Club restructuring communication and engagement with supporters.
As communicated at the end of last year, Doncaster Rovers are restructuring the way that we communicate and engage with our supporters over decisions to improve the matchday and supporter experience. On the 16th January the first Supporters' Board meeting will take place at the stadium and we are still looking for independent supporters to join.The Supporters' Board will consist of representatives from the Doncaster Rovers Supporters Club, the VSC and the DRSG and we would like you to join us and to commit to this evolving group so that you can help us improve the matchday experience and off the pitch matters.
The aim of the Supporters' Board is to provide a forum for dialogue with a representative group of Rovers’ supporters with a view to improving the experience for Rovers fans whilst attracting and retaining new supporters.
CEO Gavin Baldwin said; “The change in structure to the new Supporters’ Board allows us to build on the work previously done here and to take our supporter interaction to the next level. The idea of the board is to give our groups of supporters a voice in how their football club and passion evolves. As a club it also gives us a working environment where we can gauge and develop new initiatives and ideas to see how they will penetrate amongst the wider audience. We want the supporters to continue to help shape this club and to understand why the club make certain decisions with the bigger picture in mind. We are all massively excited by this and want more fans to get involved to help drive this forwards.”
Lee Croft of the DRSG said; “After great work done by the fans panel in getting things like the Black Bank up and running, along with improved catering facilities, plus many other other projects the club do listen to fans views. I’m glad to be involved, as fans can come to me with any problems, and they know I will talk to the club, and try to get positive feedback. How many clubs have the board of directors and management implementing what the fans have requested, and have regular meetings with the Supporters representatives.”
Paul Mayfield of the Doncaster Rovers Supporters Club said; “The club have fans forums in around the Doncaster area. On top of “Meet the owners” several times per year. It’s important for the fans voices to be heard. And I’m glad that fans can trust me to represent them.”
Martin O’Hara of the VSC said; “When we initiated IRWT we had no knowledge of just how far reaching and ground-breaking it would become, and to this day other clubs and fans use this as a model for engagement. Today we hope to set new standards for fan engagement with the creation of a ‘supporter’s board’ and hope that as club we can lead the field once more. I’m looking forward to the journey very much and hoping that once more we can make DRFC fans proud of our club. With the emergence of fans groups such as the DRSG and the birth of the Black Bank - a initiative lead entirely by the supporters - the voice of the fans at Doncaster Rovers has never been stronger. We want to bring and channel this energy into the new Supporters Board and take fan interaction and engagement to the next level. Doncaster Rovers are getting a reputation of setting fan engagement trends rather than following them and we expect this to be no different.”
Len South of the main Doncaster Rovers Supporters Club said; "I am personally pleased to be associated with the fans board at its inaugural meeting even though my position has still to be ratified by the committee.
This will give the supporters club along with other fans groups the opportunity to represent all fans and the facility to air the views and concerns of regular fans to try and improve the match day experience.
I have been a supporter of Doncaster Rovers for a long time and witnessed the good and the bad times and some decisions being been made that have proven to be unpopular but made at the time in the clubs best interests. Some of these in retrospect, maybe not so well. Over the past few years various supporters’ organisations have tried to achieve progress in the past and have achieved notable success and failure in that respect. Over the last few years relations between the club and its supporter’s organisations have never been better with a clearer transparency on both sides. We are all on the same side and a lot of other clubs could learn from the Rovers model. We now have the opportunity to influence the decision making process in the future through this fans board and look forward to exchanging views and ideas to take this club forward.”
If you are interested in joining the Supporters Board and can commit to bi-monthly meetings then please email expressing an interest to media@clubdoncaster.co.uk