Fans Club for Morecambe

[bigreddog]

Many thanks to all those fans who came to the get together yestarday after the Accy game, and especially to those who contributed ideas.

Some of the contributions I can't repeat, but they were funny nonetheless.

It's an honour to have been asked to provisionally chair procedings for now. The plan is at the moment to arrange a formal meeting on Tuesday 18th January in the evening, specific details to come. And because not every fan comes on here, we're going to hand out flyers publicising the meeting at the game beforehand, which is at home to Torquay FC.

All ideas are very welcome indeed, and any volunteers willing to take on any role and also to hand out flyers about the meeting to fellow fans would be much appreciated. I will approach the club to gain their permission of course.

The meeting will be looking into the specifics of setting up the supporters club and as was the case yesterday, we welcome any and all contributions.

For those who couldn't make it yesterday here are the main points from fans who worked in groups to come up with their ideas. In no particular order, and suggestions that were made in a really proactive/positive way to try and do our bit as fans (I haven't edited any, and none are meant to be critical, merely constructive, they were some common themes though as you can see):

membership card with benefits
potts pies before the match
more cask ales/ guest ales in the bars
website for the fans (as well as the fabulous shrimpsvoices)
something for juniors to encourage them
meeting place and regular meetings with club presence
weekly quiz in the club bar
fans forum
reds renamed JB's and heritage celebrated
events in JB's
reinstate Junior reds
fans liaison with club
fundraising for the club
social events in the wright &lord suite
newsletter and weekly video update
football memoribilia and past triumphs around the globe bar
more choice of food at he catering outletss
better half time entertainment
roof behind the MBW stand
sing more
work with the community and club to reduce parking problems on surrounding streets
whoever wants to join supporters club, collect names and addresses
amalgamate travel
ask other supporters clubs how they operate
junior football teams
dart boards/ pool table / teams in local league

any further ideas are very welcome, just post them on and get the ball rolling or if you'd rather make a suggestion for the discussion on Tuesday 18th, then just pm me. If you'd like to volunteer for anything then just pm me too. I'm sure you'll have a view on what is and isn't practical and what can be achieved, but hopefully we can work with the club to make things better and increase fan involvement.


many thanks, hope to see you at the next meeting.


Darren
Come on you shrimps

[Keith]

something for juniors to encourage them...
...reinstate Junior reds

fundraising for the club...
to raise money for
...roof behind the MBW stand

Some ideas easily go together...

Good luck folks, glad some people got together and hopefully its a success.

[Christies Child]

All the very best. Sincerely hope it takes off.

[marky No.1]

F.C.M. has a certain ring to it

[heysham_mfc]

Glad it all went well was hoping to go into the bar after the game but something came up so had to go stright home after the game. Hope it all works out though some good ideas there.

[P/T Indie]

BIg Red Dog did they get you a lead?

I hope the club listen to some of the ideas was disappointing on Sat no pies and no Potted Shrimp!

There are some great ideas especially for the bar but sadly I can't see the club going for it though for one reason and another.

[Wild Bill]

Why not rename the bar Christie's Bar? Has a nicer ring to it and feels less like we are trying to live in the past but whilst keeping our herritage.

I am up for joining along with a few others. If the club gets involved it could work to everyone's advantage.

[Peckishparrish13]

Excellent idea! would really help support the team and could turn our season around!

[bigreddog]

Thanks for the feedback and ideas, keep it going, we'll be discussing all of them at the first meeting, there's no doubt all this will be hard work, just ask those that have tried it before. what we'd also like is ideas for membership packs of the club etc ( by the way, when I say we, I have no idea who we is, this idea came on the message board, I turned up to the meeting and got spammed with chairing, but we'll find someone better soon enough)

It's about having an active fan base, and giving people the feeling that we're all a part of it, so we all know the songs, we get behind the team home and away and we encourage our younger supporters to get involved too.

When we were digging the snow off the pitch on boxing day there were two young lads from carnforth high who got stuck in, they were a credit to their school and themselves, they're exactly the kind of people who should be encouraged. In these times of everyone supporting the big sides I was intrigued to find why they were shrimps supporters so I asked them. They just said "because it's my local team", now if we could get a few more thousand of that we'd be full every week.

anyway thanks again for the feedback, keep it coming

[bigreddog]

quick bump following the great win today

anyone got any ideas or want to volunteer for anything?

[Little Shrimp]

quick bump following the great win today

anyone got any ideas or want to volunteer for anything?

I would like to volunteer to write match reports for the home games. I won the young journalist of the year 2010 for Morecambe, and I would love to use these skills to help out the fan club !

[bigreddog]

fabulous that's really great. I can feel a fanzine coming on, amongst other things. just PM me your details and I'll make sure I get in touch.

[Gnasher]

Has anyone thought about talking to Janet Preston and the community team? Quite a few ideas about juniors and there's no one better than the award winning community team to help you out and they've got all the contacts. In fact, why not make the supporters club part of the community team? About half the work expected of the supporters club would be an extension to what they do already. Just a thought!

[bigreddog]

your absolutely right brian, and Janet is certainly one of the people we want to really support with all the hard work she and her team are already doing for our club and our community

[Seasider9601]

Liking the idea of a fanzine too ...

[Posh]

Excellent work Darren. Really pleased this is off the ground. I'll go along to the first meeting as I can possibly some advice on bank accounts and the like. But please don't try roping me in for anything else!

Now more than ever do we need to get something in place and every Morecambe supporter who cares about their club should join.

[bigreddog]

I'm merely relaying the work done by a lot of other people, but thanks anyway, we've got some volunteers for web design and writing of articles and liaison with junior supporters clubs to learn from them. ideas on what a "fans pack" should have, anyone with expertise on design would also be much appreciated and I haven't mentioned the M word yet, but lets keep going first.

[Paul Mac]

Fanzine!! C'mon. You all know who you are. Step forward and get it going again......please.

[stoyles]

Any development on the flyers yet darren and has they been any communication with club officials yet.

[bigreddog]

will be printing them off this week with any luck, just depend whether we're looking for a big impact or just info for the first one, the communication thing is in hand thanks to a friend. do feel free to spread the word about the 18th though.

[Freez]

It still is going, fanzine that is, have one nearly done, out in the spring, all contributions gratefully accepted, pm me on here if you would like more info.
Corpus Christie lives!

[Keith]

Darren, tried to e-mail you a couple of times but it keeps bouncing. Can you e-mail me please?
keith.fitton[at]manx.net

[stoyles]

Bigger impact the better i would think

[Seasider9601]

It still is going, fanzine that is, have one nearly done, out in the spring, all contributions gratefully accepted, pm me on here if you would like more info.
Corpus Christie lives!

FANTASTIC news Freez !! Couldn't get a copy of your last one.

Any of those Maurice "Gerroff, you're all CRAP" Gitt Sweatshirts left ??!!
Absolutely loved mine back in the day !!!

[bigreddog]

any ideas on a really cheap printer to get flyers published, keith has been kind enough to send a picture for the backdrop