is no contact between himself and Bill,
and so we then moved on to talk about Mark Devlin
We spoke about his employment rights and asked for clarification regarding
any redundancy/severance payments MD will be entitled to, and if there had
been a compromise agreement signed preventing MD from taking future legal
action against the club. GP spoke a bit about MD's previous salary, how they
couldn't find his original contract, how some minutes from one meeting had
gone missing which led to misunderstandings, and then how in August a new
contract for MD had been negotiated, which also included a company car.
He said he'd like to thank Mark for his work and time whilst employed at the
club but it was felt that the position of CEO at a club like QPR was surplus
to requirement. We asked him about the comments he had made about MD making
decisions with just Bill Power and asked him if apart from the AEK Athens
meeting, had MD made any other decisions on his own (or with Bill) without
informing the rest of the Board? GP said there had been a couple of other
little things but that the issue of reviewing the position of CEO had been
an agenda item. And when asked if the decision to 'do away' with the
position had been based on the individual himself or the CEO position, GP
said it had been position related and not personal. He said that they (the
board) were in the process of negotiation as regards any severance payments
made to Mark.
Whilst on the subject of Mark, GG said how when the Trust had met with him
in the past he had shown himself to be a competent enough chief executive,
who had gained relevant experience and skills during his time at Swindon,
which then led onto a discussion about the structure at QPR, and how we felt
that with MD now gone, and with no general manager at the club, the first
port of call for supporters when contacting the club had now disappeared. PH
gave him an example of this in that there had been recent confusion
regarding the prices Leeds fans would be paying to gain entry to QPR for the
forthcoming game at Loftus Road . Normally a quick line or phone call to
Mark would have got this issue through to the club in asking them to find
out if it were true. But with him not being there she rang Leeds herself who
confirmed that the figures given on a couple of Leeds websites were
incorrect.
TS then handed GP a copy of a table based on some quick research the Trust
had done regarding the other Championship clubs and who the first port of
calls are for their fans showing that ¾ of the clubs still have CEO's and
those that don't have a general manager or customer care officer (This table
can be viewed for interest by clicking on this link). This table also showed
that QPR is the only current Championship club without such a first port of
call.
GP began to suggest that maybe one of us in that room might like to do it
but we said how that wasn't the idea and that someone with the relevant
skills and experience would be required to take such a role on and that we
were talking a paid employee.
GP then said that as Mark Austin is leaving his position at the club as
commercial director, and with Mike Pink from the clubshop getting promoted
to Austin 's position, that he would have a think about a dual role.
www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/trustclubmeetsep2005.htm The Loan and Running Costs
LSA reps asked whether there was any progress on renegotiating the loan. GP
said that talks are underway with a UK bank to try and get them to take over
the loan at a rate of 6.5% instead of the 10% that we currently pay. We are
also in negotiations with ABC Corporation to try and reduce the lump sum we
will have to pay them if the bank takes over the loan.
GP said: "The loan was not the immediate problem - the biggest problem here
was getting running costs back under control and avoiding administration,
which we have done." He said the club has saved £160k a year, for example,
just by not replacing Mark Devlin and Mark Austin.
Despite that, our outgoings are still phenomenal. GP said that in the last
18 months our income has been £18m but this has all been spent. In one month
alone we paid out £1.2m on bills, "but we still have money in the bank".
Shares and Investment
www.qpr-lsa.co.uk/05novdec.html 
