An update from Sian Davies, the Swans Trust Supporter Director (Part 2)
Last week (and before the Burnley game) Sian Davies, our Supporter Director wrote to all our Swans Trust members as below which we thought we’d share with all our supporters. If you’d like to automatically receive member updates and add your voice to help make us stronger it takes just a few minutes to join HERE. Your membership fees and donations help us to support the local community, sponsoring football in local schools and junior leagues and other local charities. And all our members get free entry into our regular prize draws where you can win replica kits, signed books and scarves. Sian’s message reads… Earlier this week I shared the first part of my Supporter Director update for members, which covered recent updates from both the Trust Board and from our recent Club Board meeting. In today’s update, I have shared a summary of our recent meetings with Julian Winter. We are happy with the engagement and opportunities for collaboration that we are getting from the Club’s senior management team both in the depth of the discussions but also in their candid nature. This is helpful for us in understanding the true context behind decisions that the club takes, and helps with our ability to provide important input and challenge to them. The Trust’s position as a shareholder has meant that we have had access to the club’s senior management team, specifically through the Supporter Director role, since our inception. In the past fourteen months, we have sought to broaden our representation within the club by creating new face-offs between Board members and the senior management team; this has been done to ensure that we use the skills of our Board members effectively and to balance the workload fairly amongst the Board. This broader representation has included setting up new temporary and/or permanent groups where required to support better working. The Board are now working in smaller, dedicated groups for comms/PR with the club’s Head of Media on combined messaging/projects, as part of a Supporter Liaison group, and as part of new joint initiatives such as the Former Players Association (FPA), the launch of the Global Jacks, and the Digital Archive project. This is in addition to extending our representation on the club board, the Safety Advisory Group (SAG), and a permanent position on the Swans Foundation. There is an incredible amount of work going on and I’m grateful to the whole Board for their continued dedication and commitment. We routinely add comprehensive reports covering the work of all our groups to the minutes of our monthly board meetings available for everyone to read here. The link below contains a report on our most recent meetings with Julian Winter, and the core points of discussion in those sessions. |
FROM THE MAILBAG We have picked up from recent engagement that you want to see more of the things the Board is doing to support both individual fan queries and the wider advancement of the fan’s voice within the club. We receive a large number of questions from members and fans both via email and through our social media channels and I have included our responses to just some of those below: Playing of the National Anthem on 13th September (v Sheffield United) We received multiple messages from members and fans regarding the plan for all EFL teams to play the national anthem (God Save the King) prior to kick-off as a sign of respect to Her Late Majesty the Queen. This was a sensitive issue, with many opinions on the right way to pay respects, including that no anthem should be played prior to kick-off. We initiated conversations with the club through our comms/PR group to highlight the concerns from fans, which in turn triggered conversations with the EFL and Sheffield United. The result of our bringing this to the club and participating in further meetings was the agreement to hold a minute’s silence but not to play the anthem – the feedback received and noted from Social Media showed this to be a good compromise. Establishing a Visually Impaired Players (VIPs) team We received a request from a member to support the establishment of a team for the Visually Impaired in Swansea. This has been picked up by Board Member Howell Williams, who himself is visually impaired, and he is supporting the establishment of this team. Setting up new Supporter Groups Earlier this month, we received a number of requests for guidance and support to help establish three new Supporter Groups – this work is being led by a small independent working group and Trust Board members alongside club SLO Catherine Thomas. These groups, when established and added to the growing network of affiliated groups, will enable more fans with similar interests/geographies to help travel to games, host fans forums, communicate and meet up to talk all things Swansea City. Note – this works alongside the Global Jacks project that the Trust is also involved with where supporters who perhaps live further afield than Swansea can also keep in touch with each other through their Facebook and Twitter channels. Their first ever official gathering took place during last week’s Watford and Sunderland games and it is hoped these type of events will become more regular in the years ahead Questions for Julian Winter and Ownership A member submitted a number of clarification questions to us that they would like a response from Julian Winter and the club’s majority owners on – we duly provided responses after conversations with Julian. We are always happy to take these types of questions and support fans to get clarity on the issues that are most important to them. Making future forums virtual The club are a model of what good access looks like through their Fans Forums and we recognise the hard work that goes into organising and planning these events. However the in-person events have typically meant that only a relatively small number of fans can attend and ask questions – we have received a number of queries from supporters outside Swansea who wished to view the Forums online. We have been working with the club’s media team for a number of months to discuss options for streaming/virtual access to these forums. We were delighted to see the first of these was trialled at the forum on 29th September. Establishing a Veterans Team A member recently asked us for support in establishing a veterans team – we discussed this with the club and the Swans Foundation, and are pleased to confirm that the Swans Foundation have offered to take the lead on this project. Absence of Mini-Programmes A member emailed us to enquire about the decision not to release mini matchday programmes for the 2022/23 season – we passed this directly to the club’s media team who provided a full response to the questions, which we were able to share back to the member. Supporting a family who had a bad experience at an early season away match The Trust picked up on Social Media reports of a negative experience for a young Swansea Fan who recently attended their first ever away game. We reached out directly to the affected people, and also took this into our Supporter Liaison subgroup with the club. We arranged for the affected fan and their family to have a match-day mascot experience for a home game, courtesy of the Trust and the club, which aimed to ensure that their lasting memories of Swansea City would be positive. Providing support to bereaved or ill Trust members and Fans We continue to receive multiple queries and requests for support in helping lift the spirits of Trust members and Swansea Fans who are recently bereaved or are suffering serious illness – we have worked with the club through our Supporter Liaison group to ensure personal messages and/or signed shirts are sent out to families and individuals. We have also signposted members who wish to have a plaque added to the memorial wall at the stadium to the relevant teams for recently deceased loved ones. As you can see, there are a broad range of things that we are working on regularly to support our members and the fanbase on – some of which the Board takes an active role in leading/supporting, and some of which where we play a signposting role. Our aim is to ensure that these queries/concerns are being addressed – no query is too small. There are times where the answers given aren’t what members and fans would like, but we work hard to ensure they are heard and responded to. LOOKING AHEAD The whole Board recognises that whilst there is much good work going on, we have a long way to go in building membership to the desired levels and improving how we engage with members on a more regular basis. We were delighted to see a list of proposed recommendations or considerations in our comms approach from a Trust member recently, and we are working through those to incorporate them into our broader comms strategy. We are working hard to bring back a number of in-person and virtual forums and events this year, including our annual Bowling Night. We are also working as part of a Football Supporters Association (FSA) group on membership and improving the scale and diversity of our membership base, and all membership bases of Trusts and Supporters Groups across the football pyramid. If you have other ideas/comments/queries, please do send them to us (info@swanstrust.co.uk) – every email we receive is read and responded to (where a response is required). |
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Sian Davies Supporter Director October 2022 |
