Ideas for next season

I wouldnt pay to use this forum
It also alienates away fans who come here to ask advice

I think this is an important topic. In fairness I don't think pinky is asking to pay for membership to the site but for Clan Membership which I think wouldn't be a bad idea. The first season with the Clan there was a clear idea of you being in the Clan or not in the Clan, at present I don't know or I don't think 99% of fans know if Clan Membership is included in the season ticket and what benefits it has or if there is such thing as Clan Membership anymore?

Everyone involved is doing it voluntarily and deserve recognition and our thanks and they have run some good events but I think the Clan is hanging on by a thread at the moment and needs to establish a greater presence. How to do that I don't fully know and it depends on the time everyone has to commit but its important that the clan has a meaning and a strong presence in the future of Connacht Rugby.

Once the new CEO is appointed, it might be a time to have some proposals ready to land on his / her desk.

Membership of a small amount but linked into sponsoring one of the players / academy players for the year might be an idea and give those who contribute €20 a hat or something. Enough was raised this season to sponsor Matt Healy and that was with access to only a limited % of supporters. It'd be great to see the Clan being able to get wider access to supporters.

Similarly with the grassroots to greenshirts a few thousand was raised in the first couple of days by the Connacht Branch but they never pushed it after that and it died a death which was a huge pity as the first couple of days highlighted the potential of this. Initiatives like this could be where the Clan could work with the Branch more successfully.

Really though, I amn't really in a position to comment as I cannot commit time to it and while ideas are great, its getting people to implement them is difficult as time is tight for everyone.

pinky wrote: With the season coming to a close, I thought I'd get a thread going on ideas for the Clan for next season, especially things that we could work on in the off-season.
My own suggestions:

Subscription.-- i agree a bit with connachtcows, making people pay for the site wont work. i would personally pay to use it cause it great place for info, ie travel but that info would be gone if nobody wanted to be either. look at the votes for player of the year. only 35 votes! we all go to the games, we all have a player who we think is best, why arent people voting!!??
had quick look at the users who signed up, out of the first 210 users who signed up, only 75 have been online in 2014!

Away travel. fourdogs and pinky do great here, and anyone else who has been before gives good info. i honestly dont think connacht will have a chartered flight again for a very long time. as for away travel plans by the branch or farrell/kellier, think we'll be waiting awhile!
what we can hope for is the branch getting good tickets.

Web site upgrade. this will sound stupid but i like things to be tidy and easy to find!
on main form, ''on the pitch'' 'where connacht rugby board' & 'other rugby' are could we have a folder with all match threads since the forum started, then have a folder for threads for each player that has his own thread and then a folder for stats, like ummms old ref stats, my attendence, etc etc.


as i said, paying for this site wont work, a raffle or something would raise as much money and less hassle then making people pay. im actually surprised matt healy didnt donate a signed jersey or match tickets. seen muldoon a few times handing stuff over to the front door to give away on facebook.
maybe start of next season, we could hand over €20 via pay pal so for example if you wanted to book a seat to limerick, you'd give away €10 of the €20 for deposit, and for example the other €10 could be used as deposit if the clan were selling (ordering) polo shirts/tshirts etc.

last bit i promise..... maybe next year we could have a clan xmas dinner!?!? get people to meet up, someplace that we could have our space and spend the night chatting. if fixtures were like last season, id but it on 21 of december, after we played dragons. something simple, dinner drinks etc all together. couldnt work for heineken cup weekends cause good crowd would be away and for the return leg, usually people have there own friends to meet after big games. again, the €20 paid pre season, half of that could go as a deposit.

my ideas for what they are worth

The commitee should liaise with the season ticket sales dept and each season ticket sale should represent a clan membership. The back of the season ticket should have the clan logo and the season ticket number should also be your clan membership number. Non season ticket holders should be able to purchase clan membership through same medium as season ticket is purchased for token fee to cover cost. Perhaps 20 euro. This could be used as a loyalty card and have benefits such as free/discounted entry to certain games if credit is built up. In addition all season ticket holders email addresses should be supplied to the clan commitee as they are automatically clan members. An opt out option can be made available to those who dont wish to recieve emails.

I think the opportunity to charge membership for memberships sake has passed. It had to be introduced at the start I think.
A form of fundraising thst I would suggest is the 50/50 draw. Its easy to set up and run and you are guarenteed a winner every time which generates interest. Our Gaa club have been running one for last 7 months and have never raised less than 1000 euro for the club every week in a rural community. Thats a jackpot of 1000 minimum won every week also. It could be run for the 14 home matches initially with tickets sold during the week of match at work etc and at gate befor match and halftime. The draw could be done in clan bar after game. Its admin is minimum. It requires envelopes and volunteers. You count the number of envelopes, remove the 2 euros, divide the money raised by 2, place the empty envrlopes in a drum and draw a winner. Could have a connacht player draw the winner etc.
Thats my lot for now.

I think you could be missing a beat, by having the draw in the Clan Bar after the game. People dont stay around, and some season ticket holders sit on the otherside. Why not talk to Connacht rugby, about getting a quick draw done at half time?
I honestly dont see the benefit of paying for Clan Membership. That's not a dig at anyone by the way, but I would throw a 3 or 5 euro into a bucket most weeks, to be entered into a draw where there are guaranteed winners

pinky wrote: Are finances an issue? I really didn't think they were. At last AGM the committee were looking for suggestions on how to spend money, so I assumed our balance sheet was looking OK, but I could be wrong.

Sorry Pinky, I keep coming across like I'm unable to read your posts
Ignore me

pinky wrote: With the season coming to a close, I thought I'd get a thread going on ideas for the Clan for next season, especially things that we could work on in the off-season.
My own suggestions:

<li>Away travel. This improved a lot this season, mainly due to Fourdogs. It will be a greater challenge next season without the Heineken Cup. I would re-iterate the need for an away travel co-ordinator to try to work with the branch and with Keller's, etc. re tickets, charter flights and so on, drum up numbers for away trips, organise ground transport at the other end, contact incoming supporters, etc. If Fourdogs won't take the post, I'd volunteer to be his puppet.</li>

Pinky

We could do a "Good cop, Bad cop" partnership. (you being the "Good Cop" of course) Think if there were 2 of us working with the Branch and/or Keller's officially on behalf of the Clan we might get somewhere.

Branch only did away tickets for HCup games and usually ended up being given Crap seat locations, we managed reasonable seats for the Sarries game when we did it ourselves.

We even managed to convince AS to let us have the Big flag, so there may be a bit more willingness to engage with us next year. No HCup will probably mean less people looking to travel.