Now's the time to act?

[Chris]

Look I know over the last few years we have been banging our head against the brick wall to Slough Borough Council, but is the next two weeks one of the most important in the history of stfc?

 

We have a game, which could be on sky, putting Slough in the national spotlight, we should get a crowd of at least 3,000 there for the Walsall game - if it's at home, and if we get the message out via papers, radio, posters etc on the Walsall match then it can raise the profile of stfc.

 

Now could we then turn round to the council and then say, hey look what's happening, look how many people turned up and what the interest was in the game - maybe they will think twice?

 

Personally I don't think they will think twice even if we moved the game to old trafford and had 50,000 supporters from Slough travel up to Manchester - as we know what they are like, but I can't help thinking that with the publicity this game will be bringing we should be doing something to help secure the future of the club?

 

Maybe not even getting the council involved, maybe getting interested backers to help Martyn Deaner, something like that - I dunno, but I feel that something could be done?

[brighton_rebel]

I totally agree with Chris, this game will really raise our profile, and we have to use it to embarress the Council and to push for a return to the borough. My ideas so far are to print up hundreds of David Brent (of the Office) paper masks that everyone can wear, with a huge banner behind the goal, with some sort of crap management speak about going back to Slough and asking the council why this isn't happening.

I think we should use the image of the Office cos that's what everyone knows Slough for. We could time it for just before the start of the game or at half time as a publicity stunt i think the media will love it. We can also print press releases including councillors numbers to make it easier for the press to call them and ask why they don't support the club.

What do people think?

I know someone who can print the masks and will find out how much they will cost.

We need some witty people to come up something to put on the banner and to do the banner.

Are people up for this? Is it something the Trust can back, or would it have to be supporters acting independantly?

I think its a golden opportunity that we can't miss, and am willing to put some work in to make it happen.

 

Brighton Rebel

[Matt]

Maybe we could ask Ricky Gervais himself to be a guest of the game... <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

 

Worst that could happen is that he would say 'no'.

[BFR]

More chance of getting Gervais to the game than Stokes

[Martin]

I am with Chris and Brighton - have to use this game to raise the profile of the club. Shame we did not have time to prepare anything for yesterday given that it now seems unlikely we will be a live game. We at least need some banners about getting a ground back in Slough.

[Burnham Lad]

Chris S and the Board of the Trust,

 

This is Urgent - We do need to strike now whilst we have people's attention!

 

I know I have gone on about this before, but this really needs a PR approach. What we need is a press release which we can issue to all local newspapers and some of the Nationals, like the Telegraph, which carried the story about us that Dominic found. It should issue a direct challenge to the Council - Invite the Council to attend the match as guest of the club and what a pity that here is your local football club, been here for over 100 years, always represented the Town with honour, made it yet again to a position where they are attracting national attention and we have to play the game at a site outside the Borough.

 

We think we have been let down by our local council which is not in the slightest interested in helping us to find a ground back in the Borough which is our home.

 

Do you want me to draft something? From the Supporters Trust or the Club?

[brighton_rebel]

Andrew,

Why not knock up a draft press release and stick it on the website for people to comment - would also be good to have a draft for tomorrows meeting at the Polish club.

I really hope the Trust get behind this.

 

brighton rebel

[Ian]

Quote:

Why not knock up a draft press release and stick it on the website for people to comment -

Good idea that we should release a statement but nothing should be posted on here before it's officially agreed to by the board of the Trust.

Anything printed on here in the form of a press release could end up in the papers (which is not a criticism of Gary Chappell or Niall Campbell) and that shouldn't happen without Trust approval.

[Burnham Lad]

I am not a member of the Board, so mine was merely an offer of help, which can be taken up or not as the Trust chooses. All I was trying to say is we should not miss the opportunity and am prepared to help, but best of all would be if the Board spoke to a PR expert on the best way to make maximum capital out of this opportunity, and issued it themselves. I agree with Ian, publishing what they are about to say on here would rob it of its effect. If you want any help, send me a PM.

[brighton_rebel]

I know the Trust had other things to discuss yesteday, but was anything decided last night about the proposed demo? We really need to act quick to sort things out and make it as effective as possible.

 

brighton rebel

[chris sliski]

Hi Warren

 

Your right...we had lots to sort out, we touch on that subject - The Club is just happy for us to do the talking on the day ! with ensuring the day goes well and that we conduct ourselves well and get things right on the day !

 

However we also think we should do something to raise our plight and also to do it right...

 

We have sort of formed a sub committee to look into this - we have asked Ian & Kay lathey to see what can be done...but banners are a good thing to so anything you can get done would be ok by me ! it is an opportunity to raise our plight and should not be wasted but it also sensible by the club to point out ..we need to get things right on the day too...

 

IAN are you ok with that ?

 

BFR & MARTIN ....can you help on this too...

I agree we must not waste an opportunity either..

 

Also we can talk on Sunday....

 

Up the rebels....

 

cheers chris s

[Martin]

I am happy to help out and don't want to miss this opportunity. We need to decide what exactly we want to do - so speak Sunday to sort something? If want to get cracking sooner let me know.

[Ian]

The ideas I've told Chris I will work on are twofold. Firstly, is an article for the programme which sets out the history of our current plight. Some people attending will not understand half of the background about why the game is being played at Windsor, why we cannot go back to Wexham Park or that the Trust even exists. The article will let them know all of this and encourage them to join the Supporters Trust. This will be approved by the Board of the Trust before it hits the public domain.

 

Secondly, I was thinking of getting a handout printed which can be given to every attendee although the format for this and the thinking behind it I'd rather not communicate on a public forum. I'm selling tickets on Sunday but am happy to have a chat about it during the game.

 

Personally, I don't believe the game is the right time to conduct any actual demonstration. The people watching on TV won't understand the background so it wont have any impact there. I also fear that any actual visible protest would only be joined by a very small handful of people as was evidenced by the action outside the town hall both due to apathy in the case of some and lack of knowledge about the situation by others. If that was to happen, two dozen people protesting in a crowd of 3000 will carry no weight or worse still, undermine the seriousness of the issue.

 

The BBC have all advertising rights for the game although we assume they will use A-frame boards rather than fixing anything to the fencing. A banner therefore would be a good idea providing it was large enough to be highly visible and professionally produced so it put our message across in the best way. Kay suggested "All we want is a football ground in Slough" or how about "Are you watching Slough Borough Council?"

 

Just my thoughts at this stage.

[BFR]

I think it would be quite handy for Yellow Submarine to be played in the quarter of an hour before kick off when most people are in the ground so we can get our point over vocally as well before the match begins

[brighton_rebel]

Ian

I was thinking of this as more of a publicity stunt than a demo - a big banner, and some sort of masks given out to people - even if just 50 people behind the goal put them on it will make a visual impact.

Really good idea to have something in the programme explaining the situation, but we could

also give out/email press releases to people like Match of the Day so they know why the protest is going on - if its something visual they might use a one second clip and at least comment about us being homeless.

I'm up for chatting more about this after the Dorking game on Sunday in the Windsor bar. What do people think?

 

brighton rebel

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

I thin a banner would be a great idea, cant make game on sunday but keep informed of ideas and me and the missus will do anything we can to help! Any chance that we could ask MOTD to do some filming of fans at Wexham park or something, to help our case?

[Burnham Lad]

I still think that we need to address some important issues:

 

1. Can we clearly identify what is our objective - e.g. to get a ground back in Slough Borough?

 

2. If so, who are the people we need to influence to get a positive decision?

 

3. If that is Slough Borough Council, what is the best way of getting them to make that decision in our favour? I suggest that will be to put pressure on them via public opinion, which will mean the Media between elections and the electorate immediately before them, plus the pressure of Slough Town FC getting good PR coverage for the Town

 

4. That means ensuring the widest publicity through national and local press and radio, which generally means talking to the media directly by interview and press release so that they publish and express positive opinions.

 

5. This means that a targetted campaign of media messages need to be put together to cash in on any success the club achieves on the field of play, and to keep on emphasising our clear objective and keep on repeating it. We have to make it easy for them to report positively, so supplying the message we want to see is a good way of doing that.

 

Demos and banners are great for making a point, but I suspect it is only a sustained media campaign and the knowledge that we will not go away which will influence politicians.