DT Election 2003 - Questionnaire

Ensuring a DT board member has this as a specific top priority task with responsibility for establishing as soon as possible a members Feedback system.

Through more member meetings. I proposed that we meet midweek at the Wimbledon Community Centre and before home games on a Saturday at Kingsmeadow. Regrettably we haven't had that many home Saturday games this season. We have increased the number of newsletters, changing the format to make production cheaper. Members need to be mindful of the huge costs incurred when holding large meetings, hence my proposal for smaller meetings.  

There is always a DT desk in the back bar at our home games with two or more board members present to answer questions.

I believe the minutes of all working groups including the Board should be published including the voting patterns of Board Members.

I would also like to see more regular “Open Meetings” of the Trust with Agenda's driven by the membership.

All Trust meeting dates should be published allowing membership the opportunity to attend in an observation capacity.

I would also like to see Board Member surgeries allowing the membership opportunity to debate and influence in a more personal forum.

Ultimately the more members involved the greater the communication, we must look to be more inclusive, taking every opportunity to allow members to get involved. It does not matter how great or small the contribution is we must endeavour to find vehicles that allow it.

I think that communication with members is a vital issue, and one that must be tackled swiftly by the new board. I fully accept as a board member that communication has been poor, and accept my share of responsibility for that. However, I have a number of ideas on how communication should be improved. Firstly, we need to make sure that all the Trust's procedures and policies are publicly available so that members know what they can expect from the Trust, and are able to question these aims or whether they have been achieved. This would involve developing published policies on issues such as delivery of services, consultation with members and employment, and making them available to members through the Dons Trust table and the website. There is clearly a need for more members' meetings. Along with the rest of the Legal and Constitutional Working Group, I have helped draft a proposal for a constitutional amendment to require us to hold quarterly general meetings. In addition, I believe we should hold more open meetings on issues of concern to members. These could happen when the Trust is considering a major change in the way it operates or to its constitution, or where members are concerned about a particular issue. Open meetings should form part of a wider process of consultation, with written surveys and invitations to comment on issues also used. The Trust's pages in the programme need to be better utilised, with regular information about the Trust's ongoing work, the size of the ground fund and so on, as well as lengthier articles. While recognising the need to ensure communication with those who don't have internet access, the website could be a valuable resource for those who do. It should be redesigned to make it easier to use, and be updated regularly, with information on the Board's work, the working groups, and copies of all minutes and policies available. More access should also be given to board members, with all taking a turn to man the Dons Trust table and answer members' questions. In order to help members recognise board members and know what they are responsible for, photos and outlines of each members' responsibility should be on a noticeboard at Kingsmeadow and on the website. I believe strongly that Board minutes should be published and that the Board Membership Policy should be revised to remove the requirement for collective responsibility. That way, members will know the views of all Board members, and can then make informed decisions at elections.

Firstly all members should know who the members of the Dons Trust board are, board members must be more than names on a list seen once a year at election time. Members should be able to contact board members directly and should know what their designated areas of responsibility are.

The L & C group is working on changes that we hope to present to the pending AGM. These include changes that will require that there be at least four general meetings of the Trust as year in addition to any Special General Meetings. Also, the changes will include a constitution change to make it easier for members to present resolutions at these meetings.

The establishment of a members or fans forum to is something that we need to consider along with running some less formal surgeries with fans and members having the ability to speak to board members about issues or ideas.

We should consider a re-launch of working groups and make available meeting times and venues making sure that members know that all are welcome at these meetings.

Minutes published, regular forums, noticeboards around ground displaying Trust news, website updated regularly, more newsletters.

More meetings. The website and newsletter are fine in my opinion.

We need regular open meetings and periodic newsletters, which must be informative and concise. I would also like to see a member of the Board available as a contact point for members, this Board member would be responsible for issuing the questions to the relevant Board member and co-ordinating a response, key questions could be included as part of the newsletter.

I work for a membership organisation and my experience in working for those members has highlighted a number of methods that the Trust could adopt in order to improve communication. Communication must be a two-way process – the Board needs to better inform members of what it is doing and it also needs to be committed to seeking member opinion.

If I were elected I would press for regular meetings with the members and more regular newsletters and website updates. I would like the minutes of each Board meeting to be made available to the membership (although commercially sensitive information would need to be excluded) and a report of every Board meeting should appear in the next programme.

I would like to see regular Dons Trust surgeries where members could raise any issues that they pleased (AFCW has already done this successfully – the Dons Trust should learn from the success of these meetings). The Trust should also follow the lead of WISA and produce an annual survey of the membership to gauge opinion on all aspects of the performance of the Dons Trust, AFCW Plc, AFCWL and AFCW Stadium. A key function of the Dons Trust Board is to monitor the performance of the AFCW Plc Board and the best way to do this is to ask the membership what they think.

Regular open meetings with Question & Answer sessions.

Talk to them

One of the biggest brakes on improving communication is the practical aspect of the need to inform ALL the membership. This means mailings to all members, which requires considerable planning, effort and expense.

Open meetings should be scheduled quarterly.

The DT website should be merged/linked with the AFCW official site. News items can then be highlighted. This would open up the Trust and its activities to a wider audience that visit the AFC Wimbledon Official Site, but rarely go to the DT one.

Feed back should be encouraged from members and all the Trust Board should have sight of these communications. Members should be made aware of the types of comment being received and the Board's response to them.

•  More visibility in terms of identifying who the board members are and what responsibility they have on the behalf of members.

•  Possibly more frequent newsletters (whilst appreciating that costs involved in such mailshots may make such communication prohibitive).

• More frequent open meetings (a set amount to be defined and written into the constitution – at least quarterly in my opinion).

•  Dissemination of board decisions and minutes of meetings where appropriate.

•  Publication of Q&A sessions via the programme.

I would also like to see an overview (or – excuse the parlance – “mission statement”) of the constitution so that members can get an easy feel for our main beliefs and ‘rules' (this could form part of the aforementioned “club charter”).

The trust should have its own fully maintained Web Site for questions to be asked of the individual board members.A family tree of the roles being undertaken by the board members & their sub committees. A Monthly news letter and a programme page should be a must, with a regular surgery at the Fans Stadium on a none match day( 1 st Monday of every month).

Having spoken recently to a number of DT members most feel that the Trust is very weak in this department. I'd like to see regular info sheets (A4 double sided with no need to be glossy and full colour) distributed during matches. I'd also like the DT page in the program to be taken more seriously by the board with more informative articles and feedback. Minutes of DT board meetings should be available in the quickest timescale possible. Let the members know what is gong on and things will be much better.

See 11 above.

A director of communications who is actively involved in discussion and co-ordination with the day to day running of the football club, the ultimate shop window for our captive audience of members and beyond. More visibility via the web is essential in this era of communication. I believe Dons Trust issues should be given a window via the official club web site through linkage and visible news bulletins, membership login and abuse free polling for gauging the general feeling on bigger issues.

•  Hold open meetings regularly, at convenient times and locations, even if this means holding several meetings at different locations

•  Make the subject of the meetings clear in advance

•  Publish minutes of the board and the working groups, promptly

•  Meet the fans and members by walking the terraces at matches and by carrying out volunteer roles, not sitting in the bar and the lounge. I have regularly done this and ran the “late turnstile” about a dozen times last season

We decided to issue bi-monthly news sheets. This was started recently and I feel it is essential to continue as our membership is spread all over the UK and abroad. I would also like to see minutes of board meetings put onto the website with details of how board members vote. Another possibility is regular open meetings. It should be noted however that the only way to reach ALL the members is through the news sheets, even though postage costs continue to rise.