Fan Consultation Group 2016/7

[OutByEaster?]

Firstly, apologies that it's taken me so long to get this to you - life is complicated!

On 16th August, VillaTalk were invited to the Fans Consultation Group meeting with the club prior to the Huddersfield game.

We're a difficult bunch to represent at these things, because unlike a lot of sites, there isn't a VillaTalk "way" - and although Limpid does all of the work, no one really owns the site in terms of its opinions, beliefs, thoughts and ideas - we're an anarcho-socialitst collective brothers and sisters or at least we're a group of people with a lot of different opinions;  but, whilst we can't agree on anything at all, there are a lot of us, so we have a voice and the ear of the club. I think that's a good thing and I'm hopeful we can make something out of it.

There were representatives of other supporters groups there, including the Aston Villa Trust, Heroes & Villains, avillafan.com, that bloke from Vital Villa who keeps banging on about his advert, Lions Clubs, My Old Man Said and the independent supporters clubs. As distinguished, handsome and slightly unkempt a bunch as you could hope to meet.

I'd like firstly to share the agenda with you - and then my opinions.

The group are releasing a set of notes to the club collectively in order to ensure that we’re not going away and putting odd slants on things, and that we all heard the same stuff - so the answers will be with you shortly - but the topics are below.

1. With conflicting reports during the takeover and without in any way expecting to breach any individuals privacy, what sort of funding is there now for Aston Villa?
2. Clarification of the board structure
3. The club own 12 acres of land close by and the new owners have expressed an interest in development of a ‘theme park’ football world. Can you elaborate on this?
4. Can we have a commitment from the club to pioneer safe standing in England and can a transitional section for flags and banners (aka singing section) be accommodated, like those that have been successful at other clubs.
5. Plans to address ticketing portal being a mess and phone lines being constantly engaged?
6. What is the club doing in terms of avoiding the negative publicity of the previous ownership that resulted from poor communication?
7. Is a re-brand on the agenda and if so, especially badge wise, will those who understand the issues the best – the fans – be consulted?
8. Update on shelved North Stand disable seating plan / new plans
9. Will you be prepared to consider initiating a youth forum to involve younger supporters? Any plans to increase youth support?
10. An SLO or supporter issues Twitter address like a lot of other clubs have?
11. Are the club moving away from player contract release clauses?
12. Is there any progress on the recruitment of a Technical Director? (if not already announced)
13. Are the new board aware of the previous relationship with Acorns and will this continue?
14. Are the board aware of the Villa Midlands Food (VMF) initiative abruptly stopped by Tom Fox, giving under privileged local youngsters training from which many have excelled? Would this be something they might consider re-starting?
15. Living Wage – all contracted staff?

Going forward, these agendas are open to all fans groups, including you - and any questions around the club, the way its operated and how we’ll go forward are very welcome - I’d like to use this thread to collect those.

For the most part, whoever attends the meeting will take what’s being discussed in the rest of the site as an indicator of what’s important and then add anything in here.

The club seems committed to continuing these meetings in the long term and I think they’re a good opportunity to get what are hopefully, straightforward, honest answers wherever that’s possible.

 

In terms of my opinions, well firstly I was delighted that as well as Keith Wyness, we were also blessed with the presence of the good Doctor himself. Dr Xia spent a good half an hour with us prior to a game and seems keen to talk and listed to supporters.

The other thing that comes through is that there's a confidence to the new set up - Wyness in particular carries a relaxed confidence that suggests that all is well. When Tom Fox did this, he was professional, confident but guarded - this was much more relaxed, and there's a feeling that they're going about their work very confidently.

I won't go too much into what was said until the meeting notes are released, but there were some interesting things on the progress of the club already, the happy surprise of attendances, the importance of a Villa "way" and of character in the dressing room and elsewhere.

Dr Xia listened more than he spoke, but when he spoke, he was open, honest and forthright. 

As the best indicator on mood, the meeting was attended by Tommy Jordan, the chap that looks after all of our press and media - when he spoke, it was like a man released into the light after last season, he was very positive, he spoke about a club that was moving forward in lots of good ways and he seemed so happy to talk about it that he spent a good fifteen minutes outside afterwards talking with a few of us on a lot of good things that were happening.

I genuinely got the feeling that right now, everyone involved can't get enough of this - that they want to talk about the club, they want to move everything forward, they want to change and improve things and that they feel they have the backing to do so. I'll try and explain more why I think that's the case when the minutes are released, but I got a very positive feeling out of this one. (Even though Huddersfield did their best to spoil it.)

I'll hopefully have the notes with you very soon and will add a bit more to those when they're released - in the meantime, if there's anything you want VillaTalk to raise with the club through these meetings, let us know!

[Dodgyknees]

Nice one.

[PieFacE]

Awesome. Look forward to reading this. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

4. Please don't let there be a 'singing section'. Flags and banners yes, but these should at all times be spontaneous and only edited in the case of foul or abusive content. I would hate to see a repeat of the scenes of last season. 

7. The last time we were consulted on the badge we got the current monstrosity. We should just leave the 'experts' to it or at most there could be a fans nomination whereby we have a trusted representative to make sure they don't make a complete balls up of it? 

It's a shame that the community were not openly consulted prior to this meeting taking place. As you say, we are not a single voice here, we are a collective. It's not that I don't trust you OBE, but it would have been nice to have been presented with the opportunity to have my say as a part of that collective and to hear from the community as a whole ahead of such a meeting. I hope that's something that will be taken on board moving forward.

Edit - unless we were and I missed it! In which case I apologise. 

Edit2 - And to be fair you do say that it will be different moving forward.  

Edited August 22, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[OutByEaster?]

You weren't given much of anything in advance - sorry. Due mostly to my sloppy e-mail etiquette, it all happened a bit quickly - but we're in now and the opportunity is there for the site to influence agendas and go forward in whichever way works best. 

 

[AntrimBlack]

12 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

4. Please don't let there be a 'singing section'. Flags and banners yes, but these should at all times be spontaneous and only edited in the case of foul or abusive content. I would hate to see a repeat of the scenes of last season. 

7. The last time we were consulted on the badge we got the current monstrosity. We should just leave the 'experts' to it or at most there could be a fans nomination whereby we have a trusted representative to make sure they don't make a complete balls up of it? 

It's a shame that the community were not openly consulted prior to this meeting taking place. As you say, we are not a single voice here, we are a collective. It's not that I don't trust you OBE, but it would have been nice to have been presented with the opportunity to have my say as a part of that collective and to hear from the community as a whole ahead of such a meeting. I hope that's something that will be taken on board moving forward.

Edit - unless we were and I missed it! In which case I apologise. 

Edit2 - And to be fair you do say that it will be different moving forward.  

7. Yes. Last time round, they tried to please everyone and ended up with a hotchpotch of of a badge. We must be more professional this time.

[bobzy]

I know it's been mentioned previously (a lot) but, given Xia's heavy use of Twitter, I really think the club should be doing a hell of a lot more "online" generally.  Social media is one great aspect for promoting the club and could tie in nicely with, say, a YouTube channel with all match highlights, players involved in daft games etc. etc.

This is the exact time to be jumping on all this - especially with the potential of a large following from over 4,800 miles away.

(Not sure if this is relevant here but...)

[Guest av1]

7. Bring back this and be done with it 

[avfcwills10]

Awesome! Sorry if this comes across slightly impatient, but will the minutes likely be released today at any point OBE?

[OutByEaster?]

Hopefully today or tomorrow.

 

[avfcwills10]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

Hopefully today or tomorrow.

 

Awesome thanks

[mikeyp102]

Thanks OBE.

One thing that could be mentioned next for me, would be in relation to half time service at the ground. They seem to make things very hard for fans to  get a drink/food without missing any of the match. All it would take would be to have a pourer like at festivals which can pour 6 pints at once rather than 1. It's nothing major, but would vastly improve the match day experience.

[cyrusr]

1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said:

Thanks OBE.

One thing that could be mentioned next for me, would be in relation to half time service at the ground. They seem to make things very hard for fans to  get a drink/food without missing any of the match. All it would take would be to have a pourer like at festivals which can pour 6 pints at once rather than 1. It's nothing major, but would vastly improve the match day experience.

They did have that in the lower holte last year but it didn't really help. Changed to a regular dispenser this year.

Absoltuely agree though, queues are a nightmare at half time. Would have thought pre poured pints would work though if possible.

[mikeyjavfc]

14 hours ago, cyrusr said:

They did have that in the lower holte last year but it didn't really help. Changed to a regular dispenser this year.

Absoltuely agree though, queues are a nightmare at half time. Would have thought pre poured pints would work though if possible.

Pre-poured pints on the back counter. If anyone has been to a T-20 game recently you can see how quickly a beer queue can be like this.

[Skills]

if I can add my two cents,   as I live abroad, its just about impossible to find any merchandise for both adults / kids over here so we rely heavily on either the official website or fakes.   Unfortunately the range on the website is limited, would love to see the store improve its offerings!

[Dodgyknees]

Looking forward to reading the minutes. Feels good to want to know more about my club again.

[IwishIwasalivein1982]

Has anyone got a source on this football theme park thing?

[avfcwills10]

Any update on this being released lads?

[PieFacE]

These seem to be taking aaaaaaaaaaages to get released. 

[meme]

Sooooo.