The following open letter has been issued by the Supporters’ Forum to the fans:
Spireites,
First of all, thank you for the largely positive reaction to the new Chesterfield FC Supporters’ Forum. We’ve all enjoyed seeing and reading the numerous messages and emails that have been received regarding this.
But like with most things new, it’s understandable that there are some who are not as keen and we are writing to you in hope of easing your doubts and better explaining the concept.
The forum isn’t a select panel, the forum is the supporters. This is a new conversation avenue between us, the supporters and the club itself in a positive effort to enhance all things fan based. We think we all have our moans and groans about what the club do, or what they could improve upon and how things could be better managed and this is why this scheme has been set up in the first instance. The ‘committee’ is not there to make decisions on your behalf, on the contrary, it is there to listen to all supporter feedback and put this back to the club to get things happening and improve things for all of us.
There is, and has been a lot of work in the background that some of you may not be aware of and we think this needs explaining further and made totally open. As you have all seen, there is now a new [email protected] email address which is there for fans to voice their feedback, from their matchday experience, to the stadium, to the day to day goings-on at the club and will be managed and responded to by members of the forum where they are able to receive a timely response or have their query passed onto somebody at the club for further clarification if needed (obviously this is for matters off the pitch, Cookie is already working on a masterplan for the league). This new email replaces the fans@ email which was monitored and responded to by the club, and we know was a bugbear for fans, as responses from it were very limited, if at all. The new system is designed for the forum panel to hear your individual voices and strive to enact change and improvement based on you want and what you would like. Once your voices have been heard, it is down to the us to build a case that can be present to the board to try and get improvement made.
So, as we have addressed that this will be monitored now by the forum panel, we would like to stress that whilst there are some of the ‘same old names’ on this panel, the initial panel have been selected by the club based on their merits – such as members who applied and were to be considered for the Supporter Liaison Officer role, those who have experience in supporter feedback through external supporter groups or those who have an active social media presence. These members, were all invited, based on individual merit and not through an ‘inner circle’ system. If any member had any issues with other members selected, they had the opportunity to voice concerns before the launch and thus, as this is an initial panel and shall be open to a formal election after it’s been established, we had no concerns and still see no concerns, although we do appreciate any that you may have yourself. Although, it is with disappointment that we understand that a couple of individuals have received personal attacks via social media and in person, could we ask please that if you don’t agree or don’t want to be part of it, please don’t take that out on the individual as that isn’t fair. They have volunteered for this role and had belief that this is a scheme that will work with the right and positive backing.
Every voice in our football club is equal and will be listened to with the same care and attention as everybody else. We hope this addresses some concerns and we do look forward to hearing you and being able to make positive improvement on your behalf.
Best wishes and #COYB
The Chesterfield FC Supporters Forum
