June 10th Meeting Aftermath

Good to meet you tonight Ras. Top man.

Really pleased to see a decent turnout and somethings to work on, Proud to be a Gashead tonight and i haven't felt that in weeks.

I feel strongly some good will come of this. Thanks to everyone who came and great to see Sean, Bridgeman, Ras . Together we are stronger.

UTG

You have a certain way with words Ras . Good to meet you tonight !

Ok so firstly let me thank JTS, Mark C and Pirate49 for organising such a successful meeting. I know there has been a lot of talk recently about the 'fan divide' and the factions that have developed over the last few weeks and I do hold some sympathy with the reservations some hold about this. If there was one thing this meeting did well it was that it was unreservedly inclusive. There were many 'groups' of fans representing themselves here with the dignity, respect and voice that we have all earned through our passion, support and suffering. It played no small part in creating an atmosphere of fan unity that I feel has been lacking since the FFS drew us all together. I am grateful for the opportunity to voice my opinions and concerns as well as to share the room with others that although may not see eye-to-eye do at least want the very same thing.

Those that know me will know that I feel that anger comes easy and that we have without question been given more than enough reasons to feel that way in recent times. It is harder though to take that frustration and use it to create something positive. It is easy to destroy but harder to rebuild and even though I appreciate that in theory it should not be our job to knuckle down and fight the fires that someone else has ignited, duty and responsibility is born from the will for change and tonight I saw us as fans step up to the plate. It would have been all too easy to have simply condemned those responsible and to demand their heads but we didn't do that at all. We all sat down, discussed what the problems were and said 'right then gasheads, how do we fix this?' It was massively constructive and hugely uplifing.

Firstly we discussed and voted upon what we thought were the main issues that needed addressing at the club. There were some suggestions passed around that had been suggested and discussed on various social media platforms. We were encouraged to decide which issues we felt most strongly about and of course to add any others we felt needed attention too. Some of those discussed were the relegations in such a short timeframe, the injuries, youth setup, the apparent failure of successive managers, the club review being internal and so far unfruitful and the continuing poor standard of fan representation and communication. Of course there was lot to be said on each issue and there was a unanimous agreement of these points. Also mentioned was the apparent unpreparedness for the stark reality many fans could see coming for some time in the form of our relegation from the FL.

I will leave the specific details of the suggestions made to address each issue for the hosts to publish when they are ready but it is safe to say that there were many ideas presented from a range of viewpoints. There were many fans there who were clearly much more informed than myself and their input was invaluable. This addressed the practicalities of some suggestions and helped keep us on track to achieve a genuine direction that was achievable and reasonable.

We then discussed the potential actions we may be prepared to take if these deep rooted issues were not addressed satisfactorily or at all. As you imagine, there was a broad range of suggestions and feeling across the room. I was not looking forward to this on a personal level as I felt like anything that would take money away from the club would be a poor choice given our fragile circumstances. I was massively enthused however to see us gasheads working together to find a happy compromise that addressed thevissues but also fears like my own. Representation at the SC etc would be need to be made but we would also stand together under our own flag as fans and fans alone. There was a reasonable disposition reached about how to act if needed and that it would be a warning shot across the bow so to speak whilst still doing what we gasheads do best which is supporting the team on the pitch. There seemed to be an acceptace that if the club would act there need not be any further action in the immediate future provided we were satisfied with said action but that time would tell. We would need fan input to assist the logistics of such actions and they would not be extreme to begin with. There was also talk of how to present options to the club that could be seen as positive incentives for the change we all long to see. Rather than just performing negative actions to make a point, why not present an incentive for the club to provide the changes we want to see. This I feel was a great suggestion and one that needs to be considered in more detail in the coming months.

It was agreed there would be another meeting to complement and build upon this one. However, it was stressed that such a meeting should not be at the expense of taking positive action in the immediate future and that any subsequent meeting should be as an addition to the actions suggested rather than delaying anything. As one chap said, we can water in to the wind for as long as we like, we need to get our feet on the ground.

It really was a fantastic experience and I urge all to attend the next meeting with an open mind. It is not a board bashing or rose tinting exercise. It is simply a bunch of (primarily bald!) people wearing their hearts on their sleeves and sitting down together saying right, how are we going to fix this and turning anger and frustration in to real and positive action.

Cheers guys,

These are not minutes they are just how I saw things.

It is so easy to moan from the sidelines. Lets actually make positive things happen.

Haha just my little joke. I felt rather overdressed! It was genuinely good. Everyone knows my skepticism about this kind of thing so for me to say that does mean something. Thing is, if I sgaved my head Id look like one if those inside out cats.

sorry to hear that mate. Hope you have some good pain meds. Hope my post goes some way to giving you an idea about what happened. Rest up brother, see you soon.

I am also glad that people made the effort.
Sounds very positive so far. Well done everybody.

Would have liked to have made it but alas..

Glad to hear it went well

Thanks for the general briefing Ras. Very helpful.

Thanks for the info, and well done everyone who turned up/organised it.

Lets hope its the start of many good things to come. will do my best to make the next meeting.