Please read especially volunteers : Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:23 am
Hi everyone
As you know I was very vocal in my disappointment in the reaction from the club/RFL/SKY to the way the Catalans game was changed. I still feel it is disgusting but now realise that the only blame the club need to hold their hands up to is the fact that they issued a two line statement and no apology until six days later. I have been in prolonged discussions with Paul Blanchard and believe the club were not the people at fault for the movement of the game and the fact it was out of their hands.
Paul would like to see me come back to the club as volunteer organiser and fill the position I vacated. I have said I am prepared to do this if a number of things are taken into consideration.
These points are :
The club consult volunteers about issues that really affect fans and ask for some help and guidance in the things which we understand better than they do – as fans we have had the rough with the smooth and probably understand some issues better than they do.
Volunteers are on a rotation for Saturdays giving everyone the chance to watch the reserve games and use the Jester bar for lunch if they want to
Include volunteers in more than just raffles etc.
The club have offered compensation in the form of paid coach travel and entry ticket on a trip to Warrington, as the club had their hands tied by the RFL I feel this goes a little way to knowing they care
The club should still badger the RFL to make sure there is some form of compensation from them to Quins fans. I know they won’t want to in case it sets precedence but I feel it should be something given by way of compensation and apology to the fans. SKY will do nothing – they do not even think we have been inconvenienced too much.
We should be included in brainstorming sessions on how best to draw crowds, we all have ideas and these should be listened to, they may well be the ideas that need acting upon.
Discussion is still going on between Paul and I and I will not retract what I have said or written to the Club/SKY/RFL and Paul understands this and the reasons I will not retract anything. He has given me support with this.
The RFL and SKY have not even bothered to answer my emails, at least the club have interacted with fans when they have sent mails. Not always what we want to hear but at least we have not been ignored.
A few of you have said you do not want the volunteer movement to fold and would like it to go forward. I will ask you all to reply do you think it should, would you still like me to co-ordinate it? If you want to move things forward then we should hold a meeting and Paul and Petra should be in attendance so that everyone knows exactly what is happening, why we give our time to the club and what we expect from the club and vice versa.
I will be honest and say the main thing in wanting to carry on is the fact that Petra with the help of Brian and I has completed a lot of work for the London Wheelchair Rugby Club BBQ and without the help of the volunteer movement it probably won’t go ahead. I don’t think LWRC should be the people to miss out due to the decisions of the Catalan game and don’t think our team deserve to see the few fans we have dwindle further. If we can all meet and talk and be included by the club in major events, maybe we can make a difference. We have ideas and would like to have them listened to and in some cases acted on. It is over to you all to make the decision do we move forward or do we disband?
