Thetownend.com

Jerry Yates having some fun with younger fans at the Junior Reds Christmas do:

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1204490972148781056

You could possibly worded that better, sound a bit Yew Tree?  ;)

Bloody club and players not giving up time to engage with the fan base!

Erm, yeah, sorry Jerry. Here's Lloyd Isgrove also failing to engage with the next generation of fans:

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1204672166249336833

Drove Primary School this time:
https://twitter.com/DrovePriSchool/status/1206292542943305728

Further proof that the Club are really not doing enough to engage with the fans/local community...


 ;)

Still no sign of Wellens and players in schools talking and taking the training sessions, you said is happening frequently.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELwagy_WkAIgxjX?format=jpg&name=medium)

No I didn't. I said Wellens and players had visited schools, think I also pointed out a time Wellens had helped with training session at Croft. And cited that as *one* example of community engagement because you were claiming the club did nothing. Since then I and others have pointed out loads of times that similar things have happened and you've chosen to ignore all of them in favour of moaning that the club hasn't held a meeting so that you can go and moan to an empty room. Just accept it, the club, the management team and the players are doing more to get out and engage with the community and especially with kids, where the next generation of fans come from.

I don't think Wellens himself said he and the players would be going into schools to take training sessions etc, rather doing some with local Junior FC's.

Let's get this clear.... a while back I raised the point that the links between club and fans for a number of reasons had become broken.

We then had Wellens saying as such and the club appointing an officer to work on improving matters, in line with other clubs as part of EFL requirements. Do I think the club shoud carry out its requirement to hold a couple of meetings with fans a year... yes.

Am I interested in seeing how this fan interaction is progressing.... yes.

And both players and management have gone into schools to talk to kids, and Wellens and Hunt took a training session at Croft, as I said. There's also been plenty of examples of Wellens, Hunt and players interacting with local kids whether that be Wellens and Hunt taking training at local grassroots clubs, players joining in 5-a-sides in the inflatable pitch, turning up at half term camps, joining in at Jr Reds Xmas party etc etc. What's your problem?

Wellens and the players failed to the community belligerent old men training session?

My problem is receiving abuse when questioning your assertion that Wellens and players have been going into schools talking to kids and taking training sessions. Especially as it isn't what Wellens said they would be doing..... the way schools are set up these days makes it very difficult for such initiatives to happen, even if the club wanted it.

The new FITC facility on the extension offers a great opportunity for the club to get more involved

You didn't get abuse, stop being such a nelly. You (as usual) twisted what had been said to make it look as if there's a glaring ongoing issue when there really isn't, so I corrected you. Your pedantry on this is really tedious, the club, including the players and management, are plainly making an active effort to reach out to the community, especially younger fans and instead of applauding that you resort to splitting hairs to try to score a point. It's not a good look.

Christ is the engagement argument still going on, the club are clearly doing a lot of stuff with the community. This was last week and had the players actually playing little matches with the kids:

https://twitter.com/official_stfc/status/1204490972148781056

https://twitter.com/official_stfc/status/1204490972148781056

Week before the keepers did a disability football season:

https://twitter.com/official_stfc/status/1201901571111637005

You can literally go through the clubs Twitter and see them do something in the community every week it’s not hard apart from for one individual it seems.

Groan.

We know FiTC which is now called Community Foundation, or similar does stuff and has done for years.  It isn't the same as the club.

It's independent.... a Trust funded mainly by grants from the Prem and EFL, and other sponsors, including the EU.   I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one who understands this.

That independence enabled FiTC to get the Eadie money.... there was no way the club was getting it.

 :D Reggest phrase ever.

Yes that's the point. All the examples he quoted were ones that the players you keep accusing of failing to engage with the community had given up their time to attend FitC events. You know, engaging with the community

This shit is starting to derail this thread, mods could we pull it out into "The Reg Smeeton Memorial Community Engagement Thread" or something?

Ha ha didn't think you'd actually use the name :)

I did want to try and be more creative but my mind just refused to engage. Copy and paste - job done.

A weak attempt at bullying.

Just admit it you got a bit carried away with the loads of examples of Wellens and players going into schools to talk and take training, and rather than present non existent evidence went for the default abuse position.

Is the argument that the clubs out reach is happening under the entity which exists to be the football clubs outreach entity??

Brilliant gesture,    Chap could have died if they had not spotted him and turned back -  There are still a few good people in football despite the rumours.

No, FiTC doesn't exist to be the Club's outreach, it exists solely to do Community work as do similar oraganisations for the other clubs in the FL.

The players also went to theOUtlet last week to collect and wrap presents that will/have been given to kids at GWH over Christamas by said players.

Maybe Reg you could just take a hostage and list your demands, because we are clearly struggling with what will make you happy.  That some of this goes unreported in whatever news media you are using is maybe an issue?  As someone who doesn't even live locally anymore, there seems an obvious change in approach from the club, and I'm also someone who doesn't use Twitter.

^^ Hear hear. I'm normally someone who gives you a pretty easy ride, but you're taking arguing the toss to new levels now. If the club is taking the easy option of dropping into existing community support structures, how much of your original complaint can you really still gnaw away at ffs? Either they're doing more than before, or they're not. Either it's enough or it isn't. Apart from the fans meeting, do you think they're still not doing enough, is that it? Because frankly, I'm beginning to lose the will to listen.

They also had  the Open Day, so apart from the getaway bus and the fans forum, I can't think of much else.

They haven't been round to Reg's and cooked his tea yet!

This is getting as silly as the regular arguments regarding communication, where for many, if the club won't send the manager round to pass on the news directly, its just not enough!

I pointed out the breakdown in fan engagement a long time ago.... it needed to change. Wellens said so himself the club got in line with the rest of the FL by appointing a community officer all well and good.

But this is about the specific case raised by Davis that there were loads of examples of Wellens and players going into schools delivering talks  and taking training sessions.... I questioned this, and which was called pathetic and further accused of being a lazy sod as Google would provide all the examples that Davis was making his case on.

So yes to Flasher, it is science insofar as observable evidence is being sought on a specific issue.

As regards the Fans Forum it is a charter requirement of being a FL club.... rather than the snide jibes that I might be the only oine inteersted in attending, I would have thought questioning why Power doesn't want to do this might be more helpful.

*Sigh* I used that players and Wellens going into schools as one example of community engagement. And backed it up with an example of them doing it. The broader discussion was always that you claimed the club weren't engaging with the community, you've been pelted with examples of it and rather than admit you're wrong, you're trying to narrow it down to a hair-splitting argument as to whether I'd said an example or "loads" - you even quoted the bit you're claiming says "loads" and it doesn't. Then when you're called out on it, you start crying about "bullying" because people have had the temerity to point out you're talking shite. Just accept you made a point you thought at the time was valid but that you actually can't stand up because there were other things happening you weren't aware of. That's not a terrible thing to admit, it happens all the time to everyone. That's how we learn new stuff.

Your exact word was "plenty" To me that implies more than one or two, then the need for hysterics, trying to pull in imagined support from others who so say have posted up examples... I'm more than happy to accept what I'm saying is erroneous, namely I still don't see plenty of examples of players going into schools and delivering talks and training sessions as you aver.

We could learn new stuff about STFC if Power held a fan's forum.... he could even get the Supporters Club and Trust involved with talk about how the joint purchase and share issue is coming along

So, apart from the Fans Forum, what else is missing Reg?

I can see evidence, through online reporting, of the players and coaches being out and about at schools, attending events at the club and FITC, doing the usual Christmas pressie at a hospital gig, accepting school visits to the ground and having players/management available, giving away season tickets at schools and having an entire match given over to kids to get involved.  It doesn't matter who organises each of these, the availability and being involved delivers engagement with the local community.

What else are they suppose to do?  They do have a job, so you'd hope they spend some time training and stuff as well.

I give up. OK Reg, you win, none of the dozen or so* examples of players and management team engaging with young fans in schools, giving out season tickets to schools, grassroots training sessions, FitC half term clubs, Junior Christmas party, free/cheap tickets for U11s for designated games, FanZones before games etc etc etc count as community engagement and they're all evil bastards who hate kids. It's almost like some people don't *want* to acknowledge when the club make an effort.  




* I've not counted them by the way so please do go back and count them all and then pull me up for another 3 pages if it turns out it's 11 or 14 or whatever

I was thinking we need a checklist, so we can check them off and confirm.

School visits - Croft & Drove for sure, any more?
Schools visiting the club - Goddard Park, any more?
Events - Junior Reds Christmas Party
Coaching - FITC events, RobinsFC U14 coaching evening
Tickets - season ticket giveaway, Walsall match, other one off's
Matchday - Fanzone - players available not in matchday squad
Open Day - delivered
Christmas gift wrapping & delivery at Hospital - in progress
Fans Forum - Nothing planned
AGM - dead as a duck

I am sure there are more examples than the above that can be added, usually schools do a fair bit with the club that never reaches the press, but parents know about it.

Here's Morfuni about communication Sept 18......


There you have it in a nutshell.... although improvements have been made, it's why you end up being ranked 92 of 92 for fan engagement.

Coaching - Wellens and Hunt gave up their own time on a Friday night to help coach a local U14 side.
http://robinsfc.co.uk/show_news_report.php?reportId=20191025_RichieWellensTrainingRobins
I only happen to know about that because I used to be involved with the club, receieved no publicity other than the club's own website AFAIK so there may well be other examples where they've done the same with other local clubs

Reg, nobody is arguing that bar was set low in previous years.  You quote something from Sept 18, it's over a year ago, we are using evidence in 2019 to show a change appears to have happened for the better, you know, improvement!

And for which the sample surveyed appear to have been the fb group, which is less than representative of the average fan's view of the club. Alternative facts when it suits?

Again no.... the data used on the survey quoted publically available sources..... FB site is private ie sign up.

Reg isn't even prepared to acknowledge that any point of view other than his own has any validity, so it's hardly surprising that when he is wrong he gets (even more) anal and pedantic rather than simply saying "ok fair point".

I decided some time ago to stop wasting my time trying to engage with him.  

It's not a decision that has ruined my life.

Not sure where I got that from - didn't someone mention the questionnaire had been circulated there? Perhaps the researcher signed up.

Or the other possibility is that I am entirely wrong. See, that was easy.

Classic.... back in the summer you asked the question when was the last time a cricketer had as much effect on an Ashes series as Steve Smith.... he of 2 test wins of 4 games played, in a drawn series.  I gave you an answer of Ian Bell..... the most runs by an Englishmen in a home 5 game Ashes series.... 3 hundreds all in winning tests and contributing to winning the urn.

By any reasonable person's judgement, historic excellence... I didn't even ask the question, just provided a clear and obvious answer.   

Your response.... it's a really dumb answer.

I'm glad you've stopped engaging as debate of that quality holds no interest to me.

A quote that actually doesn't say anything positive nor negative about communication at the club!


But apart from that, what have Swindon Town Football Club ever done for us?

You really need to start getting out more, this constant trolling and 'I told you so three years ago' nonsesne is doing you no favours on here at all.

Morfuni may or not be Vice Chairman.... we don't actually know, but he's right if you don't communicate people take their own view.

At the time he was talking about moving the CG development forward, whilst he acknowledged patience my be required it's gone very quiet on that front for months now.

GIven that the project requires fans to dip into their purses/wallets, you'd have thought there might have been a bit more proactivity.

So when anyone wants to know where the 80% bollocks comes from, now I know..

What a thread.

If we are ranked 92nd of 92 then the clubs a few spots above us must be holding nightly fans forums round supporters houses, with a free hand job thrown in for good measure

It's compiled by someone who came from Supporters Direct and was involved in AFC Wimbledon.  It's not unreasonable to expect there to be a slant as a result, and Exeter coming out on top nails that as they are run by their fans.  I'm not sure the methodology is available to scrutinise, but even if it were, we know it was shit for a while, nobody denies that.

They suggest that 3 key criteria are used....  face-to-face dialogue: fans forums, one-to-one relationships with supporters' trusts and fans' liaison meetings.

 3 clubs apparently Port Vale, Gillingham and Swindon Town - did not carry out any regular communication with their fans. We know about Scally, Smurthwaite has gone and the new PV owners have started to put fan engagement at the heart of their remit, which may account for them having an improved season.

Pics from the OAP Christmas dinner. Hope you're enjoying it Reg!

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1206933016544776194

They refused to lay on a limousine driven by Wellens whilst Power cleaned his shoes and Doyle answered his questions, on that basis Reg ain't going!

Worrying lack of alcohol on some of those tables! 

And the last time you attended any event at the CG was  :hmmm:

Billy Tucker on there, legend.

https://twitter.com/kaiyneewoolery/status/1206995114268221448

That's like most of our fans. Low levels of English isn't it? Nice gesture though in seriousness.

Interesting post by Danny Lee, ticket office manager who's been very much at the heart of the club's community engagement push, showing the difference that's been made in 6 months:

https://twitter.com/DannyLee___/status/1207057518079488004

Was just about to post the same thing. Speaks volumes for the efforts the Club have been making in the past few months.

Danny Lee is the club's Supporter's Liason Officer (SLO) Having one is a charter requirement for EFL clubs... good to see he's doing his job.

FiTC have been beavering away since 91 steadily building up an empire, whereby their staff both volunteers and paid do stuff with all ages of the community.... again this is an EFL requirement, and therefore monies have come from grants and sponsorships.

FiTC has gone from having a container near the car park, to it's present nice shiny new home on the extension... it's certainly raised their profile and can reflect well on the club, despite it being independent.

Above and beyond from Woolery and the club:

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1208022813849899008

That's how to reach out into new generations and new communities

Atm 1 in 6 people in Swindon were born outside te UK, that's about say 35,000 people and then add in their kids either here now or to come, potentially a fan base to be tapped. There's got to be ways of encouraging them along....

If the club had done that sort of thing for me when I was a kid, I might have become a life-long fan.

Yes, if only the club had thought of encouraging these kids along by giving free tickets to Drove Primary School, which is why the lad was there in the first place. Then by spotting the opportunity to follow it up like this with Woolery giving the lad a signed shirt. #MissedOpportunities

All good stuff, but it's about getting them back.  This isn't easy. One of the strange things of recent years is that the advantage to many of supporting a small largely unsuccessful club that is rooted in a particular community, is that by that process of belonging immigrants feel shut out.

Whereas the global brand clubs now having mostly lost their community roots will have anybody, anywhere. You almost get a reversal, the remaining proper indiginous fans feel shut out.

I'm from Merseyside, didn't feel shut out. The kids from Drove didn't look like they felt shut out. And if they did, the club have taken great steps toward making them (and others like them) feel welcome. Nice theory, doesn't stand up to scrutiny of the evidence. SCIENCE.

Swindon has accepted many immigrants since WW2, it has also had in place for a number of years FiTC style initiatives and others like the old Study Centre.... look around you next time you're at the CG,  not wholly scientific, but what do you see?

I get what you're driving it, but it's not necessarily because of the "rooted in the community" theory you posited. In fact, one can come to feel part of that community because of an adherence to the football club rather than vice versa. Getting back to the point being made, the club are making an effort to reach out to these communities of which the Drove School/Woolery thing is an example.

There are and have been lots of factors at work down the years, the club have made various efforts in the past, but as I say it is very difficult to make things stick to get people coming back.  I'm not offering solutions. 

A classic illustration of the difficulties of such things is shown by the old Highbury mural put up when they were doing a new stand....

http://barrettsonthisday.anorak.co.uk/uncategorized/2111/highbury-mura

Lots of Scousers.... :D

https://twitter.com/official_stfc/status/1208099750374866944

Yes, yes, yes....but apart from that, what are the Club actually doing...?  ;)

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/18124396.swindon-town-fan-elliot-6-helped-save-big-brothers-life/

Fanzone's back

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2019/january/things-to-do/

Think we won some sort of family excellence award.

edit: Back in April 2019, first time in 7 years

Over £13k raised for the Darby Rimmer Foundation today just from the purple shirt sales. That's aside from extra money the Supporters Club are also chipping in from half time draw and their other fundraising

https://twitter.com/_BenWills/status/1213473401752473601

And pieces in today's match day programme on the OAP Dinner, Christmas Hospital Visit...and a two page spread with a lovely pic of Doughty playing bingo with a lady of senior years.

F***, me - it's a wonder they find time to play any football.  What more do you want, Reg?  Blood?!   :D

No wonder they're so knackered.

Less community engagement, I say!

If he does, the County Ground hosts regular blood donor sessions so he could rock up there and see if he could borrow some :)

The Christmas stuff has been done for years, as has using the CG as a blood donor venue.

Sort of thing which interests me, is for example back in the summer it came out that the end bit of the Arkells would be closed this season, now there were people in there who'd had season tickets for years, who as far as I know received no explanation of why... further, I'm not sure the rest of us did either.   Now it's entirely possible I've missed the explanation from the club, but looked to me as a classic example of piss off some fans, without care.

This is not accurate.
A relative of mine had a season ticket in the now closed section of the Arkells For a number of years. He told me that they were asked to move to the next section because the end bit was going to be closed as this would reduce the costs of stewarding as fewer stewards would be required if that section is kept empty. They were given a choice from the vacant seats in the next section along when it happened.
To say there was “no explanation” is factually wrong, as in that case they received a full explanation.
 It’s not ideal but in reality reducing unnecessary costs to align with gate income is sensible in my view - and is it any different from only opening certain areas for the Boycott trophy?

Everyone directly affected would have been told. I wouldn't class that as community engagement anyway.

p.s can we change the title of this thread? I keep thinking Reg has died when i see a post in the latest topics. Just remove the memorial?

Initially people trying to renew season tickets were just getting not available, so at least they did eventually provide a reason.  Although we can work these things out, I don't recall the rest of us getting an explanation... we should it doesn't help the atmosphere and doesn't look good from the DRS..

You may be happy with it, but to me it's typical and doesn't help create an atmosphere that loyal fans particularly matter.

This stuff is about fan as well as community engagement....  with the fans it's about communication of what is going on.

Unless you had a seat there, why would they communicate with you?  On a match day you get to buy a seat from those that remain available, so no need to anything other than advise those who had season tickets there - and that's just been covered for you.  The club has done similar before - the section at the front of the DR by the away end, the section by the away fans in the Arkells.

What you should be more concerned about is why in 1986/87 was I sold a seat number that didn't exist in the North Stand, against Fulham in the Cup?

If the fans care that much about some seats not being available, maybe more of them should show up? (I'm being disingenuous - the fans really don't care, you are one of a handful who had got their knickers in a twist over it I would expect). Are you being serious Reg, honestly?  Clubs all over the country with small attendances vs. capacity manage their grounds accordingly.  The Stratton Bank, should that be opened in-case someone really fancies being in the open and we stump up the running costs to provide it for them?  No, it's not a fucking charity.

STFC have a long and undistinguished history of treating loyal fans like shit.... it would be good to see that change.

Given we played Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Cup in 86/87, I guess the club were surprised to find you wanted a ticket at the CG and thought they'd just take your money if that gullible.

If we're having to scrape the barrel this much for things to moan about, then things must be going rather well.

I have no idea why I thought it was Fulham :-).  I have a feeling it may have been one of the minnows in the Cup in the 80's, certainly a sub 3k crowd on the day because half the yellow seats were still empty after I was moved along.

edit:  Searching brings up more questions than answers!  May even have been a league game at this rate.  Anyway, seat did not exist.

FH's point stands - what a bizarre thing to knock the club over.  I see nothing wrong with the approach they have taken.

Just so i get the full picture, can you list all instances of this history please.

Thanks

Good luck getting an answer.

Well we all know what that feels like eh LL?  ;)

I've no idea how far you go back, but some of this stuff is relatively recent, for example the banning of fans like Mex, and the whole protest movement to save the club.

Again relatively recent would be TE'ers receiving letters threatening bans for standing in the TE

In the 60's the Supportrers Club used to a have a club house in some huts on the corner of the car park, for pre match beers etc. When the Arkells was built, they were provided with a nice new facility..... turfed out in the 80's.  The 70's and 80's would see arbitary erection of fences and cages, in the TE and on the Shrivenham Road, likewise when the TV gantry which hung on the Shrivenham Road stand was condemned a scaffolding thing was built on the half way line terrace taking up space and blocking the view of where fans had congregated for years.  This would have been late 80's a time also of membership schemes when for example during agame v Oldham 200 Town fans were evicted and had their membership revoked.

Those 80's years were the height of the Fanzine movement to try and point out to authorities and clubs the error of their ways, which led at STFC to efforts to ban match day sales.

Matters did improve somewhat when Fitton and CO stepped in but even they burnt the final bridges to small scale shareholders and effectively binned the AGM's where fans could quiz owners etc.

Of course a lot of this stuff was on a national scale, which led to things like Supporters Direct, a body to improve communications between fans and clubs, which have led to charter requirements, to hold the FL golden share.

Oh and here's another one Rikki's penchant for giving the TE to opposition fans.... to me this game v Shitty is a crime against humanity, presumably you regard it it as wholly reasonable.

See the Town fans ecstatic about Junior Bent's goal....

http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/MatchCentre.asp?MatchID=19910103

I was thrown out v Oldham, membership card confiscated.
Got home, mentioned it to the then mrs who rang the club and tore them off a strip.
Hillier dropped my ID card round next day

Cant even remember why we got thrown out. Pretty sure everyone I knew thrown out got membership cards back also

So now we are expecting Power to right the ills of the football authorities, police & govt for the past 5 decades?  Talk about moving goalposts.

I've still not forgiven him for selling Fjortoft.

And sacking Andy Rowland.

And allowing Billy Paynter permission to talk to Leeds before the season ended. That Power is a complete Michael Hunt.

I thought that would be the case to be honest.

Someone's very precious about loyal supporters.

Allowing Macari to pay calderwoods moving expenses and hillier to have a bet, shocking

Redbuck asked for historic examples, so I gave him some. I know you were about in the orange protest era, but don't particuarly recall you being one of the leading board apologists, perhaps I'm wrong.

Because you responded to a previous post by referencing years of bad stuff occurring, which still has no relevance to whether or not Power's regime is improving with fan & community engagement or not.

On balance, Power's time as our Chairman is still hardly going to go down as a success as things stand - he's taken us down a division, hasn't materially improved us in terms of infrastructure (yet), but I can still objectively see that this past year has been an improvement vs. the ones before it, and that's being nearly 4k miles away.

And yes, I got involved with an Orange Hat, as well as asking questions of Bob Holt at a Fans Forum, for as much worth as that was in the grand scheme of things.  So I know things can be much worse in fact.  I'd not even have batted an eyelid at the non-use of a block in the North Stand.

 The relevance is that closing down a block of seats and shifting out long standing season ticket holders is of a a piece with previous mistreating of fans. OK relatively minor in the scheme of things but it doesn't look good from the DRS.

 I would rather see, for example, a raft of school kids in there on freebies with Davis as a volunteer steward, assuming he'd get the DBS clearance.  ;)

Had clearance for the past 8 years, working as a volunteer coach with up to 3 different junior/youth teams at the same time, so no worries there. Some of us walk the walk .....

I tell you what, Harold Fleming would have got considerably more England caps if Power hadn't shot Franz Ferdinand.....

Lee Power was flying Bill Power's plane that day too

That's impressive.... most people only work with one at a time.  Is it a bit like simultaneous chess?

I've had it for a similar period, yet always get an irrational fear when its renewed that they will find something I know nothing about!

I think you'd remember if you'd been charged, taken to court and convicted of something 

Oh I know, its just paranoia kicking in!

Or amnesia :)

I get nervy when dealing with immigration. Although, to be fair, there are a few things they might discover that could get me into a spot of bother.

I am similarly nervy passing through passport control, and I am (I think) free of skeletons in the cupboard. .

Strange you say that. When I used to work for the Gov & MoD, whenever I went through Passport Control/Security etc. I never once was stopped, frisked, bag searched or had that seemingly excruciating long wait as they inspected your Passport. It almost felt like it had barely been looked at and I'd be the one waiting for my then partner or a friend (yep it's true).

Fast forward to my first travel abroad since leaving that post and my clearances expiring. I've been drug screened in Madeira, taken to one side and searched in Turkey and even most of my arrivals seem to take time nowadays too.

I'm a nobody and call it what you like but since leaving that post, I certainly feel the big brother vibe much more.

I get stopped every single time now - titanium knee. It gets very tiresome.

Took Mrs Audrey’s Dad on holiday a few years ago. Scanner went off and, for some reason, he had decided to take a Swiss Army Knife with him!

That took some explaining!

Your knee or the stoppages that get tiresome?  :)

Thought you could take a blade under 3inches in your hand luggage?

Try it.

I have had problems owing to my replacement hips, always give me the proper search but since I was taken ill in Mexico and had to have a pacemaker fitted on my return I have to show my pacemaker card and then get very personal service, no queuing to go through the scanner!

I remember once being taken to one side by an incredibly pretty young French lady at Carcassonne airport as my baggage had be chosen for screening. Now me and the missus have two matching bags and thus when they go through and the labels are applied we don't really bother to make sure that the labels are on the right bags.

So I go into this room, and she opens my bag and finds it full of bras and knickers, she found it very amusing!

So it was your own bag after all.  Phew!

Nice story. The Portuguese woman who "screened" me was very beautiful too. Would've been nice to have a chat.

Did you show her your three-inch blade?

No but she was very interested to see it *Boom boom*  :D

Blog from a paramedic for Wiltshire Air Ambulance being sponsored by the club about what it means to him. The club are paying for his training, medical equipment and uniform as part of their sponsorship of Wiltshire Air Ambulance.  :clap:

https://www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk/joining-wiltshire-air-ambulance-my-dream-job/

Lovely.

;D

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1220654979360477185

I had a similar experience in Spain, except it was a small case that held a weeks worth of my laundry, boxers etc. She didn't look to enthusiastically  :)

Not you Horlock in a Shrews shirt? :hmmm:
https://youtu.be/dAargSCXQaQ

How dare the club make an engaging gesture like that!

Problem is there's a lot of damage to repair.... sort of thing from a couple of years back, my local ran a Christmas raffle to fund feeding the homeless at Christmas.   Local and not so local businesses donoated some amazing prizes and a couple of grand was raised... however although Supermarine chipped in and FGR, nowt from STFC.  A couple of regulars who go to matches were so disgusted with the club, they bought some tickets themselves and lobbed them in.  Only a samll thing, but people notice.

In your local, does the barman always know to serve your glass half-empty?  ;)

The top or bottom half?

We can’t afford Doyle because of shit like this.

#ParaOut

Operative here being that it was in the past. Current management can't change what happened previously. Impossible. What they can do is make moves to change things going forward. Which is exactly what the club are doing and we're STILL providing examples. You have just shifted the goalposts slightly from your original stance though. The one about "what are the club doing to engage fans..." (It's not a direct quote that I know you'll try to pull me up on. To yet again deflect but the wording is in the same catchment of which you previously had stated).

So now instead of it being "What are the club doing..?", it's "But regardless of what they do now, look at what they never used to do?". Nice one.

The club has an image problem. Doesn't matter so much for the hardcore, but there is a swathe of potential fans who could be reached if Power can get some forward momentum, so far in his tenure we've at best stood still in some areas and backwards in others.  People notice this. It will be interesting to see if this weeks events have an effect on Saturday's gate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9J4vEVDr5w

Which may or may not be true. But insofar as it is, it is related to matters on the pitch, not community engagement, which is the subject of the thread. In which areas you seem determined to ignore or decry any efforts the club do make. Seems like nothing the club does will ever be good enough

TBF the subject of the thread is one of yours and Flasher's weak efforts at bullying instead of debate.  The original argument was about the breaking of links between the club and fans, in all its manifestations of which wider community links is but one facet much of which over the years has been taken care of by FiTC and that has been enhanced by the recent CG extensionn hub. All good

The club has acknowledged that things in regard to fan engagement have been substandard and resolved to do something about.... Wellens "it feels like a side not a club"  Again all good.   But you can't ignore on field matters in this.... in many fans eyes the two go hand in hand.

I am not sure that there is "a swathe of potential fans" waiting to be tapped into. Anything less than a premier league offering will only attract a limited customer base.

(https://media.giphy.com/media/pfHBWCCOySoRq/giphy.gif)

You have no idea how much this gif could have been useful to me in the past.

Well, you have it now. Think of it as my gif(t) to you :)

The first half of this is well worth a listen (not that the second half isn't!) - Loathed Strangers chat with Ben Hooke, the club's media guy, covers a lot of stuff on fan engagement and what they're doing on the (social) media front this season. Think everyone (well, nearly everyone) would agree there's been some excellent content put out by the club this season and if you haven't watched the "County Ground Uncut" videos on YouTube yet, thoroughly recommend you do.

https://soundcloud.com/user-613048186/its-all-about-the-benjamins

They have been very good.

Some social media output tends to be a bit cheesy, but I think they've got the balance just right.

The short clips of game footage on Twitter, the "Uncut" videos, Loathed Strangers Pods and Marley's alternative comms have really enhanced what's already been one of the most enjoyable seasons as a Town fan in a very long time for me. More power to all 3.

Agree with all of that and would add the Talk of the Town podcasts that BBC Wilts do...

Oh yes, those are excellent. Astounded I forgot those, going senile

On the fan engagement front, the way the club have harnessed the excitement around Yates/Doyle this week has been superb, some cracking work from Mr Hooke et al

The Hallam Hope announcement video last week was beautiful.

You really can’t fault the efforts all season long IMO. Listening to the fella’s LS interview the other day you can tell he knows exactly what he’s doing with regard to the social media side of things.

Lots of people in his position think they've 'made it' once they have the club coat on and then struggle with the complexities and personalities from within. I know a few things about the experiences of others in similar roles at other lower league clubs and the industry can be brutal.

Ben is meticulous, knows the job and the demands required of him and embraces it all. There is so much more to his job than Social Media content.

I know he's put a lot of work in to understanding what Swindon Town is all about both within the club and its fanbase.

Well fair play to him. :-)

Can you remember a couple of years ago when it blew up with the Adver and Lee Power said the club didn't need such a close relationship with the local newspaper  and would control it's own content.

Looking at all the social media content yesterday and everyone was looking at the club content for the news. Cast back to the last Di Canio window in 2013 and everyone looked to Sam Morshead for the breaking news.

Maybe Lee Power was right in seeing that shift as the Adver cut back their sports staff and content further.

Are you referring to the notorious Banzai app  :hmmm:

http://thetownend.com/index.php?topic=55898.0

That didn't seem to work so well...

Which was 5 years ago so not really relevant in the present context unless one is desperately scrabbling around to maintain a laboured negative narrative?

Fanzai(?) aside, I'm not sure that the demise of local papers is a positive development, despite the excellent content coming from the club, a thriving independent local press to examine what is happening with the club (and the council and the town generally) is still very much needed. We don't have it at the moment and the town as a whole is the poorer for it

Thing is the world has moved on, what with the interweb and specifically social media the local rag business model doesn't work, bar possibly on a weekly format as we have
up here.

Probably so, but until we find something to replace it to give local communities that independent voice, we have a problem. None of which, tbf, is at all relevant to the excellent content that Ben H is producing which was the original point :)

No. Moonraker asked about the time when Power seemed to be trying to alter the traditioinal way "news" was disseminated.

So I asked him if he was thinking of the notorious Banzai app and provided an example of how it was debated on the TEF.

BTW it's almost like you think that stuff which happened in the past has no relevance to what is happening now... like getting us relegated to Div 4 in the Banzai season, has no relevance to us now being in Div 4.

I was not specifically thinking about Fanzai which was a poor attempt to commercialise the clubs content.

Though looking back at the club's comments in 2015 around the Fanzai app and it talked about giving fans behind the scenes content. Sam Morshead responded about sterile marketing content and is it what fans want?

The club has moved on from that debacle  in now terms of using the mainstream social media networks and returned to pre game match press conferences.

If you looked at the content this week and the excitement around then you can argue that shift has taken place and this is what fans want. The Yates and Doyle videos as an example.

It's a shame what has happened with the Adver content given their long proud history with the club. I can remember the excitement of walking into town at lunchtime to get an Adver from the sellers to get some Swindon news.

There is a place for that community oversight and for the generation like my parents who prefer printed newspapers. But when they cut back the staff so the Adver don't attend a presser whose fault is that.

However, if you look at the commercials for online adverts now which is where the money is. Where are the clicks which pay going and it's the club not the paper.

Local rags stopped being independent years ago, if they ever were.

They are like village post offices and pubs, people reminisce about them, don't use them and moan when they naturally disappear!

The club as the main source of news is fine when things are rosy, very dangerous when they’re not

This, far more succinctly put, was what I was trying to say. But horlock is right, use it or lose it, and I'm as guilty of that as anyone

I used to like the plain black writing on white background boards that were strategically placed outside newsagents etc to which headline banners were clipped.  Mostly it was something teasing to tempt you in, but always recall the  :o of seeing Ossie Ardiles appointed new manager.

It is of course the way of the world that the club use FB and Twitter, but there are some fans who baulk at the sale of their personal data to the likes of Cambridge Analytica, who prefer not to use these platforms.

Facebook/Google et al can and do profile you whenever you go online even if you don't sign up to Facebook or use any Google products

https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17254312/facebook-shadow-profiles-data-collection-non-users-mark-zuckerberg

Given you're using the internet, I assume you're not one of these baulking fans?

However....

If you’re not a Facebook user, though, the data is less valuable.

Very interesting link for technophobes like me, Paul.  

Interesting how "contacts" is something of a Trojan Horse for accessing information about non Facebook users like me.  

Sort of surprising, given how GDPR regulation seems so controlling in other spheres of commercial activity.

Perhaps so, but it still gets used, mined and exploited by the likes of CA, which was your initial objection to using FB/Twitter. Log off quick! :)

I used to like a lunchtime loiter outside Debenhams to see if the Desert Rat Jimmy Wagstaff had his Adver deliveries.

Even in those days you could run up a phone bill dialling up Swindon Town Clubcall for the latest news. Remember slotting in the 50ps to get the score whilst at a Youth Hostel at Lulworth Cove during Ossie's first season.

Looks like they're still coming back

https://twitter.com/DrovePriSchool/status/1223720222189858816

And on the fan engagement front, I think a sell-out crowd for a Div 4 league fixture, not cup against Premiership side, not play-offs, just regular Div 4 fixture, shows quite considerable fan engagement. Whole town's buzzing about the club atm

You’d like to think the club will get decent recognition at the end of season awards this year and there’s clearly a lot of effort being put in.

tbh, I think the rewards are more in terms of things like the turnout today. As you say, clearly a lot of effort being put in. The club did a superb job capitalising on the "soap opera" around Yates and Doyle's return this week and it was rewarded with an extra 5,000 on the gate. That will go a long way to paying for the reported fee for Doyle by itself. Superb work.

Is it the same kids? Or a different lot?.  Have to say I don't really scrutinise primary school websites, so will have to bow to your greater knowledge...

They've done a few things with Drove, which is good.  Getting a close relationship with the nearby schools has to be a good thing.

I'm not sure why, unless it is in an educational context, like when the previous head of Drove was a Trustee of the Study Centre and due to proximity could easily allow the kids to benefit from the SC activities.

You’re not sure why it’s a good thing for the club to cultivate relationships with neighbouring schools? Oh FFS Reg

Yes. I'm not sure you understand the nature of how education is currently conducting in the English system.

Have to say I'm equally baffled, and I am reasonably familiar with how the English education system is currently conducted, having two children still engaged in it and a partner who works in it. It's almost as if Reg just doesn't want to acknowledge the club might be doing anything right because it doesn't fit his thesis.

As usual you miss the point.... EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

The English system has become increasingly prescriptive over a number of years.... if for example the club wished to get involved as an educational resource with local schools it would involve setting up properly funded, resourced and staffed facilities, or set times whereby STFC funded staff would go into schools, for which the schools would probably pay unless it was funded by the club.  The school would need to justify it as delivering some aspect of the National Curriculum.

Where not talking doling out a few tickets here, although the school would probably stick that down to Ofsted as an  example of Community links, in much the same way as for Drove a visit to the Fire Station, Ambulance Station or Tesco.

That wasn't the point. The point is fan/community engagement. Which the club are doing. In Droves (ha ha). Whether you want to admit it or not. Go on, admit the club are doing some good stuff here. It won't kill you.

The point is the club cannot do this unless it is done in a proper educational context... that would cost.  So doesn't and won't happen, unless something unlikely happens like government throwing a pot of money at it.  I'm not talking FiTC here.

Well I work for the biggest British education company in the world, and have been in the education industry for 35 years, but please feel free to patronise me.

Oh, and I know how English verbs are conjugated.  ;)

Presumably private sector then.... literally a world away from the English state sector.

Well, the company is deeply engaged in the state sector and regulated by government, but wtf. I’ll bow out here, since as so often, this has become an ad hominem, rather than a discussion of why the club shouldn’t be engaging with local schools.

I’m generally pretty patient with you, but I’ve actually had a skinful of you for a bit. Get fucked, Reg.

It's as if the goalposts have been moved, yet again.

Stick to the point in case. The club HAVE engaged. We continually validate this even though we don't need to. You genuinely are behaving like an odious cunt. Everyone is on a fairly good bloody wave at the moment and we know that doesn't last long.

Scrutiny where it is warranted is fine but I really don't understand this continual pissing on your own doorstep Reg?

Then you should know about the creeping privatisation of education for the benefit of academy chains etc. this produces a very prescriptive curriculum.

Any involvement by the club into schools has to be set against this background of educational context.... loosely of what educational benefit in terms of the national curriculum has the club to offer the school.

Using the example of the old Study Centre of a close link betwen club and Drove as the old head was a Trustee of the CS, it could provide computing, film making, animation, robotics and control technology.  This is the sort of thing which is justifiable and desirable, but expensive.... hence why the Tories closed it.

"Community Engagement". Not Educational engagement. Stop. Moving. The. Goalposts.

And yet they do. Because the club do have links with Drove Primary School, who's children continue to come to games and enjoy them, as evidenced by the school's twitter account, thus building the community links you are so desperate to deny. Bafflingly.

Groan. It does get tedious, but the substantive point is about links between the club and schools. TBF to Wellens at no stage did he say his staff etc would be engaging in a big way with schools that's something dreamt up by Davis... he said they would do some work with Junior FC's. We have FiTC which has worked with schools since 91, and continues to do so FiTC isn't STFC they are separate entities.

STFC was more engaged with the old Study Centre until it had to sever many of its links when the 00 admin crisis kicked in, but the SC carried on by becoming a charitable trust. This was proper engagement with schools and young people, even those excluded. 

It's not so much that something like that isn't desirable, but rather it isn't going to happen.

Nowt wrong in shipping a few feebie out to local schools in Swindon and District, but it isn't in any way shape or form what would be understood by previous examples of close co-operation.

Whats a feebie ?

Yes it does get bloody tedious...

So by your own admission, this IS "Community Engagement", is it not? Surely after a period of possibly zero, some is a good start and a pathway to continued engagement in the future?

"Proper engagement" is purely an opinion, relative to one's expectations (like me saying Town should be an upper L1 (Div3) club). You of course can gage where "proper" might be, based on past exploits but the current incumbents can't change the past - yet they can (and are) making steps to influence an engaged future.

The importance of the clubs social media plays a bigger role in this than many might appreciate. It is integral to marketing today and those who adapt to change often are the ones who succeed. Those who stand still to newer angles and potential innovation get left behind. A simple example would be "Goal GIFs" (look them up). Many hated them at first but a lot of kids love them. GIFs are increasingly being used to communicate more than emojis/smileys. You can agree/disagree with this concept but I revert back to the ability to accept change.

However, engagement in a stand alone is happening and we are seeing small notches of progress from it. Long may it continue and good to see you do acknowledge it, even if in a somewhat passive and negative way.

Schools are a part of the community, tasked with education. If the club wishes to engage closely with schools it has to be justified educationally.

It is possible... FiTC do it, the club has done it in the past but it requires funding.  Not the same as giving out a few freebies.

He’s really hating us doing well both on and off the pitch isn’t he....

There may well be a separation of sorts between STFC and FiTC but FiTC wouldn't exist without the club.
The 2 interact on many levels.
FiTC may well be taking the lead in contacting schools, running courses etc but it's the club supplying playing staff to visit these schools/courses and supplying the free tickets.

Aside from that the fan engagement thru social media is obvious to all to see, even if you arent on those platforms. Been linked to many times.

Honestly think Reg is holding out for a fans forum or an invite to a Q&A/tea with Power.

Reg seems to detest the club from top to bottom.

I do dislike inaccuracy.... sometimes it can be simply down to the interpretation of words, so needs to be batted about to find a context. In the latest case it appears to hinge on definition of closeness of links to schools.... for me that suggests some sort of formality costing probably hundreds of thousands, which may provide educational courses or at least educational experiences. To others on here it seems to be giving out a few tickets.

By way of an example of a close link, I'd offer this.... between FiTC and CWeal

https://www.commonweal.co.uk/sixth-form/football-education-programme/

Been running some years now by FiTC in conjunction with CWeal 6th form.  STFC get a rub off because the students wear Town logos on their kit, but it's nothing to do with the club.

Of course the funding for such close links comes from a variety of sources including the EU.

Academy schools don’t have to follow the NC, only LA schools do.

it doesn't actually. if they want to engage with local schools JUST by giving away free tickets. they are allowed to. there isn't a rule book.

it COULD however quite easily cross paths by use of educational incentives. Trips are commonly used as rewards for high achievement, good behaviour, positive work and are also offered to pupils who come from poorer backgrounds where trips to football (as an example) might never happen.


thoughts Reg?

I don't know why people still take Reg seriously.

It's bad enough when you keep moving the goalposts, now you're just making shit up. I said the club *had* engaged with schools and Junior FCs and provided examples of both. If you can't back your arguments up with those facts you're so fond of, you might be better just keeping shtum rather than resorting to making stuff up.

1.It's true FiTC wouldn't exist without the club but they are wholly independent, which is why the Eadie Trustees would give the $ to FitC but not the club (Power)

2. I would need to see evidence that players or staff take the tickets into schools, beyond the original Croft thing.

3. By which you suggest that stuff gets posted up on a website and fans can look at it.... I would have thougt a minimum requirement in a modern age.

4. There should be 2 FF's a season in accordance with the FL charter.... we haven't had one for years

He has basically become a parody account of himself. Which is a shame because he does have a good store of historical knowledge about both the town and the club and used to use that to provide a depth of perspective. Now he just seems to want to paint himself into a corner all the time arguing unsustainable points and then trying to shift the ground every time he paints himself into a corner.

Yes examples of Junior FC's in accordance with what Wellens said they'd do.... then "plenty* of examples of players and staff in schools, which Wellens never said they'd do.  Still waiting on that.

seems like you have accidently dodged past another of my posts where I found your answer to your question.

And to get the thread back on track with fan engagement, a fine example of what successful fan engagement looks like: a packed and buzzing County Ground

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1223623258349744128

(Mods, is there any way we can embed videos from twitter directly so that the tinfoil hatters who won't go on there in case twitter steals the personal data that Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft have already collected anyway can see these videos?)

Reg isn't keen on answers that don't agree with him. Parody account.

Yes I get the justification, but then it becomes a bit like Pocket Money Boy in Numb who was paid to stay out of trouble, but didn't.

The problem then becomes what schools do you give this reward to, what about the well behaved Kids.  perhaps better if schools wish to use a reward scheme they pay for the tickets themselves.

1, May be wholly independent but still work hand in hand. The football fans in training is run by FiTC. On STFC premises giving the participants STFC football shirts and utilising STFC staff. Had Lingy do a talk when I was on it.

2, Not just tickets, STFC players and staff have been at FiTC courses and initiatives. There is a video somewhere online of Wellens at one too.

3, No idea if it's on the OS as rarely read it, plenty of stuff on other platforms I do read.

4, Yep but not happening so deal with it, just because those arent happening doesnt mean anything else isnt.

There isn't a problem. Well behaved kids? see high achievement and good behaviour.

Your assuming that schools don't pay for the tickets themselves and if they don't it really doesn't matter, it is for the schools to distribute how they wish and on the criteria and incentive that they create. It seems like your out of touch with the current school system.

glad you can see the justification. you could have ended it there instead of trying to find a but and a new issue. 

 I've scrolled the thread and Iffy's only other input is where he asks for a thread name change, because he thinks I'm dead.

 Still don't let the facts get in the way of a chance for a snide remark

FiTC have been at it for near on 30 years, and Town staff have always engaged here and there, partly dependent on the characters involved.  I'm still not convinced that the present lot go into schools armed with tickets to give away.

Being at a course on the extension isn't the same as going into say Dorcan or Kingsdown, delivering a talk or a football coaching session.

I wonder why Power continues to snub the FL charter.... radical I know  :hmmm:

A charter requirement is exactly that...

Fair enough then it's up to schools to divvy out tickets as seen fit.... by your understanding if receiving a batch of tickets , would you regard that as close co-operation?

edited within the context of your own thread. yes
its a strange question to ask really as it obviously requires co-operation to get tickets regularly sourced and distributed.

.
Just in case you conveniently missed it. FAO: Reg

No, because the OP made by Rob was about getting a close relationship with nearby schools.  

My take on what that means is predicated by the old Study Centre, which to me was a close relationship.... 2 classrooms, one a permanent fixture the other in the Cecil Green Suite, flexible, staffed by specialists and teachers in IT and control technology and robotics.  This enabled educational and wider social work inter and intra schools, to which the club could give access to players and staff on site, when convenient.

It also enabled things like summer courses, whereby the SC would link with FiTC, to provide physical activities as well as more techy stuff, and take in Town pre season training sessions.

Nothing like that now....

its really hard to know what you want.


I thought that this was why it was created. and links have been established for 15 pages. the thread title is community engagement but really it should be "why hasn't the club opened a study centre like the old days"

Fan and community engagement come in many forms, and merit their own sub debates..... this one happens to be about interactions with schools.

I know why the Study Centre closed.... chopped off by Tory austerity.  I don't expect to see any money spent on such a national initaitive again under the present government.

JUST FUCKING STOP

don't you fucking dare, I love this

Fuckin' hell, imagine if Reg was Alexa?

As a school governor with a child in the same school and also engaging with the teachers on delivery of certain parts of the curriculum can I just enquire what your apparent extensive knowledge of the curriculum is based upon as it bears little resemblance to what I see on the ground?

Have you had Ofsted recently? 

Here's an overview of the Drove School curriculum....

https://drove-pri.swindon.sch.uk/learning-and-education/curriculum/curriculum-overview

Yes in December, it went very well thank you for asking.

It’s all very well and good handing out free tickets to schools, but if Richie Wellens isn’t teaching them algebra then what’s the fucking point

As he dodged the question, fuck all it would seem.

This thread is ridiculous and hilarious in equal measures  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2020/february/gallery-a-gleeful-win-over-the-grecians/


The last picture in the gallery of RW with the 3 mascots on Saturday tells you all you need to know about the Club and fan engagement right now - and it's got fuck all to do with Ofsted...

Yeah.

But how's their trigonometry coming along?

just an idea. maybe we should put mathematical symbols on players shirts then at every freekick the uneducated, freebie ticket taking, unengaged kids have to work out the answer before its taken.

doughty/ grant x yates = ?

others can include. swindon town receive 70% of all liquids purchased. if 2000 fans bought chicken balti pies and a cup of bovril.  How much would Swindon receive and how much would Lindley Catering?       

This thread (in places) tells you all you need know about the club and fan engagement right now.

Countless examples on a weekly basis of excellent fan engagement, with almost every poster commending the club on the clear efforts made this season

How so?  The club has been doing mascots for years, in fact, Carol Birt and her teddy at Wembley in 69 was one of the first.

They do it to make money nothing wrong with that but it's no differnt atm than it has been for years in that department

Of course this was the sort of thing done at the Study Centre.... develop a spread sheet to work things out.

.

 Good to see this FiTC initiative this week.....

 https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/18205999.foundation-park-swindon-twinned-belgium-peace-field/

Because in that photo he's clearly teaching them algebra.

Well to me it is obvious. Yes the Club have been doing mascot packages for years and years but I would imagine an awful lot, perhaps most, of our previous managers would have had nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Richie Wellens, on a match day would have 1,001 things going through his mind but he has taken the time to sit down and talk to those lads - 'engage' with them in fact. To me, taking the trouble to do that before such a huge game is the ultimate example of fan engagement.

How many managers, before a top of the table clash with so much at stake would do that I wonder? I personally think it's pretty amazing - maybe I'm just easily impressed.

I have to admit, I don't quite grasp the point of this thread but if the question is "Are the Club making huge steps forward in re-engaging with the fan base?", then yes - absolutely. Credit where it's due.

And for all we know, maybe he was teaching them fucking algebra...

Yes that is the point of the thread, despite the best efforts of some to derail onto a different track when their central thesis is continually disproved.

I literally don't have a clue what he is talking about...

Perhaps I can just put the FITC argument to bed, as a former trustee of not many years past. FITC was set up across the Football League because it was recognized that clubs were not engaging with the community in the way that communities had a right to expect, or at least hope for. Originally, it was an integral part of the clubs' structures.  However, sadly, it became clear after a few years, that money granted towards FITC activities was disappearing into the coffers of some clubs. (No great shock there!!)

In response to the outcry, FITC was required to become an independent entity, a policy which was pursued in different ways at different clubs.  Some have become enormous operations (e.g. Charlton), and huge budgets, and whilst remaining associated with parent clubs, are physically separate, have their own CEOs etc etc.  Some I have dealt with are much more closely tied in with the activities of the club.  At Sheffield Utd, for instance, the Chair of the club is also Chair of FITC, and he exercises considerable influence over some of their activities.

The Swindon Town Community Foundation, as it now is, is independent, and makes all its own decisions about programmes, and raises its own funds.  However, it is closely associated with the club, even more so now Foundation Park has been established. All staff wear the STFC logo on their kit, many programmes make use of the County Ground, the club appoints a trustee, club players and the manager take part in programmes as much as is possible for them, the Foundation team have (or did have) a room of their own within the main office block at the ground, for meetings and hospitality, and, from personal interaction with a lot of people, I know that, whatever the technical relationship, the Foundation is seen as the club's community interaction, as it was always intended to be - and it brings great credit to the club.

There are many ways in which the club does, or might reach out to the community from which most of its supporters come, but to try to pretend that somehow the Community Foundation is not one, very significant part of the whole is, frankly, bonkers.

 :clap:
[/thread] Please?

Bah, you can prove anything with 'facts'

What argument are you trying to put to bed?  Don't think anybody has said anything other than FiTC is independent of the club but in a symbiotic relationship. So for example in the CWeal 6th link I posted up the point was made that the kids wear STFC logos on their kits, but the funding for the courses comes through FiTC and CWeal.  It rubs off on STFC in a good way.

This is the way forward, especially with the new hub on the extension, not so much that proposed by some like Rob and others dream is already happening, that STFC independent of FiTC, should be getting involved in close relationships with nearby schools

I have no idea where you are going with this Reg, I merely posted a single sentence suggesting it would be good for the club to have close ties with nearby schools.  You seem to want to take that to a conclusion without any discussion of how it would work - deciding the logistics for yourself.  Nobody is going to post "it would be good to have a close relationship with a local school, and make sure it costs them money in the process".  Quite clearly, if it was not mutually beneficial it would in fact be a bad idea.  For fucks sake.

I am not convinced the goalposts are now in the same timezone as to where they started?

I do find it funny that the Tories might be to blame for STFC not being able to engage with the community though.

I suggested that having a close relationship wasn't something which was happening or going to happen, this led to plenty of discussion. The point being that when for example there was a close relationship with Drove through the Study Centre, it was ultimately axed as too expensive.  Therefore we're not likely to see anything like that....

The key point was understanding what is meant by close..... how would you define it?

You might not have found it funny had you lost your job as a result of this austerity measure, or if your kid was deprived of an educational experience

having a school in the ground is close

Jesus.... not sure whether the point has been entirely missed or just desperation is setting in!

FFS don't tell him a lot of secondary schools are skint due to Labour's PFI initiative.

Reg, it's not even worth discussing with you - how anyone takes a comment that it might be good to foster relationships with nearby schools and turns into some sort of Political debate full of negativity is beyond me frankly.

WTF has Austerity got to do with whether or not it might be a good idea for a football club to offer some freebies though?  You do have some odd desire to twist everything to a narrative, which was the point.

Ah, but that was not 'proper' labour, that lot were not ideologically pure.

You do realise that all this is a only a way of maintaining some sort of social interaction during those long empty days of retirement? He'll always have more time and motivation than you to argue the toss.

I was sympathetic until he acted like a dick.

And if Reg fancies seeing what under funded education looks like, he can pop over here and I can show him my little ones school - we get a list at the start of each school year of items to buy for the class and the teachers have to buy any books they want to use.  It's OK though, they can claim it as an expense on their Tax Returns.

Fair enough, for me discussion is good.... but I know it's not for everyone.

Anything in education will always have a political element.

Even though the game was cancelled on Saturday, Doughty and Rose still took the time to talk to the kids teams doing the FitC Saturday Team Club.

https://twitter.com/STFCfoundation/status/1228979007741362176

Hopefully made up for their disappointment at the game being off a little bit.

Please accept my ignorance if this is the wrong thread for this post.
I am looking at buying my boys a flag for an enhanced matchday travel experience. (in the back window of the car)
Do any of you have any experience of similar purchases, if so what company was it?
I've looked at a couple on the interweb just looking for a cheaper version as it's not going to be flying from a mast.

Cheers in advance.

Headline story on the club website.

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2020/february/allys-on-the-mend/

Bloody sick of them having nothing to do with the community.

(although they could have done with proofing it!)

Great that the club are using the story to help recruit bone marrow donors too. Link here for those who don't click through to read the story

https://www.dkms.org.uk/en

Thanks for sharing that, I’ve registered.

They won't have me which is sad, great to see the wee lad is doing great though!

Rose, Hope, Yates and Doyle all taking part in education campaign about the dangers of playing near railways

https://twitter.com/STFCfoundation/status/1233070257272770565

Bless 'em, Hope is particularly wooden!

I know this is the absolute antitheses of what we are discussing, but interesting nonetheless to see our team being used as an example:

https://fanengagementconference.com/

Not sure what you mean by "our team used as an example"

The Sarries fella will have a hard sell...

Our man probably needs to cuddle up to the Science Museum lass, what with the new Wroughton facility due to be ready for 2023.

We are obviously seen to be doing something right to be invited to speak at the event.

 Fan-Centric Strategies Which Exceed Expectations & Deliver ‘Members Only,’ Exclusive Experiences.

 Presumably this is our man's field of expertise.... Davis will know.

Eh? No idea what you're talking about. Unless this is just a random dig. You know, like you're always whinging about?

Of course, if you *actually* want to know what Danny Lee does that might have led to him being asked to attend this event you could do worse than listen to Costanza's chat with him on the Loathed Strangers podcast.

 Fan-Centric Strategies Which Exceed Expectations & Deliver ‘Members Only,’ Exclusive Experiences    It's what our man is talking about.... I've no idea thought you might.

 I can see he's head of ticketing... the days of the ever miserable Brain and Jockonory a distant memory

Boys home!!!

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1235897922740539392

https://twitter.com/allysfight/status/1237353985771790337?s=21

Class that from Keshi.

https://swindonlink.com/10932/young-football-fans-kick-off-a-love-of-reading-at-the-county-ground-to-celebrate-world-book-day/

Why Reading? They don't like us very much.

:)

 :clap:
That'll probably annoy them more than us previously just ignoring them.

Though talking of Reading, it does remind me of one of John Madejski's best lines when he was asked why he had never married:

Obviously because the Tories will close them down.  Libraries no doubt caused the 2008 Bankers crash.

I have received several emails from CEOs of various organisations with which I have had occasional interaction, informing me of their reactions to the current health scare. I don't think I have received anything similar from STFC. My contact details are in the Town's database & I have given permission for them to contact me.

Maybe I have missed the communications. Has anyone else received anything?

Cads shaving his head to raise money for a care home near him

https://twitter.com/Official_STFC/status/1244995364794462210

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/paul-caddis?utm_term=v6mgZNX7W

Danny Rose buying 100s of pizzas for staff at (I assume) his local hospital

https://twitter.com/NorthMidNHS/status/1247129894833868800

Isnt that the Spurs Rose ?

Ha ha, so it is. Or actually the Newcastle Rose these days. My bad.

He also donated £19k to them a few days ago apparently

Congatulations to FitC getting a shout out on Points West for helping deliver 600 food parcels to vulnerable people in the Borough

https://twitter.com/STFCfoundation/status/1251082839409516544

A lad from the Academy U12s is doing a running and bike marathon over the course of the past 7 days to raise funds for MIND. His initial target was £1k, now pushed to over £2.5k after several of the first team weighed in with donations. Still a day left if you want to donate:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/leos-running-back-to-football

Thinking about Reg, "Hi Reg" it's strange; he rarely used to comment at all on anything regarding the football matchday side of things (I'm taking Matchday Fred mostly) yet now there is zero football, he hasn't posted since around the time of our last game. Yet there has been an abundance of things for him to poke the Tories with :hmmm:

Perhaps because there would be more folk online he's kept from posting?! Wouldn't want to come under further scrutiny now ey Reginald? Also there has been, even during this "isolation period", quite a bit of engagement from Wellens and a few others. Further debunking your argument about lack of engagement :soapy tit wank:

Keep well old bean :)