Fans' Forum

[ZacNaloen]

With the number of people who were live tweeting the thing this whole episode is just a joke

[The Rouge]

I had a PM on Friday from STAR, effectively telling me that the situation was my fault, apparently I should have known about the history of these events without needing to be told. It was also made clear that the club and Brian personally are "very upset" - again, the implication being that my actions, and my actions alone have upset them, and STAR now have a lot to do to repair the relationship.

Finally I was told that STAR have nothing against me "because you have shown remorse" - again the implication is that all this is my fault

What a shower of total helmets.

Fukking hell. This has sent their HELM RATING up to 96%.

[blindedbythelights]

Really cant see any way out of this for STAR other than issuing a full, public apology firstly to Cypry and then to all of us, having failed and let us down so terribly.

Let's have it chumps

[Royal Lady]

Probably too busy working.

It's a pity Dirk gave it up and is on his holidays at the moment, I'd be interested in his comments.

[Matt de K]

Well I for one will not be renewing...I wouldn't normally discuss the content of a PM, but I've had no response to my reply since I sent it 3 days ago, and need to vent spleen...

I had a PM on Friday from STAR, effectively telling me that the situation was my fault, apparently I should have known about the history of these events without needing to be told. It was also made clear that the club and Brian personally are "very upset" - again, the implication being that my actions, and my actions alone have upset them, and STAR now have a lot to do to repair the relationship.

Finally I was told that STAR have nothing against me "because you have shown remorse" - again the implication is that all this is my fault.

Congrats Cypry. I think you've done extremely well not to tell them to go fvck themselves, after (of course) they've pulled their cock out of RFC's arse.

Is there a cooling off period?? Maybe enquire to getting your £10 back, with the reason "I thought this STAR thing was for supporters"

This whole thing STINKS!!

[ZacNaloen]

They'll just ignore us now and laugh it off as being "just hobnob" just like the club do

[TBM]

Does the club/McD REALLY think, when doing these fans forums, that everything they say will be kept within the 4 walls?

Simple fact is, the club and McD wouldn't say anything unless they were prepared for others to know - its not as if the people in the room that night where any different to us lot who read the post from Cypry - they have just happened to whack some notes STAR's way for the privilege.

[Royal Lady]

I haven't checked their website for a while - I might go and have a nosey to see who holds what position these days - it's almost always the same people every year - I'm surprised there are no younger fans offering their services to be a board member.

[Royal Lady]

http://star-reading.org/index.php/events/


Dear STAR

When advertising events such as Fans Forums - in order to entice people to join your group - why not put in the blurb that these are a "behind closed doors" event and no one is to repeat what is said? Or something. Just a thought.

[TBM]

I haven't checked their website for a while - I might go and have a nosey to see who holds what position these days - it's almost always the same people every year - I'm surprised there are no younger fans offering their services to be a board member.

Here you go

Paula Martin - Chair


Michele Mead - Vice Chair


Gerry McGreevy - Treasurer


Teresa Hicks - Secretary


Wendie Wakefield - Events/Reading Matter

Nathan Wakefield - Reading Matter

Chris Witcher - Safety & Community

Colin Bishop - STAR Travel

Paul Ellix - Policies

Helen Bullen - Community

Richard Langley

Ian Maynard - Media & Community

Co-Opted Board Members:

Trevor Mossman - Exiles Coordinator

Esther Madden - Communications

Ian Holt - Web Suppport

[Royal Lady]

to strengthen the bonds between the Club and the community which it serves and to represent the interests of the community in the running of the Club

Would the above not encompass the Fans Forums - i.e. the players/management of the club telling the fans stuff and then the wider fan community being told about it - as it is in the interests of ALL fans to know what the players/management have to say?

[maffff]

The first rule of STAR Club is: You do not talk about STAR Club.

The second rule of STAR Club is: You do not talk about STAR Club.

[floyd__streete]

FFS - this would all kick off when I was away!

Yeah you like a good bitch don't you, you nosey cow

[Royal Lady]

FFS - this would all kick off when I was away!

Yeah you like a good bitch don't you, you nosey cow

Me Nosey? I'm not the one perving over a female's picture on the collage.

Anyway, it's not being nosey, it's joining in with the slating of a group who are more cliquey than anyone on AE imo. So do one.

[floyd__streete]

Yeah you like a good bitch don't you, you nosey cow

Me Nosey? I'm not the one perving over a female's picture on the collage.

Anyway, it's not being nosey, it's joining in with the slating of a group who are more cliquey than anyone on AE imo. So do one.

Rattled

[Wimb]

Does the club/McD REALLY think, when doing these fans forums, that everything they say will be kept within the 4 walls?

Simple fact is, the club and McD wouldn't say anything unless they were prepared for others to know - its not as if the people in the room that night where any different to us lot who read the post from Cypry - they have just happened to whack some notes STAR's way for the privilege.

Think the issue has been that Cyrpy posted a fairly detailed list of what went on in one easily findable place. The club/STAR/Brian aren't utter idiots and know that the odd tweet would fly about or that some poster would reference an issue on some thread, but one large thread on a public forum with all of the key details is a bit of a slap in the face (for the club) after they agree with STAR that the event won't be widely reported on, at least until they've seen the minutes.

Cypry didn't release anything particularly scandelous to my memory but I think the club wanted to make a point, that they agreed to let Brian speak under a certain set of conditions and that was broken by a STAR member.

As Hobnob said, it was the club who asked for it to be taken down. STAR's reaction seems to be more about preserving the fans forums rather than any ideological belief that the meetings should be secret and no information should be made available to the general fanbase.

STAR certainly made things no easier by not getting (or promising) a write up in a speedy amount of time, but I don't see why they're blamed for trying to protect the nature of future forums. Despite there being a few posters on here, who's opinions are just as valid as anyone else. Like it or not they're currently vastly outnumbered by the hundreds of STAR members who went to the night and would be disappointed to see the event no longer take place.

At the end of the day if the club slams the door on these events it'll be those few hundred Reading FC fans that go to the forums that lose out, the fanbase who aren't in STAR/Go to the events and are ripping the decision not to have a totally open forum will also be stuffed as they'll be no information to be shared in the first place

Either there's a compromise to be made or none of the fanbase will 'win'.

[Royal Biscuitman]

[quote="Royal Lady"]to strengthen the bonds between the Club and the community which it serves and to represent the interests of the community in the running of the Club"community" not fans or supporters.... maybe the term community needs clarifying.

[Royal Lady]

LOL @ anyone in the community of Reading giving a flying one what RFC do if they're not fans or supporters.

[Z175]

I'm very surprised at the abuse of STAR in this thread. In my humble opinion, its unwarranted and bang out of order.

I'm not a do-gooder myself, and I'm not a committee type person and don't normally appreciate such people. But in the case of STAR, they have an important role to bridge the fans and the club. I'm grateful to the individuals who run it and organise it, like many fans, I'm not currently a member, I rarely use the coaches and I've never been to a fans forum.

I logged into last week HNA to see if there was any gossip from the forum, and not seeing much, remembered that its normally kept behind closed doors.
I appreciate that not everyone would know this and thus I'm not surprised somebody posted a transcript, and equally I'm not surprised the CLUB asked HNA to remove it. I fail to see that this has much to do with STAR at all. Had I posted the transcript, I would not like to be recipient of a PM telling me off, who would?!

I had a PM on Friday from STAR, effectively telling me that the situation was my fault, apparently I should have known about the history of these events without needing to be told. It was also made clear that the club and Brian personally are "very upset" - again, the implication being that my actions, and my actions alone have upset them, and STAR now have a lot to do to repair the relationship.

Finally I was told that STAR have nothing against me "because you have shown remorse" - again the implication is that all this is my fault

But I don't see that the content of that apparent PM is anything to get worked up about, its more just contextualising the fact the thread needed to be removed. The thread was written on HNA and removed at the request of the CLUB. STAR are just caught in the middle, which suggests they are indeeed fulfuilling exactly that remit, to be in the middle. To post pictures of the people running this organisation on a messageboard is to invite trolling and toally disincentivise individuals from giving their time and effort to add something to our following of RFC.

Finally, most people know that Brian is selective with his words to the media. He took the opportunity to be honest at the forum, and it sounds like that puts the club in the unfortunate situation of practically lying about events in January. Not having read the offending thread or been to the forum, thats my assumption. I cant think any of us would like this "fact" publicised widely, because if the players were to consider this when we finish 8th this season, history will no doubt repeat itself. 3 years, continuity, lets not upset the boat. Its in all of our interests to accept no one is to blame, the thread is gone, who knows what happened, in the words of Brian, "We move on".

[Royal Biscuitman]

I think the club wanted to make a point, that they agreed to let Brian speak under a certain set of conditions

A set of conditions they informed STAR representatives of in advance of the event taking place

and that was broken by a STAR member.

who was not informed of these conditions either by STAR or by the Club and therefore can not be held accountable for breaching agreement they were not party to.