Ideas for next season

These are my rambling ideas, feel free to discuss, ridicule, implement

1. Consider changing the name of the Supporters Club. People who dont know about the Supporters Club often hear talk of the Connacht Clan, and mistake the name for the Clan Bar/Stand
A simple name like The Official Connacht Rugby Supporters Club leave people in no doubt

2. The branch need to get more involved. Simple things, like when James Heaslip is out in front of the crowd before the game, get him to mention the Supporters Club.
Get them to announce Supporter Club events.
Whats the point in the Clan organising to show matches in The Dail, while Connacht are promoting Massimos. Connacht should be pushing the same agenda as us
Imagine there been a break in the game with 10 minutes to go, and an announcemtncomes over the intercom, telling all the fans in the stadium, that nexts weeks match will be shown live in The Dail, in association with the Official Connacht Supporters Club

3. There needs to be more exposure about what you guys do, and again, the branch need to get involved. They should be telling everyone about away trips been planned. The Ospreys game is a prime example. Why aren't they tweeting, facebooking, posting something on the website, telling all fans, that a number of Connacht fans are travelling over to the game. All they need to do is post a link to the thread.
Their Facebook page has 46,447 likes, and they have 23,000 followers on Twitter. Surely between these two mediums, they could get us more fans in here

4. I think you should be pestering the branch for free gifts. They should be donating memorabilia to the Clan Bar.

Seems to be a theme here. The Branch need to get behind us, or its going to be a much larger struggle to get numbers up. How often do you see someone new post, and then continue to post?

These are just off the top of my head, and probably terrible ideas, but no harm in throwing them out there

Really going point from ConnachtCows on the pub events imo.
Details about the pubs showing games will be particularly important next season as more of our games will be on tv via Sky so there should be a lot more interest in going to a Clan event, could really help improve exposure, membership, events, etc. if the clan can get a strategy together for it.

I realize the fixtures aren't out yet but assuming higher numbers can be achieved other things suggested here like half-time raffle, quizzes, etc could be run during televised away games and could cross promote one another.

Mrsc and leinsters supporters club work closely with their respective branches throughout the season. Both have their own bars within the grounds etc. Mrsc are responsible for season ticket sales to its members and the sale of international tickets, away tickets etc as well as organising and distributing flags on match day and fundraising for the acadamy.
Munster branch do not recognise the forums though and they are separate from mrsc. Afaik so is babbling brook. The branches do not like forums as they can be over critical of performance, indivuduals etc. The relationship may be better if the supporters club was separated from the forum. It doesnt mean that members cant contribute/post just that they do so as individuals not as official supporters club members.
I work with a former all ireland winner and intercounty manager. He often angrily refers to the faceless masses on internet forums hiding behind nicknames.

Decadence wrote: There are some good suggestions here, but in my opinion we need to be a little more realistic about where sit in the priorities of the big wheels at Connacht Rugby at the moment. At times we have struggled to get them to deliver on some of the basic things that we have asked of them, putting up decorations in the bar, getting players for post match interviews, giving us access to the bar etc. There are some very helpful people there but that doesn't always extend throughout the entire organisation.

Now I'm not suggesting for a minute that we stop trying, I think we should bring all of this up with them before next season. Who knows what approach the new CEO will bring. I'm just trying to inform people's expectations based on what I've seen over my two seasons on the committee.

That's cool, I was just throwing out ideas as they came into my head.
I definitely see the benefit of separating the forum from the Supporters Club, as I can see why the branch cant be seen to be connected to it. All it takes is one post from someone in here, and lots of trouble could be caused. It's the reason official sports teams (not to my knowledge) dont use forums, and why newspaper websites and like, moderate comments on articles

rossie wrote: Mrsc and leinsters supporters club work closely with their respective branches throughout the season. Both have their own bars within the grounds etc. Mrsc are responsible for season ticket sales to its members and the sale of international tickets, away tickets etc as well as organising and distributing flags on match day and fundraising for the acadamy.
Munster branch do not recognise the forums though and they are separate from mrsc. Afaik so is babbling brook. The branches do not like forums as they can be over critical of performance, indivuduals etc. The relationship may be better if the supporters club was separated from the forum. It doesnt mean that members cant contribute/post just that they do so as individuals not as official supporters club members.
I work with a former all ireland winner and intercounty manager. He often angrily refers to the faceless masses on internet forums hiding behind nicknames.

sure eamon o hara doesnt he use a forum, didnt he go on radio and tv?

This forum is doing wonders for the connacht branch, i can see not being giving out about players on there facebook page as they are selling a brand, but if you ask them a question on facebook, they arent in too much of a hurry to reply.
imagine if this forum wasnt there, imagine the branch answering calls from 300 people asking about tickets in parma, 350 for tickets in toulouse and 500+ for asking same questions re saracens.
this is a great place for information and the branch should see that

Diom wrote:

ConnachtCows wrote: Seems to be a theme here. The Branch need to get behind us, or its going to be a much larger struggle to get numbers up. How often do you see someone new post, and then continue to post?

These are just off the top of my head, and probably terrible ideas, but no harm in throwing them out there

Thanks CC. There is a need for closer cooperation between us and Connacht Rugby alright, but to be fair to them they are pretty under-staffed themselves, and as Dec pointed out they have some bigger fish to fry than getting the supporter's club sorted out. I agree with him that perhaps we can re-engage with them once the new CEO is in and the current headlessness has abated.

That's fair enough, I can understand where you are coming from, but it would be great if they were happy to organise one, one hour meeting a month with the Clan. Ideas could be shared. They could explain to you that they are thinking of putting on a bus to a game, and you could respond and tell them that you've already organised a bus amongst Clan Members (or there is talk of it)
All it would take is one morning, on a match day. Meetings could be even shorter. You could email them a week in advance, with bullet points of what you would like to discuss, and then no time would be wasted in the meeting.

Another idea I have, which probably doesnt fall with the Clans capabilities, is to copy Leinster and Munster. You know when you see their games on tv, they have hoarding along the stands, with such slogans as "D4tress", etc.
Is there anything we could do, to have similiar stuff along the wall in front of the Clan, or on the front of the roof of the Clan. It looks good from a TV perspective. I know they have stuff at the back of the Clan wall, but it's hard to read/see on tv.

We could all give ideas for potential slogans, and pass them on to the branch, to see what they think


*Apologies for the bad word. I've removed it. Forgot myself again

Jennifer kiernan manages mrsc and has two fulltime assistants. I dont know who pays them but was always of opinion that they were mrsc employees.