FST meeting today

[dannyboi-ffc]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?  Not to mention regularly attending u21 games etc at motspur park

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

[Berserker]

I think unity in matters are key when having discussions with a large organisation. The fact that the supporter groups are split and do not give information to each other freely saddens me, plus plays into the hands of such company's as Fulham FC. Unity is Strength

[MJG]

We have had issue with the website until the last couple of weeks. That's now been sorted and I hope the report from the meeting will be on the site today.
You have to understand that members pay a fee and they will be informed first. but I take on your point Tony and it's something we are discussing within the FST.

FST is the only supporters organisation that seems to exist. There's a need for proper communication between the club and us. I think FST now has an opportunity to involve more supporters which would encourage the club to engage properly. Giving us pertinent information is the best recruitment strategy you could have.

We all want to understand and help if we can. Good luck.

totally agree TG and believe me we are working on that.

[MJG]

I think unity in matters are key when having discussions with a large organisation. The fact that the supporter groups are split and do not give information to each other freely saddens me, plus plays into the hands of such company's as Fulham FC. Unity is Strength

I don't think supporters groups are split at all. Moves have been made to unite different groups and that is ongoing.

[Fulham1959]

Fulham Supporters Trust which came about from the Back To The Cottage group.
I was elected on during the summer and we will be a more visible organisation to represent fans going forward.

Thank you  -  rings a bell, now !

[MJG]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

The FST is a membership organisation.  It's £10 to join and you can do so at http://fulhamsupporterstrust.com/join-us/
As mentioned earlier we have had numerous technical issue with the site and hence its not been updated.  But the committee members who deal with the site will be updating shortly. It's been very frustrating for the committee that the site has been unusable but all I ask is a little bit more patience regarding it.

[MJG]

Just to say I was involved with the supporters club back in the late 80's early 90's with David Lloyd etc. All during the merger years etc.
I got involved this summer partly because the FST is not as well known with fans as it should be. In the real world I work for a membership organisation and my wish is to get as many fans to become members as possible going forward. But it's all baby steps atm.

[TonyGilroy]

How many members are there?

[dannyboi-ffc]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

The FST is a membership organisation.  It's £10 to join and you can do so at http://fulhamsupporterstrust.com/join-us/
As mentioned earlier we have had numerous technical issue with the site and hence its not been updated.  But the committee members who deal with the site will be updating shortly. It's been very frustrating for the committee that the site has been unusable but all I ask is a little bit more patience regarding it.

fair enough. My point is why have a membership in the first place? Why not just have a team of supporters including yourself that attend these meetings and give feedback via a website/forum etc that we can all be included in. Why does a fee need to be paid just to find out information that will be passed on to the rest anyway. Its like paying extra to sit at the front on a rollercoaster, just another way of making money.

What does this organisation do other than attend meetings?

[MJG]

How many members are there?

I have not asked that question yet as we have only had one meeting which was earlier this month and we covered a lot of other subjects. But I will come back with that. We all have our designated jobs and I'm working on one project at the moment.

[TonyGilroy]

It costs money to run any organisation but it's chicken and egg.

Demonstrate the worth of membership and people will want to join. Paying a tenner for nothing doesn't appeal.

[MJG]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

The FST is a membership organisation.  It's £10 to join and you can do so at http://fulhamsupporterstrust.com/join-us/
As mentioned earlier we have had numerous technical issue with the site and hence its not been updated.  But the committee members who deal with the site will be updating shortly. It's been very frustrating for the committee that the site has been unusable but all I ask is a little bit more patience regarding it.

fair enough. My point is why have a membership in the first place? Why not just have a team of supporters including yourself that attend these meetings and give feedback via a website/forum etc that we can all be included in. Why does a fee need to be paid just to find out information that will be passed on to the rest anyway. Its like paying extra to sit at the front on a rollercoaster, just another way of making money.

What does this organisation do other than attend meetings?

You need to understand why the BTTC was formed and money required to run that. We still have costs involving memberships of other football fan related organisations. We have a website (admittedly not working for a while)  to pay for. There were newsletter costs last year and other related spends.
It's a nice idea of having a free supporters organisation and one I'm not opposed to.
The FST is doing a review and you will hear more of this in the next month hopefully.

[epsomraver]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?  Not to mention regularly attending u21 games etc at motspur park

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

You keep banging on about the 4 generations etc but you should realise that a lot of people on this forum have put a lot more time, effort and money into Fulham supporting  than you have.Did you support back to the Cottage? put money in the buckets? go to the meetings at the town hall and the pub in Putney? stand outside the ground in the peeing rain trying to sell tee shirts and suffering the abuse of some so called fans? Do you have a brick on the mantle piece? if you have to ask what brick then that means you don't  have one, The people who are now FST do it for the good of the club from the supporters point of view, they have earned their place,  not just to be in an exclusive club which you say stinks? Before you ask I am not a member of FST.

[MJG]

It costs money to run any organisation but it's chicken and egg.

Demonstrate the worth of membership and people will want to join. Paying a tenner for nothing doesn't appeal.

and I have those conversations every day in my real job. Especially in a society which has changed from the eras of paying to be a member of anything. The Internet has made pretty much made everything free and especially younger generations do not see worth in paying for anything.
But things still have to be paid for.

[dannyboi-ffc]

If FST want to be an inclusive organisation representing supporters they're missing a trick here.

Show us what you can do and how you can represent supporters rather than try to own information even temporarily.

totally agree.

Isnt being a season ticket holder and not missing any cup games either for the past 18 years a big enough fee paid?  Not to mention regularly attending u21 games etc at motspur park

Excuse my ignorance but ive never been a fan of exclusive clicks and thats what this stinks of. Load of nonsense.

What is this membership by the way? And what do those initials stand for? Clearly being a life long fulham fan in a family that spans 4 generations of fulham dating back to 1948 isnt enough to have been educated on this membership yet

You keep banging on about the 4 generations etc but you should realise that a lot of people on this forum have put a lot more time, effort and money into Fulham supporting  than you have.Did you support back to the Cottage? put money in the buckets? go to the meetings at the town hall and the pub in Putney? stand outside the ground in the peeing rain trying to sell tee shirts and suffering the abuse of some so called fans? Do you have a brick on the mantle piece? if you have to ask what brick then that means you don't  have one, The people who are now FST do it for the good of the club from the supporters point of view, they have earned their place,  not just to be in an exclusive club which you say stinks? Before you ask I am not a member of FST.

Being 26 no I did not do those things..... did my mum and grandad attend every meeting in an attempt to save the cottage? Yes they did. Does my grandad have a brick? Yes he does. I dont recall ever being told they stood in the rain selling t shirts and its too late to ask now. Ill ask my mum that one and get back to ya.

Again you refer to this braveheart save the cottage group as if im ignorant to it all. Would it not cross your mind before writing to think 4 generations? 66 years of fulham? Maybe just maybe the first couple of generations were there with me??? Because they were.

But rather than bang on about it as if he was more important than me my grandad would educate me and not be on his high horse. How can younger generations respect and appreciate the work you did if you just throw it back in our face.

Like you said you're not a member yourself so I dont see whats your problem with me asking questions about something ive never heard of. Its my club too

[Two Ton Ted]

Might be worth putting a sticky up on here for FST matters?

I need to rejoin but the form on the website has gone the wrong date on it. Is Brezh still membership sec?

[MJG]

Might be worth putting a sticky up on here for FST matters?

I need to rejoin but the form on the website has gone the wrong date on it. Is Brezh still membership sec?

ignore the date it's for 14/15

Part of the issue was inability to change some pages but that membership form does work.

[Burt]

Interesting stuff...

MJG, it would be useful to understand:
1. What the purpose of the FST is. Role, remit, mission, aims, etc. etc.
2. Who is on the main committee?
3. How often do you meet as a committee?
4. Formal links with the club (if any)?
5. How you encourage participation from the grass roots.

Many thanks.

[dannyboi-ffc]

Interesting stuff...

MJG, it would be useful to understand:
1. What the purpose of the FST is. Role, remit, mission, aims, etc. etc.
2. Who is on the main committee?
3. How often do you meet as a committee?
4. Formal links with the club (if any)?
5. How you encourage participation from the grass roots.

Many thanks.

In a roundabout way those questions are basically what I asked and I was just told about how I wasnt there in the old days and how others have put more effort and time into fulham than myself. 

Maybe I should be more formal in future lol

[MJG]

Interesting stuff...

MJG, it would be useful to understand:
1. What the purpose of the FST is. Role, remit, mission, aims, etc. etc.
2. Who is on the main committee?
3. How often do you meet as a committee?
4. Formal links with the club (if any)?
5. How you encourage participation from the grass roots.

Many thanks.

Burt great questions and all of them reasons why I stood to be on the committee.
We had our first meeting as a committee since I was elected at the start of September.
We met the club yesterday and will be having regular monthly meetings with the club from now on. This is a great step forward from the rather random meetings that went before.
Our remit is a changing one,  it started as getting Fulham back to the cottage and has become more supporter related in being members of various national organisations while also keeping in touch with club and trying to raise any concerns fans had.
We will be looking for input from ALL fans on the type of organisation Fulham fans want representing them and what's important to you guys,  and how we can help in anyway.
I'm still new so of the info you ask..meetings etc.. I'm not sure if it's a set number to have or on an as and when basi. But we are always in touch and have had informal meetings before games.
I know this all sounds a bit vague and I'm sorry about that,  but all I can ask is a little patience in what we are doing and I'm sure come the new year we will be able to push on as an organisation and as Fulham fans together.