Hiya all, Recently QPR1st has received feedback via email, on message boards and through social media requesting to find out more about our current levels of communication and consultation between the Club and the Supporters Trust. Weâve been a little bit quiet of late, so we would like to provide an update to all supporters that we can with regards to the current state of play. Since the Trustâs inception back in April 2001, it has in the past enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Club and held regular formal and informal consultation between the Clubâs CEO or other Board members. This relationship began to deteriorate during Flavio Briatoreâs reign. The Clubâs communication with The Trust became progressively worse and completely broke down after Amit Bhatia left, with the Club refusing to speak to us directly. When Tony Fernandes arrived and Amit Bhatia returned, The Trust assumed that the relationship would be restored and contacted the Club to try and set up a meeting with CEO Phillip Beard when he was appointed. The Trust were told that Phillip Beard was too busy and that we needed to wait and that wait turned from weeks into months â to the point The Trust gave up asking after repeated attempts to establish dialogue with the Club. The Trust welcomes Mr Fernandesâ approach and open nature on social media like Twitter, and for visiting local pubs in the community to talk to fans. This however is not a substitute for holding proper structured dialogue between the Club and independent fan reps. The Trust have also contacted the Club regarding issues that have affected supporters, such as the decision to force season ticket holders to relocate out of the Lower Loft and turn an unsheltered area behind the goal into a âFamily Standâ. The Trust did not receive a reply from the Club. The Trust wrote to the Club and asked them to join forces in the campaign to prevent the Accident & Emergency centre nearest to Loftus Road stadium from being closed down, but regrettably again, The Trust did not receive a response. As many of you know the Supporters Trust is part of a nationwide organisation called Supporters Direct which is state funded and is supported by both the FA and the two main political parties. At a meeting of Premiership Supporters Trusts held by Supporters Direct we explained our situation and inability to establish communication with the Club. They agreed to intervene on our behalf to see if they could make progress once we had tried one last time to set up consultation with the Club. We are in the process of formally writing to the Club for a meeting. There are a wide range of issues that need to be discussed, such as the plans for a new stadium, season ticket pricing for the 2013/14 season which will be a hot topic depending on which division the Club is in next season, establishing a relationship with the Supporters Liaison Officer, which is meant to be a key role in the Club with considerable status, and a variety of other topics from cup ticket prices to fans forums and regular contact with supporters. The Trust will continue to keep its members and supporters notified of any developments in this area. If youâd like to know a little more about QPR1st, you can find more details on the website at http://www.qpr1st.com FAQ on what and who QPR1st is: http://www.qpr1st.com/about-qpr1st/faq/ The Trust's Mission Statement can be found here: http://www.qpr1st.com/about-qpr1st/mission-statement/ The committee is currently made up of the following voluntary workers: http://www.qpr1st.com/about-qpr1st/trust-management-board/ There will be a renewed push from the Trust over the coming months to restore a mutually beneficial relationship with the club and the QPR community at large and The Trust is currently in the process of discussing key issues it wants to raise and tackle this year, so expect some activity on this front soon. If this is something that interests you, the Trust is actively actively seeking for people to get involved as members or on the committee itself and would love for likeminded fans to get involved and join: http://www.qpr1st.com/join-qpr1st/ If you have any questions, feel free to respond to this thread or drop us a line at [email protected] and weâll get back to you as soon as we can. All the best, You Rs!
Moderation Note This thread had been 'pre-moderated' by the site's spam guard. According to the Supermod, 'because they are newbies as soon as they post a link it puts their post into moderation. mods can release the post by simply ticking the check box to the right of the post and then going down to the moderation tools and 'approve'. Once they have built up some posting history they will be fine'. That's what I've done in this case. I'll keep my eye out for pre-mods in future and deal with accordingly.
QPR1st says, 'the Trust is actively actively seeking for people to get involved as members or on the committee itself and would love for likeminded fans to get involved and join'. Anyone interested in getting involved? Would've thought one or two living near the Bush might be... What about Nines? I know he's Esher or that way, but he'd be my prime candidate I reckon.
Thanks for the mention Brix. I'd never heard of QPR1st until I saw this thread. Were they the group that had a meeting with Warnock in the Four Year Plan? I thought it was the LSA featured in the film. Anyway, I shall take a closer look at their site later and consider signing up. Just out of interest is anybody else on here a member?
This does make me question further just how well the club is being run. I thought they were trying to be as open and communicative as possible? Doesn't seem that way eh?
I'm not sure if this will really interest anyone, but it's on the topic of communication... Clive from LFW met Ian taylor this week. Here's what was discussed: "It was fine, hopefully productive. It came on the back of my Liverpool match report and Chelsea match preview, which included some criticism aimed at him and the media team, so he asked if I would like to sit down with him and discuss that face to face which I didn't see any harm in. In no way was it me pretending to represent QPR fans or to speak for anybody other than myself. I basically gave him a bit of a panning on here and he wanted to discuss the points I'd raised which he didn't have to do and was appreciated. I basically repeated what I've written on here and said on the Podcast in greater depth. - I gave him my point of view on the way that the media team use Twitter, saying that certain aspects of it had wound people up, and that in my opinion using your own personal account for personal and official purposes perhaps hadn't worked as a tactic because he's now getting abused after matches. Pointed out a few Tweets that I thought may have rubbed people up the wrong way. - Said that I thought the allocation at West Ham was low and the price v West Brom was very high, and that a lot of other people had said the same thing. Said that West Ham in particular showed that the 'register your interest' facility on the website wasn't working or wasn't being used enough. - The idea of the free coach travel that was floated on the podcast came up and that may be something they'd consider, particularly after the support they got at Chelsea. I think they're looking into that. Stressed the need to contact LSA in advance so they don't end up with a coach charging £30 on a day when the club are doing them free. - Mentioned the problem some people have with ringing the box office, getting put through to Ticketmaster, they say they can't help and to ring the box office and you just go round and round. Also mentioned that people had posted on the board about being upset to be moved out of the Lower Loft, and then a double whammy seeing Liverpool fans celebrating in there last week. Mentioned that away fans seem to be taking advantage of the Viagogo thing which could cause problems down the line. - Official website they know has issues, all clubs with that company have the same issues, but the contract is very, very long and completely unfeasible to buy yourself out of so they've got to work with it and them. Overall I just stressed over and over again that at the moment the communication with the supporters is quite poor (in my opinion) and there need to be more forums, rep meetings and consultations with a really wide group of supporters. Pointed out that things like the West Ham and Man City ticket issues wouldn't happen as often if they were talking to the supporters regularly. And that I'm just one bloke moaning, they need to be talking to loads of supporters a lot of the time. In no way can I possibly represent anybody's views other than my own - not least because you lot disagree with me most of the time. It was constructive I think, hopefully things will improve. " "I've raised the lack of communication with supporters groups with Ian Taylor and those concerns are going to be fed back up the chain. I specifically mentioned the problems QPR 1st were having getting anybody to speak to them at all. We'll see if things improve. I stressed the need to restart some sort of dialogue, either through an e-mail group that includes people from the club and reps from the supporter groups and, preferably, back to the regular meetings. It's free feedback for the club so they should be embracing it really. There should be regular forums for as many fans as possible - remember they used to tour around, think we even had one in Staines or Slough once - and in addition regular rep meetings to discuss concerns and issues off the pitch IMO. "
I think one of the problems we have is that TF is trying to appear blokey and approachable but the reality is that the board as a collective are on a different wavelength. There is no proper strategy in place for dialogue and decisions are being made that backfire, the FA Cup ticket prices are a perfect example. One thing that worries me is that TF may not have the 'clout' we all think and that others in the background are the real 'power behind the throne' and if we go down the shyte really will hit the fans...
As an outsider not affected, it appears to me that our club is not being run (all) that well. Whilst I'm very gratefull for TF (and others -even MH) efforts to try to run our club, it seems that new ventures like Twitter accounts, Vivago ticketing, Family stand etc are just not working out as they had hoped. Why can we just go back to running the club in the old fashioned way.....ie "Run by Football People For the Supporters"? I dont really want to talk to TF, Beard MH etc. I just want to see my club run properly and well. If they can do that then success, in what ever form, will surely follow? Or am I being Niave?
Interesting comments above - particularly Grifter's red ones on the 'Clive Summit'! Not sure of the relationship between them, but the Loyal Supporters Association (LSA), Loft for Words and QPR1st are, as I understand it, the main Rangers fans' bodies. It's clear enough to me that delegates from these bodies are who the club should be talking to at a committee level. Twitter bollox is not the way. It's open to all including tossers and leads to demoralising abuse for those concerned, particularly the owners who will inevitably tire of that particular channel of communication.
There are some posts on this thread that are clearly valid and need addressing. I shall by whatever means take it to the appropriate fan base for their perusal and submission. If anyone has anything constructive to add then please do so. It is very late now and I need to sleep. Upon awakening I shall forward any relevant post to the powers that I feel can fight any of our collective greiveiences. Thanks. Hopefully it shall make a difference.
The club may feel that these groups are less representative of the views of fans going on a matchday than open media like twitter is. At least by seeing all the comments, even from the numpties they know it's not a select few at the top making out the things they like are more popular than they are (not an accusation, just an acknowledgement of the potential for that to be happening). They should still show them the courtesy of giving a timely response and explaining that the club are happy with the current lines of communication.
Heya there, both the LSA and QPR1st featured in The Four Year Plan documentary and one or two others from in and around the QPR community.
Heh – yeah I suppose I am, albeit it's voluntary and not a formal role. I'm also the official QPR Ladies photographer (also voluntary), however I've not managed to get down to a match for them this season. The network that LoftForWords is hosted on also has a commercial deal with Action Images, which they use and are not my work.
For those of you interested, just to give you an update that broadly relates to the statement The Trust made in the original post, there will be a QPR Fans' Forum next month. The Trust have been contacted by the Club and invited to attend a QPR Fans' Forum to be held at Loftus Road on Thursday 7th February 2013. This is an all ticket event that's currently being offered to Away Season Ticket Holders exclusively. The Club's panel will be represented by Phillip Beard, Harry Redknapp and a couple of representatives from the first team squad and will have a Q&A format. The Trust are encouraged by the contact made from Jon Davies and will accept the invitation. In the meantime, The Trust is still awaiting a response regarding setting up a meeting with the Club directly.
They did http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/fulham-and-hammersmith-news/local-fulham-and-hammersmith-news/2012/08/24/82029-31689791/
