RFC supporters on Radio 5 Live this Thursday evening

[Royal Lady]

Just been noseying around the STAR website and found this:

RFC on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport this Thursday 16th August 7.30pm
Friday 10th August

Reading FC will be the main focus of discussion on the forthcoming BBC Radio 5 Live Sport programme coming from the Madejski Stadium to be broadcast at 7.30pm this Thursday (16th August) before an invited audience of Reading supporters.

STAR were pleased to be asked by RFC and the BBC to arrange the 100 fans needed for the audience at relatively short notice, and the response to our recent appeal by EStar for interested members quickly filled the available seats.

Colin Murray will be presenting and Robbie Savage, Brian McDermott and Jason Roberts will be taking part. The initial focus is on Reading FC and after 8pm the discussion widens to the rest of the Premier League. We are informed there will be a number of high profile guests joining for this part of the show.

Please note this is not a public event. If you applied for a seat you should have received an email today as to whether you have been successful or not.

anyone off here involved in this?

[Big Foot]

£5 on Dirkers being involved somewhere along the route

[Big Foot]

PS - anyone who is going, can you please take a Dictaphone and post the word for word statements on here seconds after this is over? Some of us will be out and about on Thursday night.

Ta.

[Dirk Gently]

£5 on Dirkers being involved somewhere along the route

You owe me £5.

Absolutely nothing to do with this. Didn't know anything about it and wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with it if I had.

And resigned as a STAR Board member the best part of two years ago ... do keep up!

[Green]

Why did you resign, Dirk

[Big Foot]

£5 on Dirkers being involved somewhere along the route

You owe me £5.

Absolutely nothing to do with this. Didn't know anything about it and wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with it if I had.

And resigned as a STAR Board member the best part of two years ago ... do keep up!

Wasn't necessarily the STAR link m8 but the maths equation in my head went something like...

"RFC" + "Media" = Dirkers

£5 to a charity of your choice?

[Dirk Gently]

Why did you resign, Dirk

Three main reasons, which I outlined in a long (and probably highly tedious) resignation letter. I'll précis below :

1. STAR was, in my opinion, far too risk-averse and far too resistant to change. Some decisions had recently been made at the time that I was deeply unhappy about.

2. STAR's way of internal decision-making was far too collective - with everyone involved in decision making and minimal delegation of authority to portfolio holders. I felt this was counter-productive.

3. I believed that STAR was slowly dying as an organisation through lack of new-blood coming through. STAR had never had an election and didn't have a membership which was properly representative of all Reading supporters. That's not down to STAR, as it represented its members, but that was a by-product of the fact that STAR's members primarily join to travel by coach (*). I felt STAR had never found a way to answer the question “I don’t travel by coach, why should I pay a tenner to join STAR?” - and that was damaging them as an organisation and shaping their policies in the wrong direction. I believe STAR needs to open its membership wider and cheaper (possibly via a zero-cost, e-membership, or maybe a very low-cost membership with "top-up" for "Travel membership") so that it will be more attractive to *all* Reading supporters. With a larger membership, it'll be more effective, more representative and it'll have a much larger talent-pool of people who will, hopefully, participate more.

Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of effort into helping found STAR and helping run it for 8 years, and I don't want to damage it or get into a slanging match with anyone. But I want STAR to be a dynamic, representative and inclusive mass-membership campaigning organisation, as I believe that Reading supporters need and deserve an organisation like that. I could see STAR getting less and less effective and moving further and further away from being the type of organisation I believe it needs to be, and got to the point where what I felt I could achieve through STAR wasn't worth the time I was putting into it.


(*) Just in case I get accused of lying, the source for this is the STAR membership survey performed the previous year, in which 57.6% of STAR members gave their "most important" reason for joining STAR was to travel on STAR coaches.

[Dirk Gently]

£5 on Dirkers being involved somewhere along the route

You owe me £5.

Absolutely nothing to do with this. Didn't know anything about it and wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with it if I had.

And resigned as a STAR Board member the best part of two years ago ... do keep up!

Wasn't necessarily the STAR link m8 but the maths equation in my head went something like...

"RFC" + "Media" = Dirkers

£5 to a charity of your choice?

A few years ago, maybe. Been there, done that, recognised the pitfalls .....

Happy for you to choose the charity - it's your money, after all ....

[Green]

Why did you resign, Dirk

Three main reasons, which I outlined in a long (and probably highly tedious) resignation letter. I'll précis below :

1. STAR was, in my opinion, far too risk-averse and far too resistant to change. Some decisions had recently been made at the time that I was deeply unhappy about.

2. STAR's way of internal decision-making was far too collective - with everyone involved in decision making and minimal delegation of authority to portfolio holders. I felt this was counter-productive.

3. I believed that STAR was slowly dying as an organisation through lack of new-blood coming through. STAR had never had an election and didn't have a membership which was properly representative of all Reading supporters. That's not down to STAR, as it represented its members, but that was a by-product of the fact that STAR's members primarily join to travel by coach (*). I felt STAR had never found a way to answer the question “I don’t travel by coach, why should I pay a tenner to join STAR?” - and that was damaging them as an organisation and shaping their policies in the wrong direction. I believe STAR needs to open its membership wider and cheaper (possibly via a zero-cost, e-membership, or maybe a very low-cost membership with "top-up" for "Travel membership") so that it will be more attractive to *all* Reading supporters. With a larger membership, it'll be more effective, more representative and it'll have a much larger talent-pool of people who will, hopefully, participate more.

Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of effort into helping found STAR and helping run it for 8 years, and I don't want to damage it or get into a slanging match with anyone. But I want STAR to be a dynamic, representative and inclusive mass-membership campaigning organisation, as I believe that Reading supporters need and deserve an organisation like that. I could see STAR getting less and less effective and moving further and further away from being the type of organisation I believe it needs to be, and got to the point where what I felt I could achieve through STAR wasn't worth the time I was putting into it.


(*) Just in case I get accused of lying, the source for this is the STAR membership survey performed the previous year, in which 57.6% of STAR members gave their "most important" reason for joining STAR was to travel on STAR coaches.

Thanks for taking the time to type out, that's interesting.

I guess noone (least of all me) would argue against the desire to increase the reach and membership of STAR, but I guess the challenge would be that the increase in numbers would not necessarily lead to an increase in engagement with the organisation.

[Dirk Gently]

.....

I guess noone (least of all me) would argue against the desire to increase the reach and membership of STAR, but I guess the challenge would be that the increase in numbers would not necessarily lead to an increase in engagement with the organisation.

True, but it's the only thing that potentially might - because you can be sure that not increasing numbers almost certainly won't increase engagement and participation.

The only other thing that might is a "clubs in crisis" scenario, and no-one wants that.

[Green]

Yeh that's fair. And I guess out of every thousand extra members you might gain if you get three or four that actively get involved then it could make all the difference.

[Dirk Gently]

It's not just that - it's the perspective of new members, too. A wider range of members, who join for a wider ranger of reasons, can only be beneficial to any organisation.

[Royal Lady]

I note, with a touch of sadness, that STAR didn't bother to mention this event on here - as there may have been one or two nobbers who were not members of STAR who would have liked to attend (not talking about me here btw). I was told STAR were having a meeting on 9 Aug - but starliaison didn't get back to me since, so can only assume they vetoed the idea of me acting as a go-between for HNA and STAR. I do note, however, that the AGM is at the end of the month, so maybe that's when it is going to be mentioned?

[STAR Liaison]

I note, with a touch of sadness, that STAR didn't bother to mention this event on here - as there may have been one or two nobbers who were not members of STAR who would have liked to attend (not talking about me here btw). I was told STAR were having a meeting on 9 Aug - but starliaison didn't get back to me since, so can only assume they vetoed the idea of me acting as a go-between for HNA and STAR. I do note, however, that the AGM is at the end of the month, so maybe that's when it is going to be mentioned?

We were asked by the BBC to get an audience of 100 members so the E-STAR to members filled the list easily and quickly.

RL as far as your email is concerned I sent you one on Friday before I went away for the weekend and it has not been returned - can you check your inbox please?

[Royal Lady]

To which email addy? Work one or google one?

[Royal Lady]

Found it - didn't show up on my iphone for some reason.

Sorry STAR have refused this offer - I do think it may have forged a bridge between STAR and HNA - but there you go.

[STAR Liaison]

3. I believed that STAR was slowly dying as an organisation through lack of new-blood coming through. STAR had never had an election and didn't have a membership which was properly representative of all Reading supporters. That's not down to STAR, as it represented its members, but that was a by-product of the fact that STAR's members primarily join to travel by coach (*). I felt STAR had never found a way to answer the question “I don’t travel by coach, why should I pay a tenner to join STAR?” - and that was damaging them as an organisation and shaping their policies in the wrong direction. I believe STAR needs to open its membership wider and cheaper (possibly via a zero-cost, e-membership, or maybe a very low-cost membership with "top-up" for "Travel membership") so that it will be more attractive to *all* Reading supporters. With a larger membership, it'll be more effective, more representative and it'll have a much larger talent-pool of people who will, hopefully, participate more.

Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of effort into helping found STAR and helping run it for 8 years, and I don't want to damage it or get into a slanging match with anyone. But I want STAR to be a dynamic, representative and inclusive mass-membership campaigning organisation, as I believe that Reading supporters need and deserve an organisation like that. I could see STAR getting less and less effective and moving further and further away from being the type of organisation I believe it needs to be, and got to the point where what I felt I could achieve through STAR wasn't worth the time I was putting into it.

I know all too well how much you put into STAR Dirk, and I don't want a slanging match either as we have both put in many more hours for our fellow supporters than most if not all of STAR's critics. We may disagree on parts of STAR's purpose but we have tried to involve others and it has slowly happened.

FYI since you resigned we have had new volunteers standing for election so the new blood is coming in, and they are not regular (if at all) coach travellers and also not friends of existing board members, so it is still progressing and this year was very close to having to hold an election, which as you know is the goal (not often attained) of most supporters trusts.

[STAR Liaison]

(*) Just in case I get accused of lying, the source for this is the STAR membership survey performed the previous year, in which 57.6% of STAR members gave their "most important" reason for joining STAR was to travel on STAR coaches.

Just looked at the 2011 survey and we have had progress as the percentage has dropped to under 40% and third in the medal table.

As you have said we will only get a massive change if we become a club in crisis and as I hope that never happens the only other way is slow evolution, which these figures seem to substantiate is happening.

[Compo's Hat]

Hope STAR realise everyone will be able to hear this on the BBC!

[Dare to Dr£am]

£5 on Dirkers being involved somewhere along the route

You owe me £5.

Absolutely nothing to do with this. Didn't know anything about it and wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with it if I had.

Really, or is that because your name isn't in the clubs good books at the moment? Some of your comments regarding TSI weren't appreciated earlier in the year.