Fans' Forum

[BKRoyale]

I have apologised and Cypry and I have had a conversation (where I got the pm right!) that has sorted things out.

As I understand it, there was a bit of a public dressing down as well wasn't there? Or was that just from a couple of regular posters on here that jumped on his back a bit?

Obviously the PM that Cypry shared was initially intended to be private, but if I'm correct in that he got a bit of a public lambasting as well I'd have said it would've be polite and sensible to make more of a public apology to straighten things out. In the world of public relations and stakeholder management it really is important to make these kind of things a bit more public.

Obviously ignore the above if I'm wrong and there wasn't any 'official public dressing down' from STAR.

Surely if Cypry has accepted the apology there is no need for a public apology, unless he himself wants one.....I don't have lots of knowledge of STAR and agree how they acted appears to be wrong, but surely this particular incident can be classed as over now?! She has said puclicly that she has apologised I'd hope we were all grown up enough to accept that?!

[TFF]

She has said puclicly that she has apologised I'd hope we were all grown up enough to accept that?!

You're aware you're posting on the team board?

[Big Foot]

At the moment I am the only STAR board member willing to even post on here.

Well there's a blindingly obvious weakness in your organisation I'm afraid STAR. This board may have it's fair share of idiots, WUMs and posters who don't actively watch the team play that often these days but it remains the largest and most active place for dicussion on all things RFC. If STAR don't recognise that and embrace it as the most popular and, believe it or not, representative place for fans to dicuss the progress, successes, failures and issues relating to the club and it's supporter base (that's the one the STAR board have pledged to represent and effectively work for) then it's perfectly understandable the criticism you're having to take.

The only other places that come close to this are Twitter and I guess the Facebook pages, but from what I've seen they're an even smaller pool of similar contributors

Have you guys tried recruiting a more representative cross section of support onto the board? Perhaps there should be a drive to encourage a member or two from your ranks with a more positive HNA perception to step up to a board position and engage with the forum some more. It's a massive communication problem if STAR fail to engage with this place. Perhaps you could even have a discussion about co-opting a reliable and forthright NHA contributor onto your board to give the place a voice in your organisation.

We have had Board members who are some of the most frequent HNA contributors in the past but at present the negativity on here has put off the current members.

You may all be glad to hear that as of September I will no longer be a Board member as I have completed the maximum term as Chairman and I am not sure when I am not involved with STAR how much I shall read this board, and I certainly won't be posting as starliaison.

So I can pass it on who would you nominate as a co-optee? No promises of course but I can always suggest it. Of course it would mean outing them as they could not be anonymous as a Board member.

I can feel a poll coming on...

[STAR Liaison]

Also, was BM genuinely aware of Cypry's post and upset by it?

I was told so by the person that informed him, the only direct message I got was after the apology, and from that it could be seen that he did not like to public airing.

We are all aware that those attending will tell others what was said, so we have never expected it to be secret. That is different to a precis of the best bits, and although STAR was wrong not to make it obvious that we did not want it shouted from the rooftops, it was actually referred to by Brian in that he was telling us more than his usual interviews.

[Hoop Blah]

We have had Board members who are some of the most frequent HNA contributors in the past but at present the negativity on here has put off the current members.

You may all be glad to hear that as of September I will no longer be a Board member as I have completed the maximum term as Chairman and I am not sure when I am not involved with STAR how much I shall read this board, and I certainly won't be posting as starliaison.

So I can pass it on who would you nominate as a co-optee? No promises of course but I can always suggest it. Of course it would mean outing them as they could not be anonymous as a Board member.

Well congratulations on coming to the end of your term. From what I can see from the outside you and the organisation have achieved some good things and have built up a good relationship with the club. I wouldn't want you to leave here thinking that isn't recognised in some form.

As for the negativity, is it really negative? On what subjects? Is there no negativity on the STAR board over how we play at times or over the levels of investment? Do you have to show undieing positivity and unrealistive chirpiness over all things RFC to survive in STAR? (rhetorical questions of course)

Who would be a suitable representative? I seriously have no idea. As you obviously know there are plenty of posters on here who's identity are pretty well known amongst those at STAR and those on the board. Would they be interested? Who knows, not me. I'm merely suggesting that STAR looks for a solution to what seems to be a real weakness in their organisation. That might even take the form of using the board to commicate more formally or by advertising an HNA role through your own board sub-forum. You could even go so far as approaching those more sensible but vocal posters directly to strengthen relations.

Now perhaps that would be a good legacy to leave behind you when you leave? Wouldn't it be good to see a real [potential for] improvement in supporter engagement?

[STAR Liaison]

However, I think it's the way you responded to Cypry that has got most people's backs up. It was his first fan's forum and he wasn't told that he couldn't post a summary on here, so your PM to him was pretty disgraceful IMO and he deserves an apology. I'm sure if you do this, we can all move on.

I have apologised and Cypry and I have had a conversation (where I got the pm right!) that has sorted things out.

As I understand it, there was a bit of a public dressing down as well wasn't there? Or was that just from a couple of regular posters on here that jumped on his back a bit?

Obviously the PM that Cypry shared was initially intended to be private, but if I'm correct in that he got a bit of a public lambasting as well I'd have said it would've be polite and sensible to make more of a public apology to straighten things out. In the world of public relations and stakeholder management it really is important to make these kind of things a bit more public.

Obviously ignore the above if I'm wrong and there wasn't any 'official public dressing down' from STAR.

I think that was a couple or regular posters - I posted on the now deleted post explaining why we didn't want it in the public domain, but think I had decided to stick to facts once it was deleted. A dressing down can be in the eye of the beholder and I certainly did not intend one, it is not my way.

[Hoop Blah]

Surely if Cypry has accepted the apology there is no need for a public apology, unless he himself wants one.....I don't have lots of knowledge of STAR and agree how they acted appears to be wrong, but surely this particular incident can be classed as over now?! She has said puclicly that she has apologised I'd hope we were all grown up enough to accept that?!

That would depend on how you want your organisation to be perceived wouldn't it?

If you don't make public that apology the couple of hundred supporters who've probably viewed this thread will go away thinking that STAR are so up themselves they're happy to shout down any accidental mistake.

If you come back and clear things up publicly as well as privately then those 200 supporters will quite probably have a totally different perception of how your organisation behaves.

Perception is the key.

[BKRoyale]

Surely if Cypry has accepted the apology there is no need for a public apology, unless he himself wants one.....I don't have lots of knowledge of STAR and agree how they acted appears to be wrong, but surely this particular incident can be classed as over now?! She has said puclicly that she has apologised I'd hope we were all grown up enough to accept that?!

That would depend on how you want your organisation to be perceived wouldn't it?

If you don't make public that apology the couple of hundred supporters who've probably viewed this thread will go away thinking that STAR are so up themselves they're happy to shout down any accidental mistake.

If you come back and clear things up publicly as well as privately then those 200 supporters will quite probably have a totally different perception of how your organisation behaves.

Perception is the key.

That's a fair point!

[The Rouge]

I don't see much negativity. Apart from a few miserable sods and a few WUMs I think most people on this board love their club and have enjoyed us winning The Championship. The manager and the owners are pretty much universally loved.

On the 'Club Policies' board you get even fewer WUMs and most of what is said shows opinion and ideas coming from our hardcore fanbase. Opinion and ideas that can be tapped into.... - or could have been tapped into.

From what I have read I think that STAR are painfully out of touch with Reading fans as a collective. I would think that reversing this should be one of the core goals of STAR.

[STAR Liaison]

Who would be a suitable representative? I seriously have no idea. As you obviously know there are plenty of posters on here who's identity are pretty well known amongst those at STAR and those on the board. Would they be interested? Who knows, not me. I'm merely suggesting that STAR looks for a solution to what seems to be a real weakness in their organisation. That might even take the form of using the board to commicate more formally or by advertising an HNA role through your own board sub-forum. You could even go so far as approaching those more sensible but vocal posters directly to strengthen relations.

Now perhaps that would be a good legacy to leave behind you when you leave? Wouldn't it be good to see a real [potential for] improvement in supporter engagement?

Just as no-one can agree who is the best right/left/centre back, it would be hard to say who would be a good representative of HNA?

I can tell you though that the club, despite some of them reading the board, do not credit the posts on here with much legitimacy. It is the anonymity that they cannot tolerate. And at times like this I can understand as apart from the posters I know from a time when this board was such that we would have social events and get to know the people behind the names; I have no idea if STAR's critics are members and think things should be done differently, or people who just want to criticise. There have been some good suggestions on these threads about what STAR should do and I pleased to say that we do actually do most of them - so I have already told the Board that we need to communicate better in future.

[STAR Liaison]

Will you get a pension?

I wish - just a legacy on here

[blindedbythelights]

No offence and all that but STAR has been next to awful under your tenure, things can only get better from here

[Hoop Blah]

It's always going to be someone with a bit of a 'committee mind set' of course, which, no offence, is probably part of the problem with the existing board.

However, the person doesn't need to agree with all the things they see on here or like the views they represent. It's about using HNA as a platform for ideas, for tapping into supporter feeling and for engaging with the type of fan that isn't part of your organisation.

A few posters have even said on these threads that they'd be willing to be involved in a more widely representative and militant organisation. These are people that might well be encouraged to come along and give you an insight of whats going on. They may even be able to represent STAR in a more rounded manner on here too. There's one just a couple of posts up.

As for the 'well the club don't like the anonymity' aspect. I'd say that's both their foolishness and another weakness of STARs in changing that perception.

You don't need to know the face behind the username to have a pretty decent idea of what's a good idea or a valid opinion and what's a WUM just looking for a reaction.

[STAR Liaison]

I don't see much negativity. Apart from a few miserable sods and a few WUMs I think most people on this board love their club and have enjoyed us winning The Championship. The manager and the owners are pretty much universally loved.

On the 'Club Policies' board you get even fewer WUMs and most of what is said shows opinion and ideas coming from our hardcore fanbase. Opinion and ideas that can be tapped into.... - or could have been tapped into.

From what I have read I think that STAR are painfully out of touch with Reading fans as a collective. I would think that reversing this should be one of the core goals of STAR.

I agree about Club Policies and that is what I read most.

I think the problem is that there is no collective of Reading fans. STAR attempts to represent them, but we do need them to bring us their problems/suggestions We can't guarantee to succeed but, as far as I am aware, any email is taken seriously. We all tend to have our friends at football but I feel that I have a wide range of Reading fans coming to me with problems. Through being Chairman I have got to know a lot of Reading supporters that I would not have known otherwise; it is not perfect but it is more representative than I would have been just talking to the people around me, or in the bar or friends. There is always room for improvement but you do need to start from somewhere.

[STAR Liaison]

It's always going to be someone with a bit of a 'committee mind set' of course, which, no offence, is probably part of the problem with the existing board.

However, the person doesn't need to agree with all the things they see on here or like the views they represent. It's about using HNA as a platform for ideas, for tapping into supporter feeling and for engaging with the type of fan that isn't part of your organisation.

A few posters have even said on these threads that they'd be willing to be involved in a more widely representative and militant organisation. These are people that might well be encouraged to come along and give you an insight of whats going on. They may even be able to represent STAR in a more rounded manner on here too. There's one just a couple of posts up.

As for the 'well the club don't like the anonymity' aspect. I'd say that's both their foolishness and another weakness of STARs in changing that perception.

You don't need to know the face behind the username to have a pretty decent idea of what's a good idea or a valid opinion and what's a WUM just looking for a reaction.

Quite agree and you are stating the way I approach it, but I am pointing out where there are weaknesses. I have been told at a management meeting that 'there are a lot of other supporters than those on HNA' but pointing out that it is a legitimate source of fan opinion still falls at the anonymity.

[melonhead]

HNA? is full of whingers, most of whom arent even members
while their opinions all count- they just dont represent the majority of gurning mongs who support the club i love.

you do a grand job STAR- keep it up

[STAR Liaison]

No offence and all that but STAR has been next to awful under your tenure, things can only get better from here

none taken. It has nevertheless grown in numbers and in the opinion of others both locally and nationally,which is enough for me.

[Hoop Blah]

It's not the way it's ever appeared to be handled from an HNA posters point of view though.

All we ever read on here is that you can't take anything posted on here back to STAR or the club because of the anonymity. If anyone has an issue it's usually met with a 'send us an email' response and we'll look into it.

I'd always assume that you don't just filter out all the good suggestions that get made on the board, but there's very little in the way of recognition of what's been taken away as food for thought and discussion at STAR and what's been dismissed as HNA just having a moan.

[Hoop Blah]

/Spacey mode on

What's this got to do with club policies?

/Spacey mode off

[cmonurz]

To follow HB’s comments about the ‘anonymity’ of HNA, from what other sources does STAR collect fans’ opinions, apart from their own members?