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Post by sallycat on Feb 3, 2008 18:55:40 GMT
Sorry Mark, but I totally agree with Gareth. As you say, the Trust is part of the Club and yes, we are meant to (and do) work together, but your suggestion that it is SUST's responsibility to provide ground stewarding is on a par with suggesting that it is SUST's responsibility to sign players, arrange supporters' coaches and make sure that the pitch is fit to play on. Different parts of our club have different responsibilities, and ground safety is simply not in SUST's remit. If you were a member of SUST yourself, you might be more familiar with the organisation's aims and responsibilities. Your argument that by not urging its members to volunteer for stewarding duties SUST are not working with the club could easily be countered by someone saying that as you have not joined SUST you are contributing to the club working against SUST. I would not make this argument as I believe it is ridiculous, but my point is that volunteering for stewarding duties is just as voluntary for SUST members as joining SUST is for you (Aren't all the other regular stewards SUST members or former SUST members?). Why pick on us when volunteering is something the supporters as a whole should be responsible for? Why not target the Supporters' Club instead? (For the record, I wouldn't agree with that either!) I am aware of the fact that I haven't volunteered myself, but what with the huge number of commitments I'm juggling in my life at the moment I think I have quite enough on my plate (Saturday afternoons are about the only times I can relax, and I can't even do that this season ) plus I simply don't think I'd be very good at it. But when I have more time to myself during the week, I do intend to volunteer. I just don't know when that might be I mention this because as a member of SUST I feel that we are being unfairly targeted and almost if not explicitly accused of not pulling our weight, when this is not our job. If I were to volunteer, it would be as a Sutton supporter, not as a SUST member. I quite agree that we do need more people to volunteer but would add that the responsibility lies with ALL of us supporters, not just those who have already done their bit for the club by joining the Trust.
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markf
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Post by markf on Feb 4, 2008 19:02:48 GMT
Who's targetting The Trust? I have made a suggestion to overcome a problem that is not going to go away (as I pointed out in my follow up post).
And I didn't argue that SUST was not supporting the club, I just responded, rather glibly, to a comment made in Gareth's response.
FFS, I come on here, raise an issue, suggest a possible solution & then just get this sort of response back.
Is it any wonder I have had enough of performing match duties just so that pratically every body else can just turn up watch the game & then disappear to wherever?
And for your info, I haven't joined because of something that happened before the SUST was founded (and I keep forgetting to fill in the form as well!). Gareth knows what that is & that is between him & me.
Sal, when you have put in as much as time & effort in various capacities over the years as I have then come & have ago at me for not sticking a tenner in a pot each season. The club needs some new blood (& not just on the pitch) and I am alerting people to that fact.
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Post by os on Feb 4, 2008 20:59:42 GMT
Can I release a little Dove of peace here chaps We is all on the same side and should not be arguing amongst ourselves should we. Its just a bit of a play on words here, there is nothing wrong with Mark raising the question and directing it at the SUST they have a platform and a slightly different angle of attack then maybe previously tried avenues. The trust was not setup for the purpose of finding stewards I agree and I don't see why the same cannot be asked of the supporters club WHY NOT? I myself was not setup to continually be putting my hand in my pockets sponsoring games that no one else wants etc etc, I do it because I want to help and can't be a Steward at present. So come on chaps kissy kissy make up its a big week for us and it you want to be a steward then please contact Mark or the club, you will get in for free :-) REMEMBER ITS 'UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL' NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
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Post by sallycat on Feb 4, 2008 22:13:01 GMT
Mark, please- I am not having a go at you for not joining the Trust! In fact, I explicitly pointed out that it's up to you, just in case you happend to take it that way. I'm sorry if I came across as aggressive or whatever, but it did feel to me as if the Trust was being targeted because it looked as though you were saying it ought to be a Trust responsibility to find volunteers for stewarding. Perhaps I misinterpreted you, but it felt a little bit more than a suggestion of a solution. It may have been the comment about SUST working against the club, which I may have missed the tone of. However, I won't take the blame for you having "had enough"! I'm sure you're intelligent and mature enough to take a counter-argument. I would like you to understand merely that the context of what you said, and the tone in which you said it, made it appear to me that you were targeting and singling out SUST. Considering that you were saying things like "nobody from this organisation appears prepared to volunteer help on match days (save for Rose's Teah Hut)," "the answer is in your hands" and "is The Trust not part of the club? I didn't think it was set up to work against it but with it" perhaps you can understand why I took your comments in this way. Solutions to problems are of course always welcome, but I would have taken it more in that light if you'd presented it more along the lines of "as SUST are working hand in hand with the Club and represent the supporters' interests, perhaps SUST could help the club to find a solution." Your comments did seem somewhat blaming to me, and I'm sure that's no reflection on you so much as on the way comments often come across when posted on a forum like this. I do my bit for the club and you do yours. I work in the bar when I can, I help patch up the ground in the summer, I helped the original working party form SUST and still work as membership secretary, and I haven't missed a home or away match, friendly or in any competition, for four years, doing the best I can to make the team feel supported in doing so. I feel I'm doing enough for the club to be getting on with. Just because I've "only" been supporting this club week in week out for twelve years rather than thirty-something does not make my opinion any less valid than yours. I find that suggestion rather patronising and insulting, although I fully appreciate that feeling that way is my problem, not yours. Twelve years IS a long time, and I do not believe that your having been here for three times as long takes away my right to say what I believe is in the club's interests, or of course my opinions. You do your bit too, and plenty of it, and I for one appreciate your hard work and what a drag it is. It hasn't gone unnoticed. Perhaps now would be a good time to say thank you for all your hard work. I hear what you're saying too OS, tongue in cheek though it may be but I don't mean to be argumentative and I'm sure Mark and Gareth don't either. I certainly bear no ill-will towards anyone here.
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Post by The Editor on Feb 4, 2008 23:57:59 GMT
Has this thread now set a record for the longest responses to each comment raised?
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Post by silverfox on Feb 5, 2008 10:29:50 GMT
Yeh, I've been in the office, now, for an hour and threequarters and I've still not read them all!
Where do you bu**ers find the time?
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Post by sallycat on Feb 5, 2008 17:23:02 GMT
I was trying to write a 6000-word essay and this presented me with a temporary alternative
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markf
Top Performer
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Post by markf on Feb 5, 2008 18:24:55 GMT
Yes Ed, it would appear so & unnecessarily so. If Sal had read my second post (answering Gareth's initial response) then it really should have cleared up the matter. Indeed, Gareth felt no need to respond again himself.
I felt I had to respond to her initial comments but was not expecting such a lengthy reply. Equally my reply to her probably did not merit another essay! She may have been upset by it but then it is ok to raise my non-membership of the SUST in such a manner but not ok for me to defend my position.
I, for hopefully the last time, will repeat once more that the club over the past few seasons has advertised for volunteers to steward & help on the gate & had little success. With my "retirement" fast approaching, I took the aftermath of the Newport match to advertise this situation & raise a suggestion in an attempt to resolve it by tapping into a newish body within the club that has currently enjoyed some good momentum.
If there was some initial confusion as to my motives, I hoped that I hadcleared that up sufficiently with the second post. Obviously not for some (or should that be one) individual.
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