Questions for the Advisory Board

[McGurk's Missus]

It was pitched up for a home run tbf..  And I think we have pretty much established what there is no need for 

You tinker  Stop it you, I'll end up liking you 

[molepar]

Could we please ask the AB how many replica shirts we have sold? Would be interested to see how it compares to someone like Wrexham; I saw an article that said they had shifted in excess of 24,000!

[tans]

New minutes up

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/siteassets/2022-23/2022-23-advisory-board-minutes/advisory-board-may-2023-post-meeting-vfinal.pdf

[Nemo]

iFollow is an important revenue stream for the Club which drives monies straight to us. We had 422 people streaming for our game v Tranmere, 49 for Barrow, 242 for Bradford, and 93 for Wimbledon. Thank you toall those who support us via iFollow the monies do come to the Club and get re-invested.

Not sure I've seen iFollow numbers before so that's interesting. I wonder if this is actually the number of single match passes sold rather than those (abroad) who have season passes?

• The Karachi work was initiated by Zav Austin in a purely voluntary capacity. He is not the Vice-Chairman. He does not hold anyposition of influence within the club and does not receive a salary.

• The Pakistan arrangement is aimed at attracting and developing talent, and we have seen some minor benefit from that in terms of our coaches getting international experience, but it is not a major part of our plans going forward. Zav’s voluntary work may well continue but it is not funded by the club.

• The MOU with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office simply lays out a basic framework for how players can be brought into the club through official and above-board channels, which is crucial as we are committed to doing things the right way. It was not signed by Zav as he does not work for Swindon Town, but obviously he has built bridges between STFC and relevant officials.

On Zav. Nothing on other notable individuals.

[MangoRed]

Hold hands up RE AB meetings satisfying Fan engagement- AB mins and Horlock said they do- I didn’t think they would and personally don’t feel 2 is a big enough sample but anyway, I was wrong with that.

[MangoRed]

Very brief skim of it but some good concise answers in that, will have a proper read later.

[4D]

Looks positive on my skim read.

[Bob's Orange]

Credit where it's due, detailed responses there as the club promised. The AB pack has definitely shown a vast improvement the last couple of months. Good work Clem & co.

[JoeMezz]

Much much better communication and clearly answering the questions. Well done all

[Mooneyraker]

Someone really hammering this Morris criminal record issue.

Other than a drink driving conviction, what was he convicted of?

[Berniman]

Impersonating a Head coach..

[RobertT]

I have some very critical thoughts still, after reading the minutes.  Not sure sharing them adds much value to the conversation because they mostly relate to the same themes as previous times.  Essentially there still appear some big operational and foundational gaps in the business to me - and to see that when you are not there day to day worries me (only because I care).

Instead, something struck me around a possible step forward.

A lot has been made about the club constantly asking for volunteers (it's there again and it seems the Trust have prompted the latest one) and wanting the "community" to back it (there is an odd line about not wanting to spend on marketing because they'd rather fans want to buy season tickets because we are playing well....um, OK then).  Well, about 10 years or so ago, as lambasted by Reg at the time, previous ownership utterly diluted and made individual fan share ownership nothing more than a token certificate.

If Clem and the club are serious about wanting people to invest their time, let them invest their money and become proper small shareholders.  I would suggest that Clem dilutes his ownership by selling off shares in the company that owns the club - he can do so without impacting his ownership rights by controlling how many.

Then, follow that gesture by holding AGM's, not fans forums.  Where the financials, full financials (not the brief version we release today) are presented and future plans and strategy are discussed.  Votes can be held - Clem would win if he maintains a significant controlling %, but we'd at least be able to see how fans feel about the decisions being taken - direct feedback if you like.

Finally, release quarterly or half yearly full financial results (appreciate quarterly may be too much effort).  Some of the accounts produced by other L2 clubs were quite impressive (granted, some were as bad as Powers) - if the club wants to be #1 of 72 League clubs, then act like it, be better than all the others.

At an AGM, something like the Karachi Fuckwittery can be discussed and reviewed properly - lets really get into the Operational cost of supporting it, the benefits it could bring and the reputational impact (positive or negative).  Clem may steamroller his friends business deal through, but the fans can have a direct say in such an important waste of fucking time for the club (sorry, this one really has irked me!).

The club gains two direct benefits from taking this route - first it gets an investment into the club on top of Operational funds.  Nothing ground breaking, but something.  Second, it truly provides open and honest communication between fans and the club if the fans are actual Shareholders, not just customers.

[Batch]

Mixed bag of answers, though I do think the format of the AB has been greatly improved and its good to see Q&A every month.

A couple of good suggestions from supporters on kiosk queues and car parking.

Wasn't aware of FFP changing, but they are certainly pushing that line to appeal to supporters to buy STs. Makes sense, will have to look up what's changing.

"Advisory Board meets EFL requirement to meet and engage with supporters" - completely disagree here. Once a month half duplex Q&A makes it very difficult to discuss a problem/suggestion to completion.

The Xav Austin question - yeah Dean is right that they could say whatever and not be believed. Seem to be distancing the club from Karachi and being 'significant' but..yeah.

[Trashbat?]

Absolute back tracking from the club on Zav Austin, last year the club named him as such and they let him do a Q&A on behalf of them to potential sponsors!

Swindon Town was delighted to welcome current and prospective partners to The County Ground last night for an exclusive Partnership Dinner.

Along with receiving commercial overviews delivered by Head of Commercial, Danny Lee for this season, and strategies for next, guests also enjoyed a talk from Vice-Chairman Zav Austin, Director of Football Ben Chorley and Head Coach Ben Garner

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2022/march/gallery-stfc-sponsors-dinner-2122/

[Briggany]

I do feel for the club, they answer every question and when its not to someone's liking or doesn't fit their fanciful agenda then they just get slated. Thankfully it's a very very small minority that kick up the conspiracies... let's call them "flat pitchers" (pun intended about our own pitch)

At the end of the day we are all just fans, and whilst we have influence and a certain degree of say we do not run the day to day business of the club and we sure as hell are not entitled to know every single in and out around every decision.

And we are 100% not entitled to know everything the moment it happens. As with anything when something important needs to be said it's better to take the time to deliver the right message and check its within legal parameters rather than blurt something out that could cause more issues. As A fan base wer are really impatient. You all work for a living do you go with your immediate emotional response to an email/situation or do you site back and take the time to form a reasonable considered response.

Whilst I understand some of the answers were not to your liking they are answers to your questions. Just because it's not the answer you personally want doesn't mean its a wrong answer.

I was far from impressed with how last season went and I vented in the stands like everyone else, I was also never expecting us to go up this season and I am fully aware that sorting out the mess that is STFC is going to take many years ) I am holding back judgement and fury until at least year 5). Maybe those making a minefield out of a cabbage patch should instead focus their anger and frustration on reevaluating their expectations of our league 2 club rather than force them onto the club and throwing a strop when they don't get what they want.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different to happen. Your only going to piss yourself off doing that, the club will just keep plodding along doing what they think is best. And so far they have done fairly well at that.