Communication

[Douglas Mackenzie]

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam.

He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today.

Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them.

He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking.

I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff.

He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing  you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. 

The board don't  look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little.

The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week.

For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season.

Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best. 

 

 

 

[old caley girl]

7 minutes ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam.

He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today.

Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them.

He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking.

I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff.

He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing  you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. 

The board don't  look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little.

The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week.

For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season.

Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the 

I think if you go on your account Douglas tye early bird prices are still there 

[big cherly]

12 minutes ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam.

He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today.

Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them.

He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking.

I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff.

He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing  you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. 

The board don't  look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little.

The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week.

For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season.

Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best. 

 

 

 

Well done Douglas, for persevering when most of us just gave up.

Be interesting to see if your stone in the pond gathers any momentum (wave like), time will tell.

For me the recent posters has been what’s good about the fans (both positive and negative [depending on what side of the fence you sit]); so here’s to the start of the new season. Enjoy it !(all the ups and downs). 

Edited July 3, 2023 by big cherly

[+Fraz]

3 hours ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam.

He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today.

Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them.

He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking.

I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff.

He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing  you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. 

The board don't  look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little.

The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week.

For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season.

Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best. 

 

 

 

I assume SG tells them everything is fantastic, they smile and get on with their day. 

[Jaggernaut]

3 hours ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam.

He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today.

Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them.

He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking.

I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff.

He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing  you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. 

The board don't  look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little.

The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week.

For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season.

Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best. 

 

 

 

I cannot believe that no one at the club wants to know what the core support of the club is feeling. Surely to gain the reaction of the fans, the club must look at social media and the fans forum? If not, they are coming across more and more how completely out of touch with the mood of the fans they are.

[Yngwie]

I’d be pretty sure that they do look, even if they don’t admit it.

[old caley girl]

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

I’d be pretty sure that they do look, even if they don’t admit it.

You'd never know then...lol

[Robert]

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

I’d be pretty sure that they do look, even if they don’t admit it.

If they do look, why do they ignore the clear concerns being voiced and the sentiments expressed?

[STFU]

Wouldn't it be nice if someone at the club took some accountability and stopped just blaming others?

[Duke of Inverness]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:39 PM, Jaggernaut said:

I cannot believe that no one at the club wants to know what the core support of the club is feeling. Surely to gain the reaction of the fans, the club must look at social media and the fans forum? If not, they are coming across more and more how completely out of touch with the mood of the fans they are.

So the SLO is not doing his job it seems. Plus he is also on the board. What an unfit for purpose lot we have in the boardroom and senior management at ICT.

Whilst they sit in their boardroom and comfy seats looking down their noses at the rest of us around the ground (it ain't a stadium).  Or as the case may be, quite a few more of us not renewing season tickets and not even in the ground come the start of next season. 

Can't see any changes happening soon as they are happy with their lot. Poor, poor, poor!!

Edited July 4, 2023 by Duke of Inverness
Typo

[old caley girl]

Personally I don't think having a Director as SLO is right. I'd prefer it was a fan recruited for the roll given its meant to be the communication bridge between fans and clubs. Exactly like it is at other clubs. 

[Douglas Mackenzie]

I agree with you OCG. How can a board member and Director be the fans liaison or to give the role it's proper name the SLO. The SLO should be someone who represents the views and opinions of the supporters whilst airing them with the CEO or board. That way he/she will be like the meat in the sandwich - neither totally on one side or the other,but able to put across the general consensus of opinions and views on behalf of a collective. I am not talking about running to the board because Bloggs was moaning about this or that. I mean the SLO should be able to garner a good grasp of the fans opinions and views from speaking to them and then be able to raise these at Board level in an open and constructive manner, seeking an appropriate response to give back to the fans.

In other words the link, the bridge,or the go between. Same when the board want to discuss an issue and seek a view from fans,they should go through the SLO.

[Scotty]

13 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

Personally I don't think having a Director as SLO is right. I'd prefer it was a fan recruited for the roll given its meant to be the communication bridge between fans and clubs. Exactly like it is at other clubs. 

Don't care who it is provided they are responsive and handle the contact with supporters quickly and with fairness. 

Also don't buy the "doesn't get emails" line. It is so simple to set up email aliases, groups and/or forwarders that can deliver or forward email sent to one generic address such as SLO@<domain> to one, two or a hundred other email addresses including personal or internal addresses.  

[big cherly]

4 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Don't care who it is provided they are responsive and handle the contact with supporters quickly and with fairness. 

Also don't buy the "doesn't get emails" line. It is so simple to set up email aliases, groups and/or forwarders that can deliver or forward email sent to one generic address such as SLO@<domain> to one, two or a hundred other email addresses including personal or internal addresses. 

Understand where you’re coming from scotty in that you don’t care where the person comes from as long as they competent, ‘straight’ and professional in communicating to the respective bodies.

I buy all that. Only thing is the level of distrust from a good number of the fans towards anything to do with what the board control (ie their SLO), will be  met with some scepticism if a key issue in the fans eyes is not sanctioned. (Be it valid or not).
I do feel a fans rep stands a better chance of mediation and progress fir both parties.

just my tuppence worth.

bc

 

[Scotty]

30 minutes ago, big cherly said:

I do feel a fans rep stands a better chance of mediation and progress fir both parties.

you are probably right, but then again, depending on who the fan is then they too stand the risk of being accused of just being a boardroom shill by elements of the fanbase. A classic case of not being able to please everyone. I am sure the well-meaning members of the Trust, and anyone else who has been on any supporter's organisation (and not just at ICT) can attest to this. 

Perhaps what is needed is a bit of both? A fan based rep for the generic or oft asked fan questions and a club official where it needs a more formal answer or may need to be escalated.  Email forwarders could handle both people under one address

The club have always been pretty parochial and insular with information, and in some cases, that's the correct stance. We may want to know everything and think we have the right, but we do not. Confidential info, personnel information, or business critical stuff need to remain confidential until it can be announced where appropriate. However almost everything else should be up for public consumption and certainly not a secret, but that's seldom the case. When called out about this behaviour, the level (and scope) of insularity then increases exponentially and actually does damage like we are seeing now. We have seen it many times before with different boards so it's nothing new. What's also not new is the fact that it's also pretty pointless trying to "manage" the non-confidential info this way as the flow of info from the stadium can sometimes be akin to water in a sieve.

Many of the things raised recently are hardly state secrets (or should not need to be). How about we get back to the way the club used to share some info in a timely fashion and trot out the confidentiality clause only when it really is something that should not be discussed in the public domain.   #OpenNESS     

[robbo1985]

As a relatively new ICTFC supporter I have attempted to contact the club about a few issues in recent months and have received no acknowledgement or reply to any of them.  It was only when I discovered the Caley Jags forum that I became aware of th extent of the communication issues.

Only a few days away from our first pre-season friendly, as far as I can see, there is still no information about ticket prices for this match or indeed whether this will be included for season ticket holders.  No ticket information for the cup games has been sent out either it seems.

I'm sure there would have been additional demand for strip sales prior to the cup final but this wasn't available in the club shop (at least in the majority of regular sizes) and there has been no announcement on kit for this season (as far as I'm aware) and we are now into July.

I am disappointed to read of all the issues with the lack of communication from the club and how this has, understandably, left many feeling devalued and reluctant to renew season tickets.

As someone who is keen to attend as many matches as possible (home and away) this season I am hoping the situation improves and have joined the Supporters Trust to try and make a positive contribution.  From what I've read though the signs don't look good unless significant efforts are made to engage with the fans which ultimately make or break a football club! Here's hoping for a successful season .... 

 

 

 

[old caley girl]

15 minutes ago, Scotty said:

you are probably right, but then again, depending on who the fan is then they too stand the risk of being accused of just being a boardroom shill by elements of the fanbase. A classic case of not being able to please everyone. I am sure the well-meaning members of the Trust, and anyone else who has been on any supporter's organisation (and not just at ICT) can attest to this. 

Perhaps what is needed is a bit of both? A fan based rep for the generic or oft asked fan questions and a club official where it needs a more formal answer or may need to be escalated.  Email forwarders could handle both people under one address

The club have always been pretty parochial and insular with information, and in some cases, that's the correct stance. We may want to know everything and think we have the right, but we do not. Confidential info, personnel information, or business critical stuff need to remain confidential until it can be announced where appropriate. However almost everything else should be up for public consumption and certainly not a secret, but that's seldom the case. When called out about this behaviour, the level (and scope) of insularity then increases exponentially and actually does damage like we are seeing now. We have seen it many times before with different boards so it's nothing new. What's also not new is the fact that it's also pretty pointless trying to "manage" the non-confidential info this way as the flow of info from the stadium can sometimes be akin to water in a sieve.

Many of the things raised recently are hardly state secrets (or should not need to be). How about we get back to the way the club used to share some info in a timely fashion and trot out the confidentiality clause only when it really is something that should not be discussed in the public domain.   #OpenNESS     

There are several clubs in Scotland with excellent SLOs Scotty. Bev at St J is one of the best imho but Kenny across the bridge does a pretty good job too. There are blueprints and rules to cover what you mention above. This is not a new role just one we've never utilised properly imho 

https://www.supporters-direct.scot/activities/supporter-liaison-officer/

Edited July 4, 2023 by old caley girl
To add link to slo role

[STFU]

Was CaleyD the SLO when he was at the club?

[Robert]

Thanks for the link OCG, this bit is particularly interesting:

”The SLO role requires clubs participating in UEFA competitions to appoint a full-time member of staff  to work and engage with supporters, acting as a key point of contact.”

I don’t see how we comply with that when the SLO is a Director who, I’m pretty certain, does not work full time for the club. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Robert

[old caley girl]

8 minutes ago, Robert said:

Thanks for the link OCG, this bit is particularly interesting:

”The SLO role requires clubs participating in UEFA competitions to appoint a full-time member of staff  to work and engage with supporters, acting as a key point of contact.”

I don’t see how we comply with that when the SLO is a Director who, I’m pretty certain, does not work full time for the club. 

Yes Robert. A most clubs it's a proper job. If you are on twitter have a look at some other clubs SLO accounts. This can be a fantastic role imho 

[old caley girl]

12 minutes ago, STFU said:

Was CaleyD the SLO when he was at the club?

I think Kristine Fraser was named as SLO when CaleyD was at the club doing media etc 

[+Fraz]

41 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

There are several clubs in Scotland with excellent SLOs Scotty. Bev at St J is one of the best imho but Kenny across the bridge does a pretty good job too. There are blueprints and rules to cover what you mention above. This is not a new role just one we've never utilised properly imho 

The last, and only SLO who made an effort that I can think of (and it was some time ago) was Andy J. From what I understand over time 'mission creep' happened and he ended up responsible as stadium manager, H&S guy and all kinds of other things. Got frustrated and stepped back. Happy to be corrected if that's off base. 

Now doing a power of work as media guy, child protection officer and committee member of the ICTWFC Academy. Good bloke. 

[+Fraz]

14 minutes ago, STFU said:

Was CaleyD the SLO when he was at the club?

He did media and some other things but was never SLO as far as I'm aware. 

[bdu98196]

Fans only matter to any club when the cash stops rolling in. Unlike any other business, football (and sport) is built on unwaivering fan loyalty (unless you're a glory hunter or plastic fan) so those in charge know they can treat their customer base with utter contempt and it has little to no effects unfortunately. There may be exceptions with great community ties and everyone feels part of a 'family' but they are the minority and there is a disconnect throughout football right now.

The club will look at it from the perspective that employing someone to actively work as an SLO or in communications will cost £25,30,40k pa, even if its part time that's still half a salary................does investing that time (and cash) result in more returns that it costs. For a club our size its probably debatable - realistically given our ST costs we'd need a drop of around 600 just to make back the lowest quoted figure. Even with the discontent its unlikely we will see such impacts year on year (and nobody will look back beyond that because they will justify with other external factors)

 

[old caley girl]

1 hour ago, bdu98196 said:

Fans only matter to any club when the cash stops rolling in. Unlike any other business, football (and sport) is built on unwaivering fan loyalty (unless you're a glory hunter or plastic fan) so those in charge know they can treat their customer base with utter contempt and it has little to no effects unfortunately. There may be exceptions with great community ties and everyone feels part of a 'family' but they are the minority and there is a disconnect throughout football right now.

The club will look at it from the perspective that employing someone to actively work as an SLO or in communications will cost £25,30,40k pa, even if its part time that's still half a salary................does investing that time (and cash) result in more returns that it costs. For a club our size its probably debatable - realistically given our ST costs we'd need a drop of around 600 just to make back the lowest quoted figure. Even with the discontent its unlikely we will see such impacts year on year (and nobody will look back beyond that because they will justify with other external factors)

 

Not disagreeing with any of this but its more than obvious that we are poorly staffed as a club off the field in non management roles? Could be a shared position? We have had staff who are fans before? I don't know if all clubs use the role as a paid position either? Could be a voluntary position? Either way having a Director as SLO isn't really working and as in a lot of things this could be done much much better....