Trust Board meeting July 2019

[+DoofersDad]

The Board of the Supporters Trust met last night with Scot Gardiner, the club's new CEO.  Scot has a wealth of experience of management within football clubs and it is clear that his knowledge and enthusiasm are going to be a terrific asset to this club.  We are grateful to Scot for his open and frank approach and delighted that he understands the importance of engaging constructively with supporters groups.  He is already working on a number of initiatives and I think we can expect some very positive announcements from the club in the next few weeks as we head into our anniversary season.

In relation to the business of the Trust, members can expect a communication soon regarding a new membership fee which we are required to levy under the Rules.  Having an up to date membership list of paid up members is crucial to the effective and legal operation of the Trust.  

The fans Party is scheduled to take place on Saturday July 20th  starting at 7pm at the stadium.  Confirmed details will be released on the club's media sites and through the Trust's social media  outlets in the next day or two.  This event will be a great celebratory way to start the season!

We are currently putting together a fans survey about certain aspects of the match day experience.  We hope to carry this out on a match day in the near future and will update folk on this soon.

Colleagues on the Trust Board offered congratulations to our Secretary, Jennifer Aitchison  on her appointment to the Board of Supporters Direct Scotland.  SD Scotland is effectively the parent body for Supporters Trusts throughout Scotland and is the body that liaises with national football bodies in Scotland.  Jen's involvement on the national Board will allow us to have a greater insight of and input into initiatives at a national level.  The personal contact with colleagues at other clubs where fan involvement with clubs has been much more high profile than it has here will also be invaluable to us in our developing role within the club.

Already we have fed in to a multi-agency consultation document on a National Strategy for Policing Football in Scotland being led by Police Scotland.  Our view is that the focus of the football community should be less on the policing in dealing with unacceptable behaviour, but more on preventing it in the first place.  There has been a lot of discussion on CTO over the years about the behaviour of some sections of our support and our view is that an engaging educational approach should be the cornerstone of the approach at club level.  A noisy and exuberant support creates real atmosphere at games and is greatly appreciated by the lads on the pitch.  However, when that exuberance spills over into abusive chanting, throwing flares, threatening behaviour and vandalism etc, then it quickly turns into a negative impact on the club.  It is easy for the excitement of the moment and peer pressure to cause folk to cross the line and act out of character in these situations.  Rather than identifying the individuals who have stepped over the line and punish them, we would rather an educational approach was used to help people understand why their behaviour was unacceptable and the kind of impact it has on other people.  Better still to have proactive engagement to prevent folk stepping over the line in the first place.  And I'm not just referring to the youngsters here!    This is something we will want to actively discuss with the club in due course.  Having said that, we recognise there are limits to the educational approach and there will be occasions where there is no option other than serious sanctions. 

The club has been going through a difficult period.  But as we head into our 25th anniversary season, I feel we have turned the corner and are now well placed to build on the good work Robbo has done in the last couple of years and make a real push for promotion.  Unlike our  neighbours, we have no benevolent backer pouring millions into the club and therefore success will only come if the club engages fully with the local community and the community gives its support and backing to the club. This is going to be a crucial year for the club but I sense its going to be a good one.  Lets all get behind our team! 

[Scarlet Pimple]

Very good report DD. Especially to friends who live overseas and can easily get out of touch with what is going on within the club itself.