| Volunteer Army focus group meeting 11:08 - Sep 23 with 3928 views | 442Dale |
Meant to be next Thursday? Does anyone have any details of where this will take place or whether fans have been approached to register interest? Can’t see anything on the Trust site and not spotted anything on the club site, but may have missed it on there.
When you consider the amount of work done by supporters and the Trust back in April/May, and for a club that has been open about the financial limitations at present, following up in agreed actions that could actually help this situation is vital.
If only to ensure we aren’t demoralising a supporter base that is all too used to such lip service.
From the Trust Newsletter at the start of September:
https://www.daletrust.co.uk/2023/09/trust-newsletter-september/
<<“Volunteer Army meeting
The Club will be holding a meeting on Thursday 28th September with regard to the much talked about Volunteer Army. We are currently working on a few things in preparation for this, and we are in talks with the Club regarding the format for this, whether to host a face to face meeting or to host it via Zoom. We will get details of this within the next few days.
We will follow this up with a report of the meeting within a couple of days of the meeting with next steps.”>>
This was agreed with the club back in June:
https://www.daletrust.co.uk/2023/06/fan-engagement-programme-for-23-24/
After our relegation at Stockport the club stated they would be “working tirelessly” towards “reengaging our fantastic supporters”. https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2023/april/clubupdate_220423/
Hopefully, it’s something we’ve all missed and someone has details of how fans can attend the meeting planned for next Thursday.
[Post edited 23 Sep 2023 11:10]
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 11:49 - Sep 24 with 3640 views | TVOS1907 |
Bump |  |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 14:42 - Sep 24 with 3521 views | 49thseason |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 11:49 - Sep 24 by TVOS1907 |
Bump |
Is this intended to be a public meeting or just some sort of internal meeting with the Trust? Clearly the notice period is now getting short with no clarification of purpose or suggestive agenda or even a venue or start time if it is intended to be public?
Is there any real enthusiasm for a volunteer army within the club, or amongst the fan base for that matter? It seems like the whole club is hunkering down, cutting costs, not replacing staff who leave. If this is an effect from the investment discussions fine, but better to say that the NDA's are preventing much discussion about future direction of the business than allow rumour and speculation to drive the agenda? |  | | |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 15:14 - Sep 24 with 3483 views | 442Dale |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 14:42 - Sep 24 by 49thseason |
Is this intended to be a public meeting or just some sort of internal meeting with the Trust? Clearly the notice period is now getting short with no clarification of purpose or suggestive agenda or even a venue or start time if it is intended to be public?
Is there any real enthusiasm for a volunteer army within the club, or amongst the fan base for that matter? It seems like the whole club is hunkering down, cutting costs, not replacing staff who leave. If this is an effect from the investment discussions fine, but better to say that the NDA's are preventing much discussion about future direction of the business than allow rumour and speculation to drive the agenda? |
It was part of an agreed plan between the Trust and the club and would go some way to illustrate how committed the latter was to “reengaging” with supporters. See the links in the original post.
Your other questions are very valid. There was clearly a lot of enthusiasm amongst fans around the volunteer idea and other aspects of improving the club.
There’s a real danger of that being taken for granted. But the team are doing well so these sort of things get overlooked. To the detriment of our football club.
To do something about this, details need to be relayed via the Trust/club about this agreed meeting, with full reasons provided around any delays to it taking place. It is still hoped that something will happen in the next day or so to ensure it goes ahead as planned, with fans still prepared to rearrange their own weeks to attend. [Post edited 24 Sep 2023 15:17]
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 18:11 - Sep 24 with 3335 views | TalkingSutty |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 15:14 - Sep 24 by 442Dale |
It was part of an agreed plan between the Trust and the club and would go some way to illustrate how committed the latter was to “reengaging” with supporters. See the links in the original post.
Your other questions are very valid. There was clearly a lot of enthusiasm amongst fans around the volunteer idea and other aspects of improving the club.
There’s a real danger of that being taken for granted. But the team are doing well so these sort of things get overlooked. To the detriment of our football club.
To do something about this, details need to be relayed via the Trust/club about this agreed meeting, with full reasons provided around any delays to it taking place. It is still hoped that something will happen in the next day or so to ensure it goes ahead as planned, with fans still prepared to rearrange their own weeks to attend. [Post edited 24 Sep 2023 15:17]
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This is just my opinion and I might be completely wrong but it seems the sole focus now is on those in the Boardroom urgently finding a investor...remember it was Simon Gauge who mentioned the word ' liquidation', nobody else. If it's as serious as they are suggesting, and there has been nothing from the Trust or the Trust Director to refute the claim, then a fan volunteer army isn't going to save the club unfortunately. The question i will always continue to ask is why Rochdale AFC are supposedly no longer able to make ends meet when clubs with far less resources and support seem to be able to be competitive..and they haven't all got wealthy financial backers neither. Do we have a boardroom full of people who are committed to ensuring every aspect of the club is firing on all cylinders and do we have the people in the club with the expertise to run a football club, or have the current custodians of the club decided a long time ago that it's easier to bring in other people to do the heavy lifting? We have clubs in our league who are competitive with crowds of well under 1000 fans but they are well run with everybody mucking in. You would never even know that ours is a fan owned club, that's a sad indictment on the fans and shareholders and also the Trust who shouldn't be allowing two or three people to dictate the direction of the club. That's what we have allowed to happen for the past eighteen month. The club isn't a financial basket case, it's never been given a proper chance as a fan owned, Community club. |  | | |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 18:33 - Sep 24 with 3299 views | 49thseason |
TS, one of the major reasons for the Trust to organise itself and figure out who can do what and when is entirely in case the L word becomes a reality. In the interim, doing all we can to figure out what works and what doesn't and how much it actually costs is as useful an exercise as we can undertake.
In an ideal world the Trust would be mirroring the stuctures within the club, setting up parallel committees and " gaming" scenarios "just in case".... I am still optimistic that a buyer can be found but the silence from the Board is deafening at the moment, clearly they don't want to do interviews, possibly because of the NDAs but a few comments on the form of the team and how well the Head Coach is doing would not go amiss. Even some sort of presentation to Henderson on 400 appearances would at least prove they still exist! | | | |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 18:42 - Sep 24 with 3279 views | D_Alien |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 18:33 - Sep 24 by 49thseason |
TS, one of the major reasons for the Trust to organise itself and figure out who can do what and when is entirely in case the L word becomes a reality. In the interim, doing all we can to figure out what works and what doesn't and how much it actually costs is as useful an exercise as we can undertake.
In an ideal world the Trust would be mirroring the stuctures within the club, setting up parallel committees and " gaming" scenarios "just in case".... I am still optimistic that a buyer can be found but the silence from the Board is deafening at the moment, clearly they don't want to do interviews, possibly because of the NDAs but a few comments on the form of the team and how well the Head Coach is doing would not go amiss. Even some sort of presentation to Henderson on 400 appearances would at least prove they still exist! |
It's happening against Chesterfield on Tuesday
The official match sponsor is being given the opportunity to make the presentation |  |
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 03:07 - Sep 25 with 3119 views | TalkingSutty |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 18:33 - Sep 24 by 49thseason |
TS, one of the major reasons for the Trust to organise itself and figure out who can do what and when is entirely in case the L word becomes a reality. In the interim, doing all we can to figure out what works and what doesn't and how much it actually costs is as useful an exercise as we can undertake.
In an ideal world the Trust would be mirroring the stuctures within the club, setting up parallel committees and " gaming" scenarios "just in case".... I am still optimistic that a buyer can be found but the silence from the Board is deafening at the moment, clearly they don't want to do interviews, possibly because of the NDAs but a few comments on the form of the team and how well the Head Coach is doing would not go amiss. Even some sort of presentation to Henderson on 400 appearances would at least prove they still exist! |
I understand that but all of what you say is reactionary when the worse case scenario is upon us and the situation could be irretrievable. How daft would it be to wait until doomsday before reacting to the situation and everybody associated with the club uniting and being pro-active? This needs to be done in association with everybody in the boardroom, everybody working as one and pulling together. It is good that a plan would be in place though should we get to the Doomsday scenario and i know the Trust will be looking at things like that to the best of their ability. The Chairman and Directors should be actively engaged with shareholders the Trust and fans, they should be driving a united approach to saving the club, not the other way around.
As shareholders, supporters and the Trust should we not all be demanding a meeting with those in the Boardroom and working out a sustainable plan to try to run the club on our own, as a fan owned club? If we did that would it not have a better chance of attracting the right person to the club with the financial backing?
It's becoming obvious that we aren't going to find a investor who will tick all the boxes, there are plenty of other clubs who are also looking for the same thing. If the investor isn't the right person he won't be allowed to just waltz into the club unopposed and there are loads of shareholders who will be doing their own due dilligence, you would expect that when nearly 500 fans have invested their own money into the club and so will the Chairman. He knows how the fans reacted when MH and others tried to take over the club and any potential new owner would be faced with the same hostile reception if their credentials aren't right.
We own our stadium, a luxury that many other clubs don't have, our crowds are small but they are nearly three times higher than some clubs in this league. There's been a unhealthy thirst to put all the eggs in one basket and see a investor as the only way of saving the club and it reared its head the moment the shares were bought back from MH. Was the Directors priority then to recoup their outlay on their shares rather than embracing a fan owned and fan run club which would have probably taken a few years to get up and running properly, a lot of organising and hard work? You can see the predicament that buying back those shares as caused, the Chairman and Directors have forked out a awful lot of money and the only way they can try to recoup it is to sell the club. Could the finances tied up in the stadium itself be the answer to some of these problems and would accessing them allow us to reset the club and attempt to reimburse those in the Boardroom for all or even part of their financial outlay? [Post edited 25 Sep 2023 4:10]
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 16:08 - Sep 27 with 2597 views | 442Dale |
https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2023/september/volunteerfocusgroup_280923/
Meeting now taking place next week instead of tomorrow as planned. Presumably the Trust will update members around the change.
Good to see it’s still taking place and hopefully there will be a good amount of people who can attend. It would have been better to have an in-person meeting, but that’s just a personal opinion. | |
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 20:09 - Sep 27 with 2368 views | TVOS1907 |
| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 16:08 - Sep 27 by 442Dale |
https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2023/september/volunteerfocusgroup_280923/
Meeting now taking place next week instead of tomorrow as planned. Presumably the Trust will update members around the change.
Good to see it’s still taking place and hopefully there will be a good amount of people who can attend. It would have been better to have an in-person meeting, but that’s just a personal opinion. |
I could have advertised this in Saturday's programme if I'd known in advance. More publicity the better and all that. | |
| When I was your age, I used to enjoy the odd game of tennis. Or was it golf? |
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| Volunteer Army focus group meeting on 20:33 - Oct 5 with 1909 views | 442Dale |
A very productive meeting with information to be put together over the next week to publicise what was discussed.
Some areas to be looked at:
Dale directory of tradespeople etc who can help out.
Matchday support - eg Support Liaison Officers
One off projects which supporters can assist with.
Ongoing work/recurring projects which require more structure, for example things like increasing the fanbase, were discussed.
Thanks go to the club and the Trust for sorting this and it will be good to see the plans for the next steps and things moving forward. | |
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