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PASB Election - candidate Jon B
- Thread starter PL2 3DQ
- Start date
It looks like I'm the only one really interested and I'm not voting.
JohnB, what do you think of moving the family area to the former Zoo Corner?
JohnB, how would supporters/stakeholders contact you with their concerns?
JohnB, how much free time would have to dedicate to the PASB?
JohnB, what do you think of moving the family area to the former Zoo Corner?
JohnB, how would supporters/stakeholders contact you with their concerns?
JohnB, how much free time would have to dedicate to the PASB?
hairy j":mytk04na said:
Hi Hairy,
Thanks for the above. In order (I'm travelling so please excuse typos & grammar!):
1. I've got a number of thoughts on the family area initiative. First & foremost, I'm glad that the area is being opened again - the ground looked & felt very low-rent last year, what with the empty terraces & derelict Mayflower steps.
Secondly, I very much like the principle of the idea - its an attempt to do something different; it gives an opportunity to grab the emotions of the youngest of football fans, which we all know pretty much ties you into 'your' club for ever more. For good & for bad. Additionally, it may help to repair the sullied reputation of our club - fans of other teams used to view us in a good light & currently, many that I know disapprove of what we have done in recent years.
Thirdly & lastly is the more contentious part of the proposal; the siting of the area in Zoo Corner. I must say that I haven't seen a full commentary of the idea, but if it's part of a longer-term strategy, I'm in favour of it being placed there in the coming season. To explain further, I suspect that in planning the initiative, other areas were seen as 'geographically' preferable, an example of this would perhaps be the Spion Kop end of the Lyndy (incidentally where my young son & I have our season tickets). However placing the Family Area in any already-occupied area, & thereby displacing many long-term seat owners, would without doubt cause a huge furore & potentially lead to many good fans stop coming to games in anger.
So for this year, the use of an 'unreserved' & (last year) unused area makes sense to me - but as a holding position.
What I now want to see & hear is the longer-term plans (& if I've missed them, I apologise). What are the plans for the Family Area in the mid-term (ie the 2013-14 season) & the longer-term thereafter? What I would like to see is consultation with the fans (via the Trust, in chief) about the mid-term location & then in the long-term, the Family Area moving to the new stand.
2. Contact with me depends upon the 'what' & 'how' of the working practices of the PASB which I understand will fall to the first Board to decide.
What I mean by this is very much in keeping with my previous lengthy posts about the development of the PASB.
For clarity, I see the PASB as complementing the Trust, not competing with it.
I see the Trust as being the Supporter's body responsible for influencing the decisions of the Club, feeding in the views of the fans to the club & talking messages back to them through its developing avenues of communication.
I see the PASB as then ensuring subsequent decisions & actions are taken a) in line with the agreed course & b) completely in line with the stated aim, objectives & values of the club.
This is of course predicated on the need for the club to develop a useful & relevant aim, set of objectives & set of values.
Let me give an example - quality of match day catering - & let's assume that one of the club's values would be something to do with using local suppliers wherever practicable & that another would be something to do with comparative pricing in our ground being benchmarked against other clubs AND average, regional pay differentials.
As such, I would want the club & the Trust to come up with an agreed approach to include suppliers, variety of products & pricing framework.
The PASB would then ensure that this approach was implemented in line with the aim, objectives & values of the club. In this example this would be things such as how local the supplier is, set against any difference in pricing against that of a more distant supplier.
In this way, the agreed 2nd option as agreed by the club & Trust may end up being the preferred option, once all options are assessed against the published aim, objectives & values of the club.
Effectively, every decision of the club would be assessed against an agreed ethical framework.
The PASB would then report upon its work to the fans in whatever way it decides. Every single piece of work (& it's outcomes) needs to be published, in my view.
To add to this, should the PASB assess that decisions or actions were being taken against the agreed framework, I would suggest that an escalating tier of interventions would then be implemented, perhaps starting with an internal letter from the Chair of the PASB to the Chair of the club, & ending (in a worse-case scenario) with an open letter detailing concerns being published publicly.
If a model such as the one that I'm proposing is adopted, the communication with fans will probably be very different from that needed should the PASB take a different route & become something of a 'Trust-lite' & itself seek to be the primary source of supporter influence on the decision-making of the club.
If its the latter, I suspect that PASB members will need bespoke email accounts & tel numbers and have a tent outside the ground on match days...
3. The amount of free time that I have is a moot point. I dread to think of quite how much the total would be if I added up every minute of every day I spend 'checking' out Pasoti, ATD & the club site.
However, the answer about my time would be a comfortable 'enough' - in addition to my Internet addiction I attend every home game & have attended every GASB / PASB meeting (in addition to attending the Trust AGM & a couple of the Supporter's meetings held during our descent into administration).
So, that's it I think. Sorry to have gone on, but I despair about the nation of headlines that we have become - sometimes the Devil is truly in the detail & thought that it was worth describing my thoughts in detail in response to the questions you asked.
Cheers,
Jon
Hi Dunlop,
Yes, as I said I think that the location is the most contentious issue here.
That said, I've based my view on a few things.
The first thing is that we're a 4th division club with 4th division attendances (albeit quite good 4th division attendances). As such, for most games our ground will be what - between 60% & 75% empty (until we start pushing for promotion, of course!)? Last year, most of the away support was pretty weak, I'm not sure what the official figures were, but they must have averaged between one to three hundred.
The second thing is that with the 'traditional' Zoo corner fans having been moved last year, a lot of the people sitting next to this area are parents & children anyway (I sat there with my then 7 year old a couple of years back).
Thirdly, if we wind the clock back to the early 80's (I think), the club had a family area directly opposite, on the terracing under the left hand side of the Grandstand as you look at it. This was similarly 'between two sets of fans' & I don't remember there being any problems (I also stood there for a while as a young teenager - it was cheap (a Daily Star initiative if I remember correctly!). This was despite being in a period of time when the behaviour at football grounds was at an all-time low.
Lastly, it's clear that there is an increased potential for there to be some problems for at least a couple of games this coming season - I would expect the club to be looking to relocate members of this area elsewhere for these games (Grandstand, perhaps?).
I hope that explains the reasons for my views a little better.
Regards,
Yes, as I said I think that the location is the most contentious issue here.
That said, I've based my view on a few things.
The first thing is that we're a 4th division club with 4th division attendances (albeit quite good 4th division attendances). As such, for most games our ground will be what - between 60% & 75% empty (until we start pushing for promotion, of course!)? Last year, most of the away support was pretty weak, I'm not sure what the official figures were, but they must have averaged between one to three hundred.
The second thing is that with the 'traditional' Zoo corner fans having been moved last year, a lot of the people sitting next to this area are parents & children anyway (I sat there with my then 7 year old a couple of years back).
Thirdly, if we wind the clock back to the early 80's (I think), the club had a family area directly opposite, on the terracing under the left hand side of the Grandstand as you look at it. This was similarly 'between two sets of fans' & I don't remember there being any problems (I also stood there for a while as a young teenager - it was cheap (a Daily Star initiative if I remember correctly!). This was despite being in a period of time when the behaviour at football grounds was at an all-time low.
Lastly, it's clear that there is an increased potential for there to be some problems for at least a couple of games this coming season - I would expect the club to be looking to relocate members of this area elsewhere for these games (Grandstand, perhaps?).
I hope that explains the reasons for my views a little better.
Regards,
Jon,
Please can you explain to me your opinion on the online ticket booking facilities at Home Park ? Would you press Mr Brent to upgrade the outdated system in the Box Office to enable supporters like me ( disabled ) to book online for the match in advance using my White Membership paper voucher ( scanned onto my e-mail ) and a return email from Argyle with the ticket for me to print off, ( similar to airlines and Mr Brent's hotel chain.......maybe?)
Thank you Jon.
Please can you explain to me your opinion on the online ticket booking facilities at Home Park ? Would you press Mr Brent to upgrade the outdated system in the Box Office to enable supporters like me ( disabled ) to book online for the match in advance using my White Membership paper voucher ( scanned onto my e-mail ) and a return email from Argyle with the ticket for me to print off, ( similar to airlines and Mr Brent's hotel chain.......maybe?)
Thank you Jon.
- Nov 17, 2009
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Jon
I sit in the grandstand near the Barn park end and one thing you can guarantee there will always be let's say banter between the fans, unfortunately it was mostly abusive, I do not think there was any need to make that area of the ground the family section, as for the suggestion that when we play against the likes of Exeter they are moved to another part of the ground is again a potential problem, if they are moved to the Gstand the club would loose a lot of money.
I think the idea is a good one except the location, what is wrong with keeping it where it is.
Regads
I sit in the grandstand near the Barn park end and one thing you can guarantee there will always be let's say banter between the fans, unfortunately it was mostly abusive, I do not think there was any need to make that area of the ground the family section, as for the suggestion that when we play against the likes of Exeter they are moved to another part of the ground is again a potential problem, if they are moved to the Gstand the club would loose a lot of money.
I think the idea is a good one except the location, what is wrong with keeping it where it is.
Regads
Dunlop,
I'm not sure why it can't stay in the Demport - it would be good if the narrative around the decision-making was shared with us.
I think that when the Trust settles into itself more, I would hope that it would have regular, scheduled meetings with the club for all of these sorts of things to be discussed & agreed before they are released. That way, even if we (as indiivdual fans) don't agree with certain decisions, at least we would understand how they came to be made.
If my preferred model for the PASB is adopted, we (the PASB) would then effectively quality assure any such decision, making sure it met the wider objectives of the club (& of course, us fans).
Even with as full a consultation process as possible, it will be impossible to please all of the people all of the time....
Cheers,
I'm not sure why it can't stay in the Demport - it would be good if the narrative around the decision-making was shared with us.
I think that when the Trust settles into itself more, I would hope that it would have regular, scheduled meetings with the club for all of these sorts of things to be discussed & agreed before they are released. That way, even if we (as indiivdual fans) don't agree with certain decisions, at least we would understand how they came to be made.
If my preferred model for the PASB is adopted, we (the PASB) would then effectively quality assure any such decision, making sure it met the wider objectives of the club (& of course, us fans).
Even with as full a consultation process as possible, it will be impossible to please all of the people all of the time....
Cheers,
Thai green":1k1taf4j said:
Hi Thai,
I'm in danger of just simply agreeing with you here, but yes, our approach to ticketing has been a long-term bone of contention with me.
Our visit to the Emirates really brought this home to me a few years back - access was gained by simply scanning your ticket at the automated turnstiles.
I've bought theatre, cinema & train tickets over the Internet in recent months - all of which I printed off at home, so the technology seems utterly proven to me...
As you mentioned though, JB (the other!) has a number of hugely successful businesses that use booking systems, so I suspect we're pushing an open door on this one (pun intended).
Cheers,
See above.
Thank you Jon for your prompt reply, yes I believe we both agree on this online booking problem, I am sure now that I have read your reply that if elected, I do hope you will be , then I can look forward to some progress on this online booking system at last.
Phil.
Thank you Jon for your prompt reply, yes I believe we both agree on this online booking problem, I am sure now that I have read your reply that if elected, I do hope you will be , then I can look forward to some progress on this online booking system at last.
Phil.
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Jon - no questions from me - but you do get my full support (for the little that is worth!)
Steve
Steve
castlegreen":37hxiakt said:
Steve,
Even through my slight-Friday-night-cidery giddiness I thank you!
