PATHETIC!!

[Mike Wilson]

Its self harming, and very frustrating, they will probably dump it all on the new commercial fella, hope he does wonders, good luck to you Sir.

Is that in his remit? Doubt it since he's paid on commission for filling the corporate rooms for the games.

No I don't believe it will be but if he is in the building and the phone rings ??

[Roadrunner]

I e-mailed the club...

Well there's your first mistake! The club have always seemed hopeless at replying to emails even when things have been running smoothly, yet alone in our present shambolic state.

I questioned John a few weeks ago about the club replying to emails, got told that it's a waste of time emailing via the website as it dosen't work.
Imagine if some "rich" person emailed the club offering financial support and didn't get a reply .

Hmm

[Roadrunner]

If this is a question and answer session, what is happening about the repayments to debenture holders?
This was due at the end of August. I e-mailed the club FOUR weeks ago about this and they haven't had the decency to reply.
Is it a case of ostrich head-burying?

Slightly off topic, couple of weeks ago I was trying to have a discussion with one of the "senior" directors, I found him rude, disrespectful and he walked away mid discussion. Result is, I will be asking for my debenture money to be returned.

[DaveC]

I never received any thing from the club when I renewed my membership last year. Not even when I went in and told them I got nothing, I was told it had been mailed out, still nothing arrived.

Makes me a little reluctant to part with the cash again.

[Spanner]

I may get shot down for this comment but I dont care.....

Ok, here goes...

...they did bring us back from the brink in the not to distant past...

A couple of them (BK & RD, happy to stand corrected if I've missed someone) were part of the group who did. The others came later. I'm grateful for the efforts of all those involved in 1999 but that doesn't excuse negligence, inefficiency and mismanagement 13 years later.

So, lets stop all the constant back biting...

It's not back biting, it's criticism. We are a members club, and the directors each chose to stand for election to manage the club on behalf of the members. If they are not doing a good job then as members we should be criticising them.

...let the board and staff concentrate on getting things right behind the scenes.

But they're not getting things right are they?

Burying our heads in the sand with blind faith based spuriously on the commendable actions of an almost completely different group of people in the relatively distant past is not going to help anything or anyone.

[olbarrafancumbak]

I may get shot down for this comment but I dont care.....

Ok, here goes...

...they did bring us back from the brink in the not to distant past...

A couple of them (BK & RD, happy to stand corrected if I've missed someone) were part of the group who did. The others came later. I'm grateful for the efforts of all those involved in 1999 but that doesn't excuse negligence, inefficiency and mismanagement 13 years later.

I dont see it as mismanagement, the fact that inflation and an increase in running costs since being back in the conference is a major factor and not forgetting that there is a recession that we have been in for 4 or 5 years. The fact that other clubs, some considerably larger than Barrow have fallen by the wayside and ours has not is an indication that they are doing something right?

So, lets stop all the constant back biting...

It's not back biting, it's criticism. We are a members club, and the directors each chose to stand for election to manage the club on behalf of the members. If they are not doing a good job then as members we should be criticising them.

I dont think publicly criticising them is the way forward, certainly not on a forum for the whole world to see

...let the board and staff concentrate on getting things right behind the scenes.

But they're not getting things right are they?

They are trying to put things right, they have admitted this....like I said, limited budget and no pie in the sky magic wand to wave to make it all better

Burying our heads in the sand with blind faith based spuriously on the commendable actions of an almost completely different group of people in the relatively distant past is not going to help anything or anyone.[/quote

I think some people need to remove their heads from fantasy football world, get a grip and get in the real world! There is no question that if I had a choice, I would rather us be swimming in cash with a nice stadium with players on 5 year contracts and flood lights that dont randomly fall to bits when the wind blows but in the real world, we are Barrow, we have got to make the best of what we have which unfortunately isn't a lot.

[ant]

If this is a question and answer session, what is happening about the repayments to debenture holders?
This was due at the end of August. I e-mailed the club FOUR weeks ago about this and they haven't had the decency to reply.
Is it a case of ostrich head-burying?

Slightly off topic, couple of weeks ago I was trying to have a discussion with one of the "senior" directors, I found him rude, disrespectful and he walked away mid discussion. Result is, I will be asking for my debenture money to be returned.

Wasn't about a shirt was it?

[Roadrunner]

Slightly off topic, couple of weeks ago I was trying to have a discussion with one of the "senior" directors, I found him rude, disrespectful and he walked away mid discussion. Result is, I will be asking for my debenture money to be returned.

Wasn't about a shirt was it?

No, something totally unrelated.

[Spanner]

I dont see it as mismanagement, the fact that inflation and an increase in running costs since being back in the conference is a major factor and not forgetting that there is a recession that we have been in for 4 or 5 years. The fact that other clubs, some considerably larger than Barrow have fallen by the wayside and ours has not is an indication that they are doing something right?

They are trying to put things right, they have admitted this....like I said, limited budget and no pie in the sky magic wand to wave to make it all better

Agree with you when it comes to things like the ground and the playing budget, but you can't use finances as an excuse for not replying to emails, not chasing up membership renewals, and not calling an AGM, which are the specific points of criticism made in this thread. You don't need a magic wand to click on the "reply" button.

[olbarrafancumbak]

I dont see it as mismanagement, the fact that inflation and an increase in running costs since being back in the conference is a major factor and not forgetting that there is a recession that we have been in for 4 or 5 years. The fact that other clubs, some considerably larger than Barrow have fallen by the wayside and ours has not is an indication that they are doing something right?

They are trying to put things right, they have admitted this....like I said, limited budget and no pie in the sky magic wand to wave to make it all better

Agree with you when it comes to things like the ground and the playing budget, but you can't use finances as an excuse for not replying to emails, not chasing up membership renewals, and not calling an AGM, which are the specific points of criticism made in this thread. You don't need a magic wand to click on the "reply" button.

You do if you cant afford to pay someone to man the phones/e mails Maybe they could utilise people from the job centre who are out of work and are looking for experience to plug the gap and maybe keep the threat of benefit removal by means of volunteering, there are probably loads of decent folk who by no fault of there own are currently out of work, weekend work for students to cover match day sales?

AGM's imo should be scheduled same month year on year for me, perhaps in the close season early june? before transfer madness kicks in, so I agree with that one.

[Mike Wilson]

I think some people need to remove their heads from fantasy football world, get a grip and get in the real world! we are Barrow, we have got to make the best of what we have which unfortunately isn't a lot.

But we don't " make the best of the little we have " we don't come any where near by the sheer lack of effort and indifference.

How hard would it be to accept Ste Story's generous offer to sort out the web site ?
How hard would it be train up or accept some willing volunteers with office experience to man the phones & answer emails ?
How hare would it be to be "proactive" and train up a volunteer group to visit Tesco, Asda's offices & factories to talk to folk and try to sell the club's vision to them and sell them discounted tickets and drum up interest.


Do the Directors spend any time at the ground other than match days ?

[32mile_cul-de-sac]

It pains me to say it but we are a Micky Mouse club. No wonder some fans are not bothering to go to games any more.
FFS get it sorted BAFC

[TLCW]

The membership figure has now been updated and now stands at 444 according to the official web-site. Still fairly pathetic IMO. For some reason the number appears to be falling at the moment and not going up!!!
From what people have been saying the club appears to have been totally disorganised as regards membership this season and people who want to join are facing an uphill struggle at times.
This is not on and the club needs to resolve this asap to take advantage of the current interest in the club due to the FA Cup run.The Club say they want 1000 members but have done nothing to achieve this target
Perhaps appointing a membership secretary might help?

[Richard Ingham]

Where abouts on the official site is this magic number displayed? Not being just I have had a good look round, logged in etc and still cannot see it.

[boyliegladbach]

you have to click become a member

http://www.barrowafc.com/members/become.php