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DoofersDad

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Everything posted by DoofersDad

  1. HT. 1-1 FT 2-2 ICT Billy Mckay Opp. Todorov Crowd. 1711
  2. The problem with this is that you need a mass walk in first.
  3. HT. 0-0 FT. 1-1 ICT. Mckay Opp. Murphy Crowd 2106
  4. One thing the Trust exhibits which the Club does not is a democratically elected Board. If you and other fans are unhappy with the current Trust Board, you and they are free to join the Trust, put yourselves up for election and/or vote for others who would also like to see a change. By voting with your feet, you are, in effect, voting for a continuation of the very thing you are complaining about. The fact is, that the 6 current members of the Trust Board are the only supporters of this Club who currently demonstrate the willingness to take on the responsibility and accountability that being on the Trust Board entails. They have also ensured that the Supporters Trust together with the 10% voting right in the Club on behalf of supporters continues to exist. But the future direction and success of the Trust is not going to be dictated by the current Board members, it will be dictated by the views and the numbers of those fans who join the Trust and express their views through it. If some fans don't want to be part of a collective voice, that's up to them. The Trust Board is also more accessible than the Club. They have a desk in the Sports Bar and members of the Trust Board are present there before most home matches and are available for anybody who wants to have a chat. In addition if you email the Trust, you are likely to get a response – unlike sending an email to the Clubs SLO address. If you feel that a change campaign is the best way forward, then the best way for that to be successful must be for it to be done through the Supporters Trust. If enough people want a change campaign, there will be enough people to make that the strategy of the Trust. As I said above, the Trust is a democratic supporters body and as such, any campaign will be far more successful as part of the Trust strategy than as a separate group working against the wishes of the recognised democratic supporters body. Having a campaign quite separate from the wishes of the Trust would be playing into the hands of certain people in the Club who are quite happy to encourage a divide and rule situation. As supporters, we need to be as united as possible in order to engage constructively with the club in addressing the concerns of supporters. The Matchday survey could be a changing point in the Club's attitude. It was encouraging that in the P&J article, the Club was quoted as saying that the 300 or so fans who completed the survey should be seen as a reasonable cross-section. We need to build on this. If the club is sincere in this view, then they will take the results of the survey more seriously. This is why it is so important for more people to join the Trust so that Trust membership is at a level of at least the number who completed the survey. Clearly, the more members the Trust has, the more representative it becomes and the harder it will be for the club to ignore. The survey therefore represents the best opportunity fans have had for many a year to get the Club to engage constructively in addressing fans' concerns. To be successful, it really is important that Trust membership increases significantly and that a good few more folk show a willingness to get actively involved in supporting the expressed views of the fans. Of course, the club might just decide to ignore the Trust and the fans they represent, but it makes sense to give them every opportunity to engage. If they choose not to, then it may well be that the kind of active protest campaign that Big Cherly advocates would begin to find more favour and could become the Trusts strategy too. Either way success is far more likely if campaigns are the strategy of a recognised supporters body and led by democratically elected fans representatives.
  5. This thread certainly makes for grim reading, but it provides good examples of the attitude the Club has towards the fans which the Supporters Trust survey illustrated in a more structured and representative way. I can understand and respect people voting with their feet, especially when money is tight, but I don't think that will make the Club management change their ways. Less revenue will simply be used as an excuse not to address some of the issues highlighted in the Matchday Experience Survey. What we need is a stronger fans' voice. It is interesting that in the P&J's article on the Survey Report, the Club is quoted as acknowledging that the 300 or so fans who completed the survey should be seen as a reasonable cross section. It follows that the club must acknowledge the shortcomings identified in the survey report are a reflection of the views of the support as a whole and therefore need to be addressed. The P&J also quoted the Club saying "if we could have a strong and relevant supporters group going forward, it would be very helpful". As fans, we need to hold the Club to these statements. If fans can get behind the Supporters Trust then that would seem to be the best way to get a constructive dialogue between the Club and the supporters and to get these issues addressed. If the Trust had the backing of a large proportion of the fan base, then I am sure the club would not get away with cancelling the sponsors' night or failing to follow up on season-ticket renewals, for example. In the longer term, what we need is fans' representation on the Club Board. The Supporters Trust is the obvious channel for that, but it would need the Trust to be significantly stronger than it is now for that to ever happen. The bottom line here is that the stronger the Supporters Trust is, the better the communication with the club will be. The Trust is trying to get the concerns of funds addressed. If fans don't get behind the Trust and join it, it will simply give the Club an excuse not to address the very issues that fans are complaining about.
  6. HT. 1-0 FT. 2-1 ICT. Mckay Opp. Paton Crowd 2084
  7. I am no longer on the Supporters Trust Board and so can't speak on their behalf, but I am the immediate past Chair and therefore can give some informed comment on the interactions between the Trust and the Club, and how it tries to represent the wider fan base. It is true that the Trust could be more active on this forum, but it does take note of issues that are raised here and takes some of these to the Club. However, the problem is that when these issues are brought up, the stock response is that the Club is not going to make changes just because a handful of people on social media are having a moan about something. When the Trust responds that as the representative fans body, and having spoken with others, they believe this to be a wider concern, the club dismisses the claim of the the Trust to be representative due to the level of its membership. This is a major reason why the Trust carried out the Supporters Matchday Survey earlier in the year. This survey asked fans about a wide range of issues associated with the matchday experience and, as a result, the report will provide views of a large and generally representative number of fans. Where the survey reveals a general unhappiness regarding a specific topic it will therefore not be possible to dismiss it as the views of a small minority of folk who like to moan. The survey has involved a lot of work and should mark a significant milestone in developing the collaborative working between the Club and its supporters through the Trust. My understanding is that the Trust Board will be meeting Club representatives next week regarding the survey report and that the report will be issued more widely soon after. Hopefully, the report will pave the way for some detailed interactions on a range of issues and that this will provide opportunities for a wide range of people to get involved. It is true that the Trust is nothing like as representative as it should be or as the Trust Board would like it to be. And it needs to be more representative if the Trust is to effectively engage with the club in exploring the issued raised by the survey. The Trust has regularly reached out to the wider fan base to get more involved, but if people don't want to join or help in the aims of the Trust, the Board can't force them to! Hopefully the survey report will convince many more people of the value of having a strong and representative Supporters Trust to be the link between the fans and the Club. This is why it is so exasperating for Trust Board members to read people criticising the Trust and giving excuses as to why they don't join. Every time someone does that it makes it easier for the Club to say the Trust is not representative. It also makes it harder for the Trust to do the very things people are criticising them for not doing. If you think the Trust should be doing more, join it and help them do it!
  8. HT 2-0 FT. 3-0 ICT. Gilmore Dundee. Robinson Crowd. 2361
  9. BBC now have it as 1115. So it was around 1122. Well done Gringo!
  10. You're a bit high there. The 1st half was so bad that I took the opportunity to count the crowd. 971 exactly!
  11. Some might say such language is all part and parcel of football culture. If so, then it needs to change. The club used to promote a "family club" image and there were announcements before games that foul and abusive language would not be tolerated. Clearly foul and abusive language is not only tolerated, it is part and parcel of the management style of the manager. As you say, abusing your staff in public is bad management. It is also in contravention of the club's own unacceptable conduct policy, although something tells me he will not be hauled over the coals for his foul mouthed behaviour.
  12. After a bright start I thought Lewis's injury affected the players. I'd be surprised if he hasn't done his cruciate ligament - looked very like it to me. I hope I'm wrong - he was playing pretty well, as he did against. Bonnyrig. The team responded well in the 2nd half and had several chances to take the lead, but messed up. I think we have the talent available but there was a lack of composure and silly mistakes all over the park. Great strike from Gilmore and Billy breaking the club's scoring record were at least some consolation on a disappointing night.
  13. HT. 1-1 FT. 2-2 ICT. Doran Opp. Todorov Crowd 971
  14. The club has never been in the habit of releasing that information, but I don't see any reason why it should be seen as commercially sensitive. Other clubs release this information. County have recently revealed their sales were sitting at around 1700 which, they said, is 23.5% above the figure for last year. If County can release their figures, why can't ICT? I would have thought the benefits of just being open and honest about these things far outweighs any possible element of commercial sensitivity.
  15. They'll be doing this because that is the way they've been told to play. The incentive is that if you don't do what the manager tells you to do then you'll get dropped. Presumably the manager is happy for them to focus on keeping possession rather than take a more positive, but more risky option.
  16. Good to get a win. Results elsewhere show how easy it is for the bigger clubs to slip up against lower league opposition. Two very well taken goals from Doran, and I got from the car to the stadium and back without getting wet. Otherwise, very little to get excited about.
  17. HT. 1-0 FT. 3-0 ICT. Austin Samuels OPP. Watson Crowd. 1011
  18. The position is still broadly what I wrote a couple of weeks ago, although we have made good progress and the report is now, to all intents and purposes, completed. The Trust Board will be looking at it in detail over the next two weeks. There will no doubt be a few changes to make one way and another asa result, but I'm still hopeful it will be available to all by the end of July
  19. Missed the fact that Todorov joined Airdrieonians a couple of weeks ago.
  20. You can join by clicking here!
  21. Which is exactly what the Supporters Trust is doing with the Matchday Experience Survey. There will be a lot of comments, questions and ideas heading the Club's way, and all supported by hard data from the survey findings. I'm hopeful the survey report will be out next month but we're not quite at the stage where we can give a target date for releasing the report.
  22. Thanks for your comments. It is important to note that this is purely a survey regarding the matchday experience and therefore the report will not touch on many of the topics you mention. We did, however, ask about communication regarding the matchday and that certainly generated a lot of comment about communication more generally. We also asked for views on a matchday programme. If a matchday programme was re-introduced, then that could be a vehicle for communication about the other topics you raise.
  23. Many thanks for asking. And, no. You haven't missed it! There are two of us working on it. There is no specific date for its release. We are trying to work through it as quickly as possible but it is a lot of work. The Supporters Trust initiated, wrote and ran the Survey and will control the data and the distribution of the survey report. I am no longer on the Supporters Trust Board, but when they are happy with the final content, I would expect them to share the report with the Club first before it is distributed more widely. The hope is that report will lead to some constructive engagement between the Club, the Supporters Trust and other relevant groups and individuals. There has been some brilliant feedback and ideas from supporters in the free text and the report will include several direct (anonymised) quotes from supporters in the text. I appreciate it has been a while since the survey closed, but I hope you will think the time and effort going into the report has been worth it when you finally see it. I would hope the report can be released to all by the end of July, but I can't promise that, I will be sure to update folk on here if a release date is decided or if there is going to be any delay.
  24. The CEO's statement stated that players who had been offered new contracts had been offered better terms. Billy is 34 now so is coming to the end of his career. His record for us has been great but he has not done as well for other clubs. He's got to balance the pros and cons of grabbing the best offer he can get (even if it means being a bench warmer next season), or being where he will be a key part of the starting 11. I think it would be reasonable for him to take his time and see what other offers might come his way - and meanwhile see if he can squeeze a better offer from us. Personally, I would love it if he was to have another couple of seasons with us.
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