Christmas Tree 4522 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Newcastle United have reopened communication to offer their supporters a voice in the boardroom – by unveiling a new Fans Forum. Not since 2009 have fans been able to get a direct link to the Newcastle board. But while Mike Ashley won’t be involved, board members such as director John Irving and secretary Lee Charnley will be representing the club and listening to fan feedback. The forum will consist of 15 supporters and seven club and sponsor representatives. Three of 15 new supporter seats will be offered permanently to established fan groups – Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST), NUFC Fans United and Newcastle United Disabled Supporters Association (NUDSA). However, all fans can apply directly for the remaining 12 individual seats which represent different segments of the Magpies’ diverse fan base. A United statement said: “The club’s management team will be represented by board members John Irving and Lee Charnley, and heads of department from safety and security, ticketing, media and the club’s Foundation, as well as representatives from club sponsors Wonga.com. “The launch of the Forum, which will meet on a quarterly basis from September, follows months of consultation with supporters and fan organisations, as well as research covering a number of clubs across Europe. The club has also worked closely with the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) to develop the Forum’s new design.” Lee Marshall, PR and supporter liaison manager at Newcastle United , said: “Supporters are the lifeblood of any football club, so introducing a new Forum which will enable Newcastle fans to share their views and ideas with the club’s decision-makers is a very positive step. “Direct, structured communication is vital to building a strong, sustainable relationship with our supporters and we are looking forward to working closely with them for the benefit of Newcastle United.” For more information fans should apply to: supporterliaison@nufc.co.uk * I suggest we nominate Monkeys Fist as the presence of titty pictures can surely only help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Carr's Gloves 3739 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 They can go fuck themselves how stupid do they think we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 6884 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I look forward to NUST representing us all by telling Ashley the fans are going to save up and buy the club off him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Fair play. It's the sort of two way communication I'm happy to see more of, not the wank soundbites they announce in the press. It's obviously not gonna be owt to do with dissatisfaction over new signings or Kinnear...but it might see some positive moves on issues like away allocations. Would love the club/league/fans to do more as a group about sky moving long trips late in the day as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 "established fans groups" so the one with hardly any members gets a seat, the one who doesn't have a shared view (nufcfans utd) gets a seat, and the disabled fans one is fair enough as no doubt they actually have useful suggestions specifically for making attendance for their members easier, and the club are choosing who gets a seat for the remaining 12 then *cynicism overload* It'll help get round problems with attendance home/away and fan concerns like that, but what the likes of nust/nuffans utd will want will have no weight whatsoever in this sort of forum. Don't they just bring their own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeys Fist 41485 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Don't they just bring their own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene_Clark 12 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 "established fans groups" so the one with hardly any members gets a seat, the one who doesn't have a shared view (nufcfans utd) gets a seat, and the disabled fans one is fair enough as no doubt they actually have useful suggestions specifically for making attendance for their members easier, and the club are choosing who gets a seat for the remaining 12 then *cynicism overload* It'll help get round problems with attendance home/away and fan concerns like that, but what the likes of nust/nuffans utd will want will have no weight whatsoever in this sort of forum. the more members we have; the more legitimate & coherent our voice becomes. we have a meeting at 6.30 at the Labour club on Wednesday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 the more members we have; the more legitimate & coherent our voice becomes. we have a meeting at 6.30 at the Labour club on Wednesday You don't need more members imo, you need stronger leadership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene_Clark 12 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 You don't need more members imo, you need stronger leadership. we don't need leaders; we need an organic democratic structure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 we don't need leaders; we need an organic democratic structure And what should people, in a democracy, do? Shouldn't they vote for a strong leader? Also, Democracy is all well and good if those voting have clarity of purpose, objectivity and are an informed group. Football fans are not renowned for their clarity, nor their objectivity and while they may claim to be informed, like as not they've taken their information from such sources as "John down the pub knows", "The lads I know think" or worse still "The papers say". This group should be a republic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene_Clark 12 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 And what should people, in a democracy, do? Shouldn't they vote for a strong leader? Also, Democracy is all well and good if those voting have clarity of purpose, objectivity and are an informed group. Football fans are not renowned for their clarity, nor their objectivity and while they may claim to be informed, like as not they've taken their information from such sources as "John down the pub knows", "The lads I know think" or worse still "The papers say". This group should be a republic. in a democracy, everyone has an equal say. nufc fans united is a democracy; come along tomorrow & join in Newcastle Fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 in a democracy, everyone has an equal say. nufc fans united is a democracy; come along tomorrow & join in Newcastle Fans That's rarely a good idea. A republic is a far better system, imo. To quote Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 6884 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 What use is a dialogue with the club if every fan has an equal say? There needs to be some sort of common themes to pass onto the club to action. Pointless handing over 1000 opinions from 1000 fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 What use is a dialogue with the club if every fan has an equal say? There needs to be some sort of common themes to pass onto the club to action. Pointless handing over 1000 opinions from 1000 fans Especially when a substantial number of those opinions will be ill-informed emotionally driven demands, rather than objective options for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 in a democracy, everyone has an equal say. nufc fans united is a democracy; come along tomorrow & join in Newcastle Fans Fish is too posh for these workers gatherings and anyway as you can see here he'd be distraction with his 'strong leader' schtick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Fish is too posh for these workers gatherings and anyway as you can see here he'd be distraction with his 'strong leader' schtick. You'll get a thousand voices all demanding the same thing; "Change". With no idea what they want, when they want it, or how in the world they can get it. Vivat respublica. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16711 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 You'll get a thousand voices all demanding the same thing; "Change". With no idea what they want, when they want it, or how in the world they can get it. Vivat respublica. If folks just accepted what they were being dished up we'd probably still have the iron curtain, and possibly dozens of other things throughout history wouldnt have changed either....the revolution in Romania started with one lad going "BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" at party organised love in for Ceaucesu. Thats all it took. Things have to start somewhere. Am not sure it will change anything, but its probably better than just whingeing on an internet forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16711 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 i think you're misisng his point, he's saying there was no "shared" opinion coming out of that last meeting you had different sets of people wanting different things, so on top of people from the same group going and possibly contradicting each other, you'll have people from the same group complaining about why they were represented in one way over a certain topic when they thought differently about it. If you go and read the minutes from that last meeting you had people speaking and then another speaker after them contradicting him/or the objectives they'd like to achieve Well no, I understand what he means completely. These thing always start like this and can go one of several ways (see the NUST for example). Its a lot of the same people, Steve Hastie (Gene quoted an article by him in another thread) was a player in the NUST as well. Some people need to get up and do something whether its likely to acheive something or not. There may be something cohererant to come out of the confusion, maybe not. Theyre having a go, fair play to them. For me, if they can get the away ticket allocations increased then it should be viewed as a success. I dont think Ashley will turn round and say "actually you lot are right, I'm a twat, heres the keys to sjp" and I'm sure they dont either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 If folks just accepted what they were being dished up we'd probably still have the iron curtain, and possibly dozens of other things throughout history wouldnt have changed either....the revolution in Romania started with one lad going "BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" at party organised love in for Ceaucesu. Thats all it took. Things have to start somewhere. Am not sure it will change anything, but its probably better than just whingeing on an internet forum. And if it weren't for leaders like Iliescu it would have remained a rioting chaos intead of the birth of the new Romania (for good or bad). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16711 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 And if it weren't for leaders like Iliescu it would have remained a rioting chaos intead of the birth of the new Romania (for good or bad). Absoloutely. Leaders, good and bad, emerge. You never know, they may even open a pub if CT gets involved.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Absoloutely. Leaders, good and bad, emerge. You never know, they may even open a pub if CT gets involved.. I think my concern is that there isn't even consistency within the various groups. If NUFC Fans United (or whatever they're calling themselves) had a clear mandate they'd get a lot more traction than they are currently. (Too many egos imo.) The club would be forced to respond, but currently they can pay lip-service and, given the confusion, do sweet fuck all without worrying about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16711 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I think my concern is that there isn't even consistency within the various groups. If NUFC Fans United (or whatever they're calling themselves) had a clear mandate they'd get a lot more traction than they are currently. (Too many egos imo.) The club would be forced to respond, but currently they can pay lip-service and, given the confusion, do sweet fuck all without worrying about it. I think theyre mostly an amalgamation of Steve Wraith's mates and some from the trust. Wraith wrote an open letter to Mark Jensen asking him to come on board, presumably thinking that the Mag editor would lend it all some credibilty, despite apprently a strong mutual antiipathy. Sounds like a recipe for the same bickering which doomed the trust iyam, but there you go. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 10543 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I think theyre mostly an amalgamation of Steve Wraith's mates and some from the trust. Wraith wrote an open letter to Mark Jensen asking him to come on board, presumably thinking that the Mag editor would lend it all some credibilty, despite apprently a strong mutual antiipathy. Sounds like a recipe for the same bickering which doomed the trust iyam, but there you go. We'll see. That's the only thing I foresee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 6884 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I think it's ominous that the whole 'fans buying the club' delusion is rearing its head again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddockLad 16711 Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 Pompey fans own their club.... I think a fair minority would accept reduced status in exchange for having control. Dont think the majority of the fanbase would mind after 20 years of at least 36k in the stadium,sky tv and the odd brush with the champions league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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