GOBIAS
Ian Bowyer
I can’t believe people give so much of a shit one way or another about the supporters trust!!
Thank you for this interesting response which I have reflected on before responding. Most issues have already been dealt with but a few comments:
1. Thank you for your compliment in your penultimate paragraph - for a lad from a working class, council house background in Sutton I‘ve never been given such an accolade.
2. Like many others, you refer to relations with the forum in 2017/18 - please read post 777 - Strummer - for a more up to date position.
3. I understand your point about representation, but of supporters groups how many current members does each group have. The Supporters Club probably have the most, Forest Punjabi 200?, DSA 4. You ask why I’m trying to convert people on this forum - I’m not as my approach is to simply to correct misinformation from people who put out views which have no evidence. I want people to make up their own minds based on fact not flawed information.
5. I can assure that I have no time for the team down the A52, I have posted on the forum that Club should face the full and serious consequences of owner mismanagement and rule breaking. However, I believe in the real spirit of Association Football where communities don’t lose their club - and I want the opportunity to beat them in the future. Too many clubs have suffered from bad ownership but history shows that football comes together to ensure clubs can survive albeit suffering from the legacy of previous owners.
6. Your view of lack of action from the Trust on the two key issues of Lower Bridgford and Ticketing is misplaced. The Trust worked actively on both issues, and operated with the same tight timeframe as Forza. The Trust secured a face to face meeting with the Chairman at short to deal with tough questions from the membership. A transcript of the Club response was issued within seven days.
7. The Trust has been very active within the FSA raising a wide range of important issues, participating actively on FLR, fixture scheduling, and stewarding/fan behaviour. This has had positive outcomes.
Sadly, too many minds are closed on the Trust mainly because of dated perceptions, and independent evidence to the contrary.
Supporters come from a wide diversity of backgrounds. Each Forest Supporter Group has its own distinct role but collectively they are a force for good. At games they come together as a force - why can’t we do this away from games?
I‘m looking forward to focussing on the football tomorrow rather than debating supporter groups. Like the other 3,000 away supporters my focus will be on backing my team fully. Hopefully celebrating as one with fans irrespective of which group they belong to.
Whatever the outcome I will take a short break from the Forum.
COYR
Just a few points as I'm away to bed for a 5am start. The 0.01% was a quick mental approximation of 800 out of 50k. should've used a calculator lol. It's actually 0.016%. Huge mistake unnecessarily snarky from you there.
On point 2, as I said, this stuff sticks in the mind..you don't get a second chance to make a 1st impression, and they're still not engaging with fans on important issues until after the fact, which is too late. Sod tea n cakes with the club, engage with the SUPPORTERS
Point 3 ties into the fan engagement, or lack of. Groups like Forza have a much higher engagement cos they put the effort in. Hell even little old me got off my arse and spoke to the club so I knew the LB issue was coming and warned the fb group. More than the ST did! WHY are they not doing this basic stuff?
6. They only engaged with fans AFTERWARDS. This was probably my biggest and most important point and you've missed it hugely and spectacularly I'm afraid. It was reactionary not pre emptive. See above, my conversations (plural) with Bexon. If i can do that as a rep of a fb group, and get answers and have frank conversations why the frigging hell dont they? I knew about several issues of club being rapped over fan behaviour that have been kept quiet as they managed to.avoid charges, surging, seating issues in LB and more, and was able to edit and disseminate info to the group while still maintaining confidentiality on other issues. This is all stuff the Trust should be doing and engaging with the fans over.
The Trust should have been engaging with the fans BEFORE announcements, gaining feedback and being the buffer between club and fans, unless of course the club shut them out, as i suspect, in which case theyre as much use as a chocolate fireguard as a supporters representation unless they're doing the club mouthpiece bit I referred to previously.
Issues such as LB and memberships are what they should be representing fans on, BEFORE changes are made, not tweeting about f***ing Derby County. I'm willing to bet most fans care more about membership issues than the FSA, as important as that may be.
Again, they are not engaging with fans in the areas they need to, WHEN they need to, only reacting afterwards on important issues.
They need to subjectively and honestly look at what they're doing and how they're doing it, cos right now it's not working and if you can't see that then I despair, it sums up the attitude of the Trust tbh.
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It’s 1.6%
800 fans would be 0.01% of 8m supporters.
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Not without membership.I'm a Forest supporter of 42 years living in Holland. The last match I went to was preCovid (vs Brentford in 2019). I guess there is now absolutely no way I will be able to see Forest in the flesh this season.... :-(
Yes-it was difficult to get through them at Accrington and Salisbury (especially in the prawn sandwichMark Crossley's just been on the radio, he's a special guest on a corporate bus today. Pleased the corporate lads got tickets, we had a right laugh with them a few years back at Scunthorpe and Walsall
Not without membership.
Only chance you'll get is cup game against really uninteresting opposition.
I wonder how many tickets have gone to corporate today? Hopefully it will be easier once the novelty wares off.Yes-it was difficult to get through them at Accrington and Salisbury (especially in the prawn sandwich
suite).
This is one of the realities of the Premier League, and one of the reasons why it’s so awash with money.Mark Crossley's just been on the radio, he's a special guest on a corporate bus today. Pleased the corporate lads got tickets, we had a right laugh with them a few years back at Scunthorpe and Walsall
Corporates refusing to leave their free drinks & tucker pre game..8 empty seats near me! Greater transparency needed!
Sniffer dogs were busy on the way in. Would’ve maybe caught a few out (not necessarily 8 together).8 empty seats near me! Greater transparency needed!
Yes-it doesn’t surprise me tickets are fairly plentiful.Very easy to get in and get Spurs tickets today. Quite a few left too.
Still no word from the club about the ticket exchange programme.
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I must say this is a truly appalling post which should have been removed.Just a few points as I'm away to bed for a 5am start. The 0.01% was a quick mental guess, 1.6% on a 800 out of 50,000 basis (corrected as per post below, mush for brains when I'm on earlies!! )
(Also edit: had a quick look this morning for some comparable figures. Our fb group has 7.97k members (up feom 4.9k at season end to illustrate the growth this close season) and 3.95k regular visitors engaging. Our highest post engagement to date was the Samba the Redeemer pic which when i last looked had over 96k views just for that single post.
NFST has 2.9k who have "liked" it to follow and get updates, I obviously don't have access to visitor # but I guess you could extrapolate on a like for like basis to guesstimate. This is what I mean by engagement, an official body should be much higher, but as they don't engage much on SM, they limit themselves on audience as there's nothing to engage with. )
On point 2, as I said, this stuff sticks in the mind..you don't get a second chance to make a 1st impression, and they're still not engaging with fans on important issues until after the fact, which is too late. Sod tea n cakes with the club, engage with the SUPPORTERS
Point 3 ties into the fan engagement, or lack of. Groups like Forza have a much higher engagement cos they put the effort in. Hell even little old me got off my arse and spoke to the club so I knew the LB issue was coming and warned the fb group. More than the ST did! WHY are they not doing this basic stuff?
6. They only engaged with fans AFTERWARDS. This was probably my biggest and most important point and you've missed it hugely and spectacularly I'm afraid. It was reactionary not pre emptive. See above, my conversations (plural) with Bexon. If i can do that as a rep of a fb group, and get answers and have frank conversations why the frigging hell dont they? I knew about several issues of club being rapped over fan behaviour that have been kept quiet as they managed to.avoid charges, surging, seating issues in LB and more, and was able to edit and disseminate info to the group while still maintaining confidentiality on other issues. This is all stuff the Trust should be doing and engaging with the fans over.
The Trust should have been engaging with the fans BEFORE announcements, gaining feedback and being the buffer between club and fans, unless of course the club shut them out, as i suspect, in which case theyre as much use as a chocolate fireguard as a supporters representation unless they're doing the club mouthpiece bit I referred to previously.
Issues such as LB and memberships are what they should be representing fans on, BEFORE changes are made, not tweeting about f***ing Derby County. I'm willing to bet most fans care more about membership issues than the FSA, as important as that may be.
Again, they are not engaging with fans in the areas they need to, WHEN they need to, only reacting afterwards on important issues.
They need to subjectively and honestly look at what they're doing and how they're doing it, cos right now it's not working and if you can't see that then I despair, it sums up the attitude of the Trust tbh.
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