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Thanks, appreciate the response. Anything that improves communication between the club and fans is good and hopefully it will allow for more effective collection of thoughts and opinions from supporters to funnel through a single point of contact to the club to respond (perhaps through their own dedicated SPoC as well). Fingers crossed it goes well.

Presumably we can recall Fyffe if needed. The game time should do him good, but we are short of cover if one of Broadfoot, Devine or Deas gets injured.

There isn't a legislative requirement, as far as I can see, that requires the wearing of face coverings outdoors. Regulation 5 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 states that face coverings must be worn by "a person who enters or remains indoors within a place listed in regulation 6" (my emphasis) and sports stadiums are mentioned in this regulation (6(1)cc). Therefore, you only have to wear a face covering if you were to go indoors in a sports stadium i.e. into the toilets or into the "body" of the main stand (if that was even possible) as these would be considered being indoors. Trying to justify that the main, north or south stands are "indoors" is a hard push but of course clubs can go above and beyond the legislation if they so wish but there is no legislative requirement for them to make supporters wear face coverings in outdoor seating or standing areas of the stadium. However if the club make it a condition of entry then that's another thing.

The biggest frustration for me is the poor communication that we get. If there are six e-mail addresses that cannot help. Most businesses have one primary address for customers (eg [email protected]) which they prioritise monitoring and responding to. Live chat functions on websites, between published hours, is becoming common and could be a good option as it can be less labour intensive. It needs to be someone’s responsibility to monitor and reply to social channels and e-mails in a timely manner and they should publish service levels that they are seeking to achieve (eg reply within one working day), and send an acknowledgement if they will be unable to achieve that (they could even automate it so customers get an automatic acknowledgement so know the e-mail is being actioned). Regular, proactive updates from the Chairman or CEO would be welcome. This could take the form of a monthly bulletin circulated on social channels and on the website. This should be augmented by updates when anything of note happens (signings etc). Too often we get a burst of activity at season ticket renewal time then little for months. Each time we have had a new Chairman we get promises that communication will be improved. Now is an opportunity to actually achieve that. The club knows it is an issue, and that it is important to fans, so they should sort it. I welcome the Focus Group and hope it helps to deliver improvements, but visibility of the issues discussed and how they are followed through will be vital.

Thanks for the clarification. It is a good point you make. First, let me say that we are at a very early stage. What has not yet been discussed is an agreed purpose for the Focus Group. That, I hope, will come at the next meeting on September 2nd. What was agreed at Monday's meeting was to open up a specific email address ([email protected]) for fans to submit issues that they would like to have discussed. This email address will be monitored and the issues raised will be collated by a representative fans body and not by the club. This means the agenda is to a significant extent set by the fans, and the fans' representatives at the meeting can ensure these issues are discussed and actions chased up on if necessary. One of the key initial questions must be about how this Group impacts on other routes of communication between fan and club. The club's website currently lists 6 different email addresses on its contact page and individual staff members and Directors will have their own email addresses too. My personal view is that our new email address would be appropriate for issues someone thinks needs discussion between the club and fan groups, but that personal matters or requests for information should be directed to the club as at present. However, as is already clear from emails received, one of the issues is that emails sent to the club are not being replied to. I see the Focus Group being about working collaboratively so that the club's engagement with fans is more effective and, that far from replacing them, one of the outcomes would be an improvement in the existing avenues for communications. That applies not just to emails, but social media and the website etc.