Ready To Listen: Phase 1 Results

[bluebear54 0]

This is a problem.

 

We claim to have a large support running into hundreds of thousands, but very few want to be fan group leaders and those who do would often rather start new groups than join existing ones.

 

There are undoubtedly many reasons for this lack of volunteers, and I'll suggest a couple. Firstly, the club has such a poor reputation that people think twice about a public association with it, and secondly, and perhaps more controversially, what might be termed the middle class within the support is diminishing as a proportion of the whole.

 

I know people hate getting bogged down in class issues and a definition of middle class is never one which meets with universal approval, but it's an issue which has come up in discussions with friends and is surely worth thinking about.

 

Not to forget the vindictiveness and damaging spite that can get thrown your way by other groups.

[Zappa 0]

I want to know how many people commented that they must involve Dave King?

 

The numbers are bound to be quite high on that one. Possibly into the thousands?

[Frankie 8,145]

This is a problem.

 

We claim to have a large support running into hundreds of thousands, but very few want to be fan group leaders and those who do would often rather start new groups than join existing ones.

 

There are undoubtedly many reasons for this lack of volunteers, and I'll suggest a couple. Firstly, the club has such a poor reputation that people think twice about a public association with it, and secondly, and perhaps more controversially, what might be termed the middle class within the support is diminishing as a proportion of the whole.

 

I know people hate getting bogged down in class issues and a definition of middle class is never one which meets with universal approval, but it's an issue which has come up in discussions with friends and is surely worth thinking about.

 

I'm not sure what you mean with respect of the class stuff. If anything I;d have thought upper working class/lower middle class numbers would be increasing throughout the modern era - especially with increasing prices, all-seater stadia and vague offensive behaviour laws.

 

The lack of volunteers is simple - people don't want their every move analysed by people that think they know it all without making the effort to volunteer themselves. It's a time-consuming, thankless and often costly task to volunteer for the board of a fan group and I think folk are just put off by the criticism such people often get. Some fair and expected, others abusive and disgraceful.

 

Perhaps such roles should be outsourced and/or paid? Make the expertise and cost aspects up front at the very beginning?

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Fairly interesting initial results.

 

Of particular note for me is that only 5% of match-day attending fans consider themselves members of a fan group. The suggests all existing groups are struggling badly to attract members and is especially damning of the Assembly who consider season ticket holders as members.

 

I started a post on that very point, don't know what happened to it. Given an 80% response rate to the survey it would seem to be a robust figure. MB once told me that 80% of fans did not belong to any group, this would suggest the figure is as high as 95%.

 

It does point to the urgent need for an all-embracing membership scheme to encompass all fans; whether the Club's new scheme will fit the bill remains to be seen.

[bluebear54 0]

That's an interesting idea Frankie.

Perhaps it should be scoped out a wee bit more.

[Zappa 0]

The lack of volunteers is simple - people don't want their every move analysed by people that think they know it all without making the effort to volunteer themselves. It's a time-consuming, thankless and often costly task to volunteer for the board of a fan group and I think folk are just put off by the criticism such people often get. Some fair and expected, others abusive and disgraceful.

 

Perhaps such roles should be outsourced and/or paid? Make the expertise and cost aspects up front at the very beginning?

 

I don't think it would be right or could ever be workable for fan group volunteers to be paid, but the traveling expenses alone must cost people a small fortune over the year and I doubt if many claim much if anything for a number of reasons. Traveling to and from Ibrox on matchdays is a given and would never be classed as an official 'expense', but the amount of non-matchday meetings they attend over the course of a year must amount to quite significant costs.

[Frankie 8,145]

That's an interesting idea Frankie.

Perhaps it should be scoped out a wee bit more.

 

To be fair it's unlikely but it is worth considering.

 

For example in past years the Assembly used to have an annual budget of £30,000 and a stadium office which is a decent amount. If Assembly 2.0 is to include a subscription charge then that budget may be increased depending on take-up and costs.

 

Now, I don't know how many hours people like Jim Templeton and Andy Kerr put in (the latter stays in England so has to travel up and down for meetings etc) but perhaps a proportion of these could be paid (plus expenses) to attract skilled semi-retired experts into two or three suitable committee roles? I can imagine the outcry right now though once plgsarmy is taking a wage from the club after being appointed...!

[Frankie 8,145]

I don't think it would be right or could ever be workable for fan group volunteers to be paid, but the traveling expenses alone must cost people a small fortune over the year and I doubt if many claim much if anything for a number of reasons. Traveling to and from Ibrox on matchdays is a given and would never be classed as an official 'expense', but the amount of non-matchday meetings they attend over the course of a year must amount to quite significant costs.

 

During my time on the RST board we never asked for nor received expenses. Used to cost me a fair amount to drive through for meetings but the money wasn't really an issue for me. For others it might be though so we should make sure finance isn't an issue to deliver the right candidates for such roles.

[Zappa 0]

During my time on the RST board we never asked for nor received expenses. Used to cost me a fair amount to drive through for meetings but the money wasn't really an issue for me. For others it might be though so we should make sure finance isn't an issue to deliver the right candidates for such roles.

 

I think that any group volunteers should ideally only donate their time, but be paid legitimate travel expenses for attending meetings on non-matchdays provided they aren't traveling long distances outwith a certain radius. The problem is though, that with the likes of the Trust (just as an example!), they would need a much higher number of members paying the yearly membership fee before it could even be considered something worth discussing. Even then, if there were say +5k members there would still inevitably be issues with any suggestion of travel expenses because certain people wouldn't want to claim them and of course you would have other groups using the subject as a PR weapon against the group.

 

It's hard to say how they should approach this subject with an official membership scheme because while a certain level of expenses for volunteers would be a vaild cost, it could easily get out of control if not kept very strict. I can't help wondering how the £30k annual budget given to the Assembly has been used over the years. Has it been used well and wisely? That's certainly a significant amount of money.

[Frankie 8,145]

I think that any group volunteers should ideally only donate their time, but be paid legitimate travel expenses for attending meetings on non-matchdays provided they aren't traveling long distances outwith a certain radius. The problem is though, that with the likes of the Trust (just as an example!), they would need a much higher number of members paying the yearly membership fee before it could even be considered something worth discussing. Even then, if there were say +5k members there would still inevitably be issues with any suggestion of travel expenses because certain people wouldn't want to claim them and of course you would have other groups using the subject as a PR weapon against the group.

 

It's hard to say how they should approach this subject with an official membership scheme because while a certain level of expenses for volunteers would be a vaild cost, it could easily get out of control if not kept very strict. I can't help wondering how the £30k annual budget given to the Assembly has been used over the years. Has it been used well and wisely? That's certainly a significant amount of money.

 

I don't think they've had that budget for a number of years now. No idea how they accounted for it but I'd fancy their annual dinner and expenses formed the bulk of the budget.

 

I think they may also have paid for a few of the card displays.