WATR (The Rovers Trust)

[oldjamfan1]

13 minutes ago, Ben-2000 said:

Look forward to hearing the outcome.

Hopefully none of this "we will tell you but it's confidential" stuff. Now is not a time for that.

Supporters need the Trust more than ever right now and we have put ourselves in as good a position as possible to try and influence things. 
 

Always remember that we cannot and will not turn up to these meetings with ‘Waggot and Venkys Out’ banners. We outlined our strategy at the last AGM and members endorsed it. We have to be critical, searching and have some solutions/suggestions to help. There were of course those who thought we maybe should go further and there may well be more that fall into that camp now. 

It was a very robust and at times heated Board meeting last night because we all love the club. However, we came to a collective agreement on the next move, as outlined in the newsletter reproduced in an above post. Trust members and the wider fan base can rest assured that whoever goes in to bat for us in the forthcoming meeting(s) will be well briefed and robust.

 

[oldjamfan1]

6 minutes ago, bazza said:

So who do you discuss our concerns with? To me it's like discussing with the drug barons how to clean up an area and make it drug-free.

We know who we want to discuss them with. The continued inability to do so is one of the major problems we are facing, and very high on the agenda of issues we are raising. I do feel as though we are getting closer to it though.

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

We know who we want to discuss them with. The continued inability to do so is one of the major problems we are facing, and very high on the agenda of issues we are raising. I do feel as though we are getting closer to it though.

Cheers Andy. Will any meetings be recorded? I ask because I know somebody who had a meeting with Waggott recently and he was told it couldn't be recorded. That indicates to me that in case he accidentally said something incriminating he could deny it later.

[jim mk2]

9 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

We know who we want to discuss them with. The continued inability to do so is one of the major problems we are facing, and very high on the agenda of issues we are raising. I do feel as though we are getting closer to it though.

 

Well done with all this. In view of events and while it is live and feelings are high a strong statement today would be welcome

[oldjamfan1]

5 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Cheers Andy. Will any meetings be recorded? I ask because I know somebody who had a meeting with Waggott recently and he was told it couldn't be recorded. That indicates to me that in case he accidentally said something incriminating he could deny it later.

The MoU meeting will certainly be recorded Tony, and the minutes sent to members.

[arbitro]

2 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

The MoU meeting will certainly be recorded Tony, and the minutes sent to members.

Thanks Andy. I should have been clearer, I meant audio not written.

Edited February 5 by arbitro

[wilsdenrover]

14 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

We know who we want to discuss them with. The continued inability to do so is one of the major problems we are facing, and very high on the agenda of issues we are raising. I do feel as though we are getting closer to it though.

If you mean the owners I think you’d want it to be all of them together.

If it wasn’t, you’d probably get different answers depending on which of them it was.

[oldjamfan1]

4 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Thanks Andy. I should have been clearer, I meant audio not written.

Ah, I'm not sure about that then Tony, to be perfectly honest.

 

[oldjamfan1]

5 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

If you mean the owners I think you’d want it to be all of them together.

If it wasn’t, you’d probably get different answers depending on which of them it was.

Do you mean Venkys and the shadow owners? 😉

[wilsdenrover]

Just now, oldjamfan1 said:

Do you mean Venkys and the shadow owners? 😉

I meant the Venkys but the more who are there the merrier (or maybe not!)

[wilsdenrover]

2 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Ah, I'm not sure about that then Tony, to be perfectly honest.

 

You should ask them if you can even if it’s just to get their refusal to agree into the minutes 🤔🤨

[oldjamfan1]

4 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

I meant the Venkys but the more who are there the merrier (or maybe not!)

I know you did mate I was being facetious 🙂

[wilsdenrover]

7 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

I know you did mate I was being facetious 🙂

Warming up for the meeting eh

[den]

The problem with recording meetings is that the club will be very careful what they say. That’s to no one’s benefit.

[oldjamfan1]

Just now, den said:

The problem with recording meetings is that the club will be very careful what they say. That’s to no one’s benefit.

Yeah I tend to agree with that den. I would certainly refuse to audio record any of my work related meetings.

[Ben-2000]

Fans do need groups like the Trust now and as a non-member I thank you for your dedication. But nothing, protests included should be off the table. Reading between the lines it seems this is something the Trust sadly would not endorse.

They'll tell you what they want to tell you, the defensive PR speech will be in full force. 

The outcome of the meeting will be key.

 

 

 

[den]

3 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Yeah I tend to agree with that den. I would certainly refuse to audio record any of my work related meetings.

Many years ago I, along with a number of other rovers fans regularly used to meet with JW and TF at Ewood to discuss plenty of quite relevant rovers related topics. Some fans might remember it. 
 

JW told us that some of what was said had to remain confidential. If it wasn’t then he would simply deny ever having said it. I wouldn’t ever try to tell the trust members how to run their organisation but in my experience, in order to get a little more understanding of what really goes on at the club, confidentiality can be important.

[oldjamfan1]

9 minutes ago, Ben-2000 said:

Fans do need groups like the Trust now and as a non-member I thank you for your dedication. But nothing, protests included should be off the table. Reading between the lines it seems this is something the Trust sadly would not endorse.

They'll tell you what they want to tell you, the defensive PR speech will be in full force. 

The outcome of the meeting will be key.

 

 

 

It became clear at last night’s Trust Board meeting that, while we still feel there is space for dialogue, that might not always be the case. If Trust members want the Trust to protest then that is what the Trust will do. 
It would help to know exactly what the objective of a protest is though and I’m not sure anyone has the answer to that yet. It can’t simply be ‘Venkys Out’!

One thing I would say, given the make up of the Trust Board, is don’t ‘read between the lines’. There are some pretty forthright and straight talking people on it and what you see is what you get, for better or for worse.

Edited February 5 by oldjamfan1

[Leonard Venkhater]

43 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

Ah, I'm not sure about that then Tony, to be perfectly honest.

 

We wouldn't expect them to agree to an audio recording-surely!

[rog of the rovers]

I have massive respect for anyone who gives up their time to try and help the football club. These people are volunteers and having met and worked with @Mike Graham @Miller11 and co. with the 'Fans Takeover Day' I know they are good people who have decent access to those in charge at Ewood.

Whether the people at Ewood actually have a clear mandate from Pune is an entirely different question, but I know the Trust has the right contacts and cache to start knocking on the right doors at Ewood, and I'm sure they're doing so.

This is a huge opportunity for the trust to double/triple memberships and thus power. Can they take it?

Edited February 5 by rog of the rovers

[Ben-2000]

Appreciate your response.

Protests draw attention to the mess we are in to a wider audience and publicises the fact we are unhappy with the board & owners.

It also brings unwanted pressure/attention to the board & makes their life less comfortable than it has been.

[wilsdenrover]

37 minutes ago, oldjamfan1 said:

It became clear at last night’s Trust Board meeting that, while we still feel there is space for dialogue, that might not always be the case. If Trust members want the Trust to protest then that is what the Trust will do. 
It would help to know exactly what the objective of a protest is though and I’m not sure anyone has the answer to that yet. It can’t simply be ‘Venkys Out’!

One thing I would say, given the make up of the Trust Board, is don’t ‘read between the lines’. There are some pretty forthright and straight talking people on it and what you see is what you get, for better or for worse.

How about to put pressure on them to explain their short and long term intentions and their plans to achieve these?

(I know I know 🤦‍♂️)

[wilsdenrover]

32 minutes ago, Ben-2000 said:

Appreciate your response.

Protests draw attention to the mess we are in to a wider audience and publicises the fact we are unhappy with the board & owners.

It also brings unwanted pressure/attention to the board & makes their life less comfortable than it has been.

I guess the Trust’s conundrum is in deciding when they believe this would be a better ‘tactic’ than maintaining a channel of communication with the club.

[Mattyblue]

It’s a very difficult one but at some point does the Trust have to just draw stumps and say ‘that’s that’ with this ownership and their Blackburn based board/representatives?

[oldjamfan1]

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

How about to put pressure on them to explain their short and long term intentions and their plans to achieve these?

(I know I know 🤦‍♂️)

This is the first question on the list!

1 hour ago, wilsdenrover said:

I guess the Trust’s conundrum is in deciding when they believe this would be a better ‘tactic’ than maintaining a channel of communication with the club.

100%

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

It’s a very difficult one but at some point does the Trust have to just draw stumps and say ‘that’s that’ with this ownership and their Blackburn based board/representatives?

At some point yes, and in fairness we probably aren't that far away from that point. One Board member last night did say "What actually needs to happen to make us properly go after this lot!?" (The clear inference being that they felt we were already at that point).