The Trust Board have benefited hugely from taking a step back and planning the way forward, particularly in deciding how best to communicate with its members and how to ensure that the fans of Stockport County have an opportunity to express their view or receive an answer when they either have a complaint or indeed have an idea which they believe may benefit the club.
As part of the Trust Boards vision document, which will be presented to the members in due course, the Trust will request that the football club establish a Customer Feedback Address (E-Mail,Postal, Tear Out form in the Programme etc). As part of monthly minuted meetings copied to the trust board will include an overview of this feedback, we feel confident that we will ensure the club improves in its communication with supporters. There are many other initiatives which will come forward but in the spirit of communication this is the most immediate.
With regard to this message board. It has been a long term wish of the trust board to keep all lines of communication open, and indeed to provide as much information as possible, we promised transparency and that is what we will deliver. To that effect a quarterly members meeting will be held with the opportunity for members to partake in a Q&A session. In addition a newsletter will be produced, launched at each quarterly meeting, and e-mailed/posted to all members. It is also proposed that a location at EP be established for match days where a member of the trust board is available for questions. In addition the an equivalent customer feedback process will be established, with all answers published in the quarterly report.
However when it comes to responding on a public forum it is an unfortunate fact that with the ownership of a football club comes responsibility, and the fact that individuals can post increasingly wild accusations concerning the trust, the football club, or individuals, means that as soon as a response is offered, these often ridiculous statements are given credence, and become reality.
It is a fact that representatives of other clubs and organisations now visit this board to learn about the owners of County, and frankly the impression is appalling. It is therefore with considerable regret that we announce that the continuation of this board in association with trust is untenable. We propose to request that individuals, non trust board members set up an independent message board, in order that the usual, and hopefully more positive, banter can continue.
We will of course assist by posting the address of the new board, but will take no involvement in its operation. Going forward no individual responses will be made to postings, if the trust has an official comment to make, it will do so under the auspice of Trust Media.
The sadness with which we make this decision, as many members met through the original board, is offset by the excitement that the destiny of the football club is in the hands of the fans, in general the goodwill that the board have received has been humbling and we look forward to an exciting future with positive and constructive communication.