Information points at the ground today

Just to confirm, the initiative between the club and the Trust for the "customer service" points inside the stadium today is going ahead - many thanks to the Trust members who volunteered.

While one of the main objectives is to get feedback into the club from all supporters, whether they've ever seen ATD or not, the more people who take a moment to give some feedback the better.

There will be kiosks in the Devonport, Lyndhurst (2) and Barn Park, from around 1.30pm to kickoff, at half time and for 10 mins after the final whistle. Getting a kiosk/presence in the Mayflower will be discussed before the next match.

More volunteers (to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) are very welcome for future matches. Remember you get free entry to the game if you help out.

sound effort

Good work Tim and a pat on the back for those helping out.

GOB wrote:

Good work Tim and a pat on the back for those helping out.

Why, thank you kind sir! It's the only way I can go to a match nowadays. I'm totally broke - early retired and living on a small pension! It was a way of supporting the Trust and seeing a game. I will be interested to see what response the kiosks get.

knecht wrote:

GOB wrote:

Good work Tim and a pat on the back for those helping out.

Why, thank you kind sir! It's the only way I can go to a match nowadays. I'm totally broke - early retired and living on a small pension! It was a way of supporting the Trust and seeing a game. I will be interested to see what response the kiosks get.

How did it go. Glad you got to see a good? game.

It went very well. I have to collate the comments tomorrow and then pass them on to the club. Unsurprisingly most of the comments were about the refreshments.

As a first run I think it went very well. We'll get an anonymised summary and post it to our web site so everyone can see the most common issues. We ran out of forms in the Devonport and had to get some more around there.

I hadn't met Dave Boobyer or his assistant before. Both were very helpful and keen to see the system work.

Many thanks to those who helped out, and those who volunteered but weren't needed today. I think Laura will spread the load around with future games so everyone gets a go. More volunteers are still welcome though

I saw a woman and young lad in the old Ladbrokes stalls (Lyndhurst) with what I thought were programmes. Now realise this was the info kiosks

I thought it went well. I was in the Barn Park End with the Sarfend guys. With one exception, they were superb, friendly and responsive. Even the one exception offered his "comments" with humour. But, if we had gone 3 - 2 up, I'm not sure I would have wanted to be where I was at the end of the game! There was some kind of consensus amongst the people who said anything that maybe for games against, say, Bristol Rovers or, next season, against Exeter the Customer Sevices booth might not be best situated in the away end!

Two interesting points:
When Dave Boobyer gave his pre-match chat he said very clearly that comments were welcomed - anonymous or otherwise. He pointed out a big discussion on pasoti recently that got very heated and lengthy. He said that there were several suggestions that people should contact him with their complaints. He got the massive total of THREE.
Secondly, I had thought it was a Trust initiative. It seems that the club actually made the approach to the Trust. I know it may be window-dressing and the test will come when we see what they actually do with the comments BUT it is yet another example of the Brent regime trying to make moves towards fan engagement.

I was quite impressed by Dave and his assistant having met them both for the first time yesterday - both very helpful, friendly and there was clearly a genuine willingness from them to find ways to better engage with fans.

Hopefully once word gets around about what these new "customer service" points are, more people will leave suggestions/feedback.

I also hope more such collaborations between the club and Trust may follow.

I saw the Trust gazebo on the corner of the Lyndhurst/Devonport End. I was going to stop and have a natter but unfortunately the beer had reached the middle age point and the toilet was required asap! They seemed quite busy so I think this will turn out to be a great idea.

being the cynic that i am, the more members (money) the trust has the more likely it can afford to buy the 20% stake in the club - thus brent gets back 20% of his investment have we established how much he paid the club and how much this stake will be sold for ?

GregCampbellFanClub wrote:

being the cynic that i am, the more members (money) the trust has the more likely it can afford to buy the 20% stake in the club - thus brent gets back 20% of his investment have we established how much he paid the club and how much this stake will be sold for ?

No. It's like a lot of things coming out of the club at the moment, all bark and no bite.

smoke & mirrors more like hang on wasnt that term used to describe P&A ????

To be honest, if the Trust fall for this 20% thing, which I honestly believe they will, I'll never invest my time, effort and money in them. They should be independent of the club. Mind you, they'll never raise the money to buy that 20%, so in some ways it's all academic.

This is beginning to seem just like a long drawn out but inevitable passing of even more money to a very wealthy man who isn't into football, but will somehow be sitting on top of our club, having actually paid out diddly for it, once all the Council monies, Trust investment, 'fan donations', and parkland value that he is to keep, is taken into consideration. I mean, let's face it, that's a fair old chunk of prime, prime hotel land in the middle of a civic park he's got there.... and land that had a nod of an hotel years ago if one believes the rumour mill of a few years back. he's not doing bad out of the deal is he.

GregCampbellFanClub wrote:

being the cynic that i am, the more members (money) the trust has the more likely it can afford to buy the 20% stake in the club - thus brent gets back 20% of his investment have we established how much he paid the club and how much this stake will be sold for ?

There are something like 1500 members (I think). Even if the total of all fees had been kept (and The Trust hasn't) that would amount to £15,000. If Mr Brent wishes to sell the 20% for the full market rate I can't see that being enough - though it does depend what is on offer! As far as I am aware there has been no flesh put on the bones of the 20% offer.

Indeed, no details as yet. There's a lot of consultation to be done. We've already had some good input from SD.

In my view membership fees should be used for the Trust's general running costs and typical year-on-year activities. If the membership agrees to pursue the 20% offer, it should be found by dedicated fundraising.

But let's wait to see the details and the input from expert sources before jumping to any conclusions either way. The new Board must do all it can to ensure membership has all the necessary information to make the right decision.