Supporters Charter Group Apology

[Day]

6 minutes ago, Kinder said:

I said on a previous post that I thought you’d been hung out to dry and I still believe that.  Your support and defence of the club is admirable, but they’ve handled all this very badly.

I’m defending the club as someone that has been through it, do not see why they deserve the criticism either.

Could they have held an open fan forum? Yeah, but we’d still have the ST holders have been cherry picked accusations, followed by nothing but a PR stunt.

Seems whichever way the club chose to talk with fans wouldn’t have been enough and they are in a lose/lose situation. 

I feel for them as I know there are some good people at the club who care just as much as we all do.

As for being hung out to dry, with regards to what? The NDA or checking my write up for accuracy? 

If it’s the latter, Thursday we’re signing 2 players, we then signed Ravel, the stadium is being prepared for the Huddersfield game and now will be getting ready for tonight’s game. 

That’s without thinking about all the talks with the EFL to get these players registered.

I don’t think people truly appreciate just how busy they are right kow

[Boycie]

 

jeez, someone open a window I can hardly breathe in here!

[Day]

2 minutes ago, Boycie said:

 

jeez, someone open a window I can hardly breathe in here!

You’re standing too close to the platform edge, told you these trains are nasty.

Can you, a train connoisseur explain why they advertise wifi on trains when it isn’t fast enough to even load Google?

[sage]

Criticising @David over this is ridiculous. He has always been a lazy, useless sod and he isn't going to change now. Learn to live with it 

 

[Boycie]

Just now, David said:

You’re standing too close to the platform edge, told you these trains are nasty.

Can you, a train connoisseur explain why they advertise wifi on trains when it isn’t fast enough to even load Google?

More excuses!  Leafs early online?

see what I did there?

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

1 minute ago, Boycie said:

More excuses!  Leafs early online?

see what I did there?

I saw what you nearly did there!

[Day]

5 minutes ago, sage said:

Criticising @David over this is ridiculous. He has always been a lazy, useless sod and he isn't going to change now. Learn to live with it 

 

Finally someone gets it ?

[Curtains]

23 minutes ago, David said:

The Supporters Charter Group was formed in 2017, there have been 2/3 meetings a year pre Covid. 

I’m not entirely sure when the EFL introduced this rule and if these meetings are to feel the quota, remember the club also hold open fan forums at pubs and the the ground.

There hasn’t been any recently, which is understandable with Covid restrictions.

I’m confused as to why they are treated as something new and mystery of who is involved when minutes are published on the forum, on the club website and even featured on RamsTV.

It seems like the club wanted to do the meeting for Mel to get some points across which is fair enough. 
 

Understand why they haven’t done many lately due to Covid. 
 

Anyhow thanks for going and I don’t blame you at all leaving early to get your train. 
 

Happy Days. 

[Curtains]

10 minutes ago, sage said:

Criticising @David over this is ridiculous. He has always been a lazy, useless sod and he isn't going to change now. Learn to live with it 

 

Glad you said that not me lol. 
 

 

[simmoram1995]

48 minutes ago, David said:

You lot are something else. ??

Appreciate all the messages, especially the one that said I’m young. Whilst I hear all the you have nothing to apologise for messages, I feel I did and couldn’t just swan back in here like nothing had happened.

Now I have addressed it and the football is back, hopefully we can all draw a line under this episode and move on.

This is a time when we all need to be together right now.

Hi David , I’m a new member I really appreciate what you do and represent the best interests of a plethora of different fans and i for one understand how difficult it must have been. I look forward to reading your well thought account and I’d love to get involved in all things Derby as much as I can 

[cheron85]

34 minutes ago, David said:

I like this, removing the anonymity online.

I understand those that do not wish to and have their reasons for that.

There is a Zoom call on Wednesday night which have been running through lockdown, we have had several members on there and great to put some faces to name.

Off the top of my head….

@angieram @sage @DarkFruitsRam7 @Curtains @Van der MoodHoover @i-Ram @AndyinLiverpool 

I no longer organise these calls but I’m sure you would all be welcome, I believe it’s Sage who is now running them.

Ah shucks, thank you very much for the invite! That sounds lovely!

I have to cook dinner for the missus and my sister this Wednesday but will definitely drop @sage a message for future calls

[Kinder]

9 minutes ago, David said:

I’m defending the club as someone that has been through it, do not see why they deserve the criticism either.

Could they have held an open fan forum? Yeah, but we’d still have the ST holders have been cherry picked accusations, followed by nothing but a PR stunt.

Seems whichever way the club chose to talk with fans wouldn’t have been enough and they are in a lose/lose situation. 

I feel for them as I know there are some good people at the club who care just as much as we all do.

As for being hung out to dry, with regards to what? The NDA or checking my write up for accuracy? 

If it’s the latter, Thursday we’re signing 2 players, we then signed Ravel, the stadium is being prepared for the Huddersfield game and now will be getting ready for tonight’s game. 

That’s without thinking about all the talks with the EFL to get these players registered.

I don’t think people truly appreciate just how busy they are right kow

I appreciate they’re busy but this is the most uncertain and tumultuous time a lot of us can remember.  Fans are very anxious for the future of the club.

The club rightly held a meeting with supporter groups and I’m sure did so with the best of intentions.  It was the right thing to do so I’m not criticising them for that.  Where I feel they let you down is that the club itself didn’t put out any minutes or write up from the meeting - they left it to you and others who attended.  The delay meant you and others ended up in the firing line.

If the intention of holding the meeting was to reassure supporters, I’m not sure this was achieved and I don’t think it’s been handled well.  Just my opinion.

[Day]

Just now, Kinder said:

I appreciate they’re busy but this is the most uncertain and tumultuous time a lot of us can remember.  Fans are very anxious for the future of the club.

The club rightly held a meeting with supporter groups and I’m sure did so with the best of intentions.  It was the right thing to do so I’m not criticising them for that.  Where I feel they let you down is that the club itself didn’t put out any minutes or write up from the meeting - they left it to you and others who attended.  The delay meant you and others ended up in the firing line.

If the intention of holding the meeting was to reassure supporters, I’m not sure this was achieved and I don’t think it’s been handled well.  Just my opinion.

The club are aware of how much this has backfired and I have apologised privately to them. I’m sure lessons will have been learnt going forward.

I can’t speak on behalf of the club as to what the intention was, but I saw it as a potential to start building bridges with the fan base, I’ve been posting this long before the meeting that now is the time to just come together, which is why I’m disappointed in what has played out following the meeting online.

[Rev]

1 minute ago, David said:

The club are aware of how much this has backfired and I have apologised privately to them. I’m sure lessons will have been learnt going forward.

I can’t speak on behalf of the club as to what the intention was, but I saw it as a potential to start building bridges with the fan base, I’ve been posting this long before the meeting that now is the time to just come together, which is why I’m disappointed in what has played out following the meeting online.

In future, I'd suggest no minutes, no meeting.

 

[BaaLocks]

7 hours ago, Ramarena said:

The club should not have been putting this upon @David and the others. 

If they wanted to get the information/their side of the story out there they have established channels to do that, without putting attendees under the inevitable pressure and scrutiny!

This (upward finger emoji).

The whole structure put all attendees in an invidious position - David may say it wasn't the club's fault but it's hard to see how it can't be given the way it was structured. As others have said, it's only football and certainly no attendee (even Mel) should be personally abused for what was said or happened there. But I do hope those in the club have taken a moment to consider this wasn't the best idea, wasn't handled in the best way possible and certainly was a bit of a hospital pass to those who were then asked to report on it.

But, mostly, to @David sorry to hear that this has impacted you so personally over the past week. Hope you are getting to a place where you can put this behind you and move on to more important things in life - like trying to stop people subvert the swear filters (have to end every post with a silly comment emoji).

[IlsonDerby]

2 hours ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

No issues with you at all David.

I have to say though, the official Rams Trust minutes seem pretty sparse for a 4-hour meeting.

This is my only real feeling about what’s come out so far. Did Jim wheeler not take a notepad and so was only able to take away what he could write on the back of a fag packet? 

[MK-Ram]

@Davidabsolutely nothing to apologise for.  

 

Sorry to hear how much this has impacted you on a personal scale, to the extent you felt nervous about returning here.  Hope you are beginning to feel better, the forum will always have your back.

[WestLondonRam]

12 minutes ago, David said:

The club are aware of how much this has backfired and I have apologised privately to them. I’m sure lessons will have been learnt going forward.

I can’t speak on behalf of the club as to what the intention was, but I saw it as a potential to start building bridges with the fan base, I’ve been posting this long before the meeting that now is the time to just come together, which is why I’m disappointed in what has played out following the meeting online.

David, 

I do not blame you at all. In fact it has nothing to do with you as far as why the club are being so mysterious. I understand cogs are turning in the back ground hence the secrecy.. But programmes like last nights are not helping the club. 

I personally believe that the quicker the buyer takes over the better as Mel is seen as flaunting the FFP rules by the EFL which does not help DCFC. Jim being so vague did not help all this but I guess he is held to what can be said and that's it. I just hope that this mess Dies down and we go back to a normally run club without someone at the helm who has his head above the shooting gallery of the EFL.   

I think it's all the Chinese whispers that are flying around that is not helping the club. I will still support DCFC and I will be going tonight to support the players.. I just wont be supporting MEL and Pearce as I believe they are running the Club badly. This forum or yourself has nothing to do with how the club is run and how you can feel this is your fault when it has nothing to do with you is a real shame. 

I hope that you are not taking it too heart as there is no reason for you to. All the Best xx 

[Comrade 86]

Ignore the twatterati @David Support for you on here is obvious and rightly so. Time for us all to get behind Wazza and the players anyway. All this venting serves no useful purpose. Hopefully we come out the other side a stronger and more unified club.

[MikeS]

10 hours ago, David said:

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.

The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.

When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.

Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.

I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.

Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.

On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.

Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.

With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.

As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.

I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.

I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!

Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.

On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.

Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.

I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.

They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.

Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.

No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.

Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.

A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.

I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.

Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.

Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.

I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.

Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.

I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 

David

 

For the sort of meeting that this turned out to be, it is ridiculous that the club insisted on no minutes to be taken. This should have been made clear in advance of the meeting taking place. They should therefore have allowed someone to take part in the discussion and someone else to make notes.