As we're all bored waiting for the video of the meeting I thought I'd post up the questions the group of fans' reps and randomly selected supporters had pulled together ahead of the meeting for you all to read. I should credit
@Grapevine49 who helped with the direction and provided some of the questions. Anyway, I hope it gives you an idea of what we were hoping to achieve.
It's not perfect, but as a collaborative effort it's not a horse designed by committee either. We aimed to focus on themes, starting with a lead question on each with scripted/unscripted follow ups from the floor - more of a structure than a script, especially as we needed to allow those not involved in the team effort to ask their questions too. We were hamstrung by the way the club directed the meeting, but we probably got through most of these on the night albeit in a different order. We did lose the flow we'd prepared though and some sections suffered as a result.
I'd be really grateful if when watching the video people would be so kind as to record on here the answers to any of these specific questions (or similar ones). It would give all of us a good base to see what was answered and what we may still wish to pursue further.
In case anyone can't access the PDF, try
this link to googledrive.
Comments
We were there for a conversation. What's to be achieved by saying what she's already heard on Saturday and getting her back up?
Nevertheless we need facts to back up claims like that.
As it happens we did do a survey, after the game at the weekend. 1% of respondents wanted a new owner. The top two priorities were a manager with English experience, and for the club to share its vision. We would have no hope of achieving the latter if we walked in with banners raised and knives drawn. The meeting was not a protest, it was a conversation.I dont know how that decision is made, perhaps a meeting, perhaps a back to the Valley march from Eastmoor street b4 ipswich, And see how many turn up, perhaps a poll, perhaps we just say people do your thing or not.
This is a new situation for many at our club, and not as extreme as bttv
Welcome back....
And yes i am. @barnie_uk
That's just a guess
I suppose this is about my shocking behaviour at the meeting.
If you watch the video from about 1hour 18 minutes to 1 hour 20mins and 30 seconds you will hear my intervention at that time.
Some of the context in what Katrien said which prompted my remarks, and then the 'however' bit that followed my remarks with the main point I was trying to make.
If it comes over as me apologising for a thousand plus fans abusing then OK, but that isn't what I said, nor did I apologise for the protest, I wouldn't have done because I was part of that protest anyway. I was both trying to be polite and move away from the abuse bit to what I intended to say about no change coming from the meeting.
I never thought I might get my own little gate but now I have one, apologygate, it is what it is.
I also thought Rikofold, Craig Norris, Ian Wallis and (since I'm not always his biggest admirer I am bound to add) John Commerford, did well on behalf of the fans, highlighting that the club had no answer as to why it hadn't managed the season-ticket debacle better, no answer re Valley Express problems, no answer re the missing Fans' Forum minutes and, most importantly, simply didn't appear to get the extent of the disconnect with the fan base.
While Katrien Meire said a number of nonsensical things and appeared to be on the verge of tears at one point, I do think that a major issue is the lack of capacity within the organisation to run the club. She introduced what she said was the team doing it, but apart from her only Tony Keohane on the top table actually has any day-to-day non-football responsibility and I didn't think he was much of a plus to be honest.
Has a ring to it ;-)
I was seething reading the tweets, because out of context, they came across as offensive rather than defensive.. What the tweets highlighted and caused the heat was the complete absence of any sense that the club had got anything wrong. @rikofold picked this up saying we hadn't heard admission that changes were needed.
I was listening to Will Carling talking about the meltdown of the English rugby squad and he said every professional team has underlying frictions and conflicts that are kept under control by results, they paper over all the cracks. It's when results don't happen that the cracks appear.
That is what is happening at Charlton. Without results we implode because the structure is all wrong, there is no cohesion. There is no coherent relationship between the stakeholders. RD has a relationship with the manager. KM has a sort of relationship with the manager that is undermined by the RD relationship. The manager has a relationship with the players but some also have a relationship with RD. RM tries to have a relationship with them all. The fans want a relationship but it should be a naturally evolved relationship, not one determined by monthly powerpoint presentations or lessons on what we should be grateful for.
I hate being negative, I am a supporter of dialogue, but I honestly don't see what dialogue is going to achieve. Contradicting that, it makes no sense not to take advantage of whatever line of communication is made available, otherwise there is no way of having any influence apart from wanker salutes. It also leaves open the ability to prove, if it is the case, that a majority, not a minority of fans, want change.
I also think it's a mistake to give the message that management should listen to us for solutions. We just tell them what the problems are and ask them what they are going to do about IF they want to address them. They are paid to sort out problems, we pay to be entertained.
So I think we will probably have two camps. One camp that is happy as long as results cover up the cracks and another camp who want something more rewarding, that isn't easy to define, but know it's not load music and a DJ in Crossbars. The second camp will probably just drift away over time if nothing changes.