Joey

I guess the most famous member scheme is that of F.C. Barcelona, General. I believe it's also quite popular in Germany. Quite a nice way for fans to feel involved without necessarily buying a season ticket (and from a business POV, increased revenue from those not buying ST). It also sometimes allows for "member voting" - whilst we don't have Presidential elections at our club, stuff like the crest consultation could be focused towards the members groups.

To me anyway

Barry is worth £20m

With this sort of thing it usually gets kick started by a small group or a particular nutter, or a relevant adaptation of a current song. Anyone fancy dressing up and being a nutter?

Well I'm not so bothered on the tune per se, but I do love those high tempo chants

Oh man I'd love something like this from the FC Zürich boys, quality singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrIt8lX9J7c

Ian Taylor testimonial should have people camping outside for tickets The man is a legend.

To be fair my Alone in Cologne one isn't so much obselete as it was just set up for the World Cup (as you know because it got international fame!) So on that premise you can either remove it for not being updated or keep it there for posterity

To be fair quite a few of these seem obselete but hey thats blogging

Thanks for the feedback. To be honest I don't read many blogs so I'm limited in the number of trackbacks I can get. My hope is to do something similar for Villa. Perhaps in the form of a weekly round-up of events around VP but not necessarily just the football.

I don't want to take this thread off its natural course but I'll just respond to paddy. I agree, I think Nottingham is probably quite far. However, Villa are currently in a unique position where the nearest Premiership side to the South is Watford and Sheff Utd to the North, quite far really. To try and drag this back to the point the General made, I was recently quite impressed to hear that the likes of Google and Apple having "ambassadors" link so that the club itself doesn't necessarily have to be active in the area. Rather, you're creating good will and hoping to generate interest and intrigue from people. It's a novel way of "casting the net" so to speak without having to actually get any VP representatives driving around like madmen. But again I digress so no need to warn me mods

That's good to hear and it's always great to have someone listen to what we're saying. Having said that, to what extent has support been drummed up? I'm certainly not having a go, I'm just curious. I go to uni in Nottingham just an hour and a bit away from Brum on the train and I've not seen/heard anything. Personally with all the new media rights and with Richard FitzGerald I'm excited to see if Villa are going to try to be innovative with future promotions, especially embracing the web. However, that's not really a question at all so I'll save it for another thread.

I'd say yes. It's not about the money I think. Fact is, Lee's been here a long time and everyone knows he wears his heart on his sleeve. A testimonial is his chance to say goodbye properly and who can deny him that?

In the Supporters Consultation Group thread there's mentions of widening the support to schools and universities. Has there been any consideration for "ambassadors" at universities to drum up support and get people to the ground? Personally I've spoken to a lot of people at my uni who are international students who just want to watch some of the famous English football. Now everyone knows that all it can take is one pleasant trip for someone and you have a fan for life. And yes I am volunteering for the cause!

Gen. Krulak - what's your tipple?

Ok guys I hope to keep this blog as interesting as possible. Rather than focusing on the main events on football, I've started a blog to look at some of the more peripheral events in football and especially those stories that just make you realise why you love the game. Here it is in all it's quite empty glory: http://playitaround.blogspot.com/ The first couple of posts aren't particularly fresh material but they're my "base" sites where I get most of my inspiration. If anyone has any stories that are appropriate then feel free to link to me etc. CV could you also add this to the list please? Thoughts guys?

Well I'm an absolute novice BUT I am quite interested in spending the time in producing nice shots. However I'm more of the type to go out and take 100 shots on different settings and see what works rather than learning the theory first. But whilst I'm still a novice I think I'd do well to use Sony's expert features rather than to assume I'll know better.

Alrite guys. I've just been given a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T50 for my 21st birthday, how does it rate? I know it'll be good for all my point-and-clicking needs but will it also give me sufficient scope for more professional looking shots?

If by giving you long odds on something you believe could happen, but in fact probably won't, then they'll not be the ones looking stupid come 10pm.

General, your heroes are your heroes, and that is fair enough... ...however, despite Rommel being very successful, he wasn't good enough to beat Montgomery. I notice this was mentioned in an earlier post, and I did a project specifically on the Battle of El Alamein. I do not profess to be an expert, but merely I suggest that Montgomery was, well, awesome.

Yeah I've suggested this on a few occasions but alas didn't make the list

Also if we do choose a Sabbath song I think we'll be giving the 'interesting' fans of FC St Pauli a run for their money, as they have AC DC's "Hells Bells" before each song.

I voted Sabbath. But I don't think it should be a 'mainstream' song like Paranoid or Iron Man, because no-one would associate that with Villa. The introduction to The Wizard could be a good signal for entry a bit like the fanfare is.

General I'm sure you'd welcome some adaptation of the Halls of Montezuma as the fanfare to replace the current Thunderbirds theme as the teams walk out at Villa Park. It's a nifty tune and could serve AVFC as well as it does the USMC.

All you have to do is click on his username to see what he posted and when.