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Below: Report of Monday's meeting between the Club's Communications Department and Representatives of various QPR Messageboards. Minutes of the agreed upon-report was very graciously - and speedily - written up by Neil Dejyothin. This report is being posted on the various QPR Messageboards.
Profound thanks to QPR's Ian Taylor and Paul Morrisey for holding the meeting
There's much of interest in the meeting report. For me, the single most important sentence in the report was "
Ian Taylor confirmed that QPR would own the stadium."
JOINT REPORT
Date: Tuesday 1st April 2014
Venue: Loftus Road Stadium
From the club: Ian Taylor & Paul Morrissey
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Introduction
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Social Media
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Owner's usage
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Vine platform
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Media team's usage
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Player's usage
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London Call In
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Malaysia Live Streaming
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Communication around new stadium
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Personnel update
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Former players and staff recognition
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Promoting the youth / other areas of the club
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AOB
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Ian
Taylor thanked everybody for attending and touched upon the previous
fan site meetings over the past year, re-iterating their usefulness and
that they were part of a wider effort by the club to improve
communication with supporters over all areas of the business.
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Ian
Taylor stated that the meeting was to discuss items relating to the
media department, and that he and Paul Morrissey would not be able to
speak on behalf of other departments, but any feedback that did
overlap would be passed on where appropriate.
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Ian Taylor confirmed there would be a formal meeting arranged with supporters with QPR Chairman Tony Fernandes.
Owner's usage – on-going concerns about owner's social media output / false promises, etc
There were several concerns raised regarding the way Tony Fernandes uses Twitter to communicate with fans.
These included the following:
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Statements
that promised a lot and then failed to deliver, which raises fans
expectations and then disappoints if they don't come to fruition. The
obvious example was the promise of a new club crest and fan
consultation by February, which then never materialised and has now
been delayed.
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Specific
fans being singled out for their positive or negative feedback, where
the general view in the room was that some constructive feedback was
being portrayed as negative when it wasn't, and that it causes
a divide between supporters.
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Making
announcements about deals way ahead of time, such as the likelihood
we'd partner with Nike as our new kit suppliers last year, but the
formal announcement was only made recently. It is not consistent
with the club's policy on formal announcements.
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Tweets
that create tension within the club and its supporters that should be
relayed behind closed doors, such as the tweets about Harry Redknapp and
the players ahead of the Charlton match, which were not
helpful to the club or its supporters.
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Ian
Taylor acknowledged all of these issues. The media team provide advice
and recommendations to Tony Fernandes and the board on a weekly basis.
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The
shareholders own the club and are entitled to voice their opinions and
views and hopefully the positives of communicating with fans in this
manner outweigh the negatives. They feel it's good to have a Chairman
that wants to communicate, even if it sometimes causes challenges.
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Steve
Sayce said that the perception of Tony Fernandes is that he is painted
as a media and web savvy person – so it was important the message gets
back to him that some of his social media communication was
not one hundred percent helpful.
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Steve
Sayce touched upon some examples where Tony Fernandes had singled out
fans for their negative criticism and that this has created a divide
amongst supporters who use that platform, which is something
we should be keen to avoid. Steve also felt that recently Fernandes has
portrayed a message that he was only keen to engage with supporters who
were providing positive feedback.
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Steve
Sayce touched on issues with previous Chairman in the past playing
supporters against one another – and that was something we certainly
don't want to see repeated again and there was a real worry that
some of Tony Fernandes' exchanges with fans could cause this to happen.
Steve felt that some of the tweets have come across as provocative and
likened it to somebody throwing stones in a pond and then walking away.
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Steve
Sayce said that a previous message about us "winning and losing
together" is not true, as we do not appear to lose together very well.
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Ian Taylor said they fully acknowledge that mistakes have been made and it's something they're trying to manage.
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They feel there is a fine line and a balance to be struck.
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There
was a lengthy discussion about what was and wasn't constructive
feedback, and the general feeling was that the constructive feedback is
often being taken as negative when it shouldn't be.
-
There
was a general discussion on how Fernandes can sometimes react too
emotionally after a result, which often leads to a string of exchanges
that can lead to something else, such as his decision to meet with
supporters.
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Ian
Taylor confirmed the media team were first made aware of Tony
Fernandes' decision to meet with supporters through his post on Twitter.
The details of this meeting are not finalised yet, but will be soon
and will hopefully take place in April or May. They hope to make this
available to a wide spectrum of supporters, such as those with the most
loyalty points.
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Neil
Dejyothin said that it was a good opportunity to offer other supporters
a chance to discuss matters with the Chairman or any future fans
forums. There should be some opportunity for a random draw to take
place that covers all season ticket holders, and that it's important
that not just the same group of fans turn up for each of these events.
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Some
discussion was had about how in touch Tony Fernandes was with the team
and its current performances. Ian Taylor confirmed that Fernandes
watches most games when he is abroad, either via a stream or is
sent DVDs of the games.
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Neil
Dejyothin mentioned that the tweet discussing Harry Redknapp and the
team was ill-timed and not something for public consumption and felt it
was destabilising.
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Ron Norris felt it was an odd tweet, causing lots of horrible negativity to build up.
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Ron
Norris felt a better approach for Fernandes would be to hold a Q&A
every few weeks or so on Twitter for an hour – he could invite questions
in and then select a few and answer them. This would provide some
structure and allow for more measured responses. Everybody agreed this
was a good idea and worth exploring further.
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The
general feeling amongst everybody that Fernandes needs to stop singling
out supporters, either for positive or negative issues and such a
regular Q&A may help address that.
-
Matthew
Woolf asked whether the Vine platform was an official QPR channel, and
mentioned that people are reporting that it slows down their devices. He
mentioned the WATRB site could no longer embed QPR clips
on their forum.
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Ian Taylor confirmed that vine.co/OfficialQPR is the clubs official Vine channel and can be accessed via the web or by downloading the app.
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The
service hasn't slowed down any platform the club have used and the club
embed clips onto its website without any problems at all. These include
Wall and Storify. It's possible that the forum software or
content management system that WATRB use could be the source of the
problem considering the club haven't experience any issues.
Paul Morrissey provided some suggestions to Matthew to investigate.
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Vine is created primarily for smartphones and isn't really intended for computers, it's similar to how Instagram works.
Tweets
from the media team criticising other clubs for breaching the Football
League highlights publication embargo – was this an appropriate use of
social media by club representatives?
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Steve
Sayce said he was surprised about how the club used Twitter to lodge a
formal complaint against another club in the public domain, which didn't
seem appropriate behaviour or what a fan would expect to
see from using the platform.
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Ian
Taylor explained that there had been numerous clubs breaking the
embargo and they had contacted both The Football League and the club
involved about this on more than one occasion.
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QPR
respect the terms of their contract and do not want to break the
embargo. They feel it's unfair because when a club breaks the embargo it
has a direct impact on any potential income the club can make in
terms of losing hits by sticking to the rules.
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They
had no joy with contacting those involved to try and settle the issue
and in the end they felt going public would help raise awareness. It had
the desired effect and since then, only two clubs have broken
the embargo since and those who have broken it have been made to remove
the content they'd put online.
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Steve
Sayce said that we are all very much learning about social media and
how to use it, and expects the club to lead by example and how to use
this medium. He re-iterated he was surprised to see the club
use it to publicly settle a dispute with another club.
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Paul Morrissey said
it was a route the club didn't intend to go down again and that their
relationship with the involved club had actually improved as a result.
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Matthew
Woolf raised a recent example where a member of staff tweeted
inappropriate comments on Twitter about one of our own players.
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Ian Taylor said the club are aware of the matter and it's being dealt with internally.
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Ian
Taylor said that since these fan site meetings started, the player’s
usage of Twitter has improved overall, albeit acknowledged there are
still the occasional slip-ups. This was a view generally shared
by all in attendance.
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Ian Taylor confirmed that all of the player's and staff's Twitter accounts,
with the exception of his own, were personal ones, but that
the media team review all material published on social media against the
FA Guidelines for any content that may bring QPR or football in general
into disrepute. If they believe any action
is required, they inform senior management immediately.
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Ian
Taylor cited an example where a player had recently been involved in an
exchange with somebody over Twitter and had posted personal information
about that person, which was later taken down as a result
of this process.
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Ian
Taylor said that since the initial meeting – social media guidelines
have now become a part of everybody's standard contract and that there
are serious implications for the players and staff in terms of
punishment if they don't adhere to them.
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Ian Taylor said that as a result of these new guidelines, some of the players have actually removed their accounts.
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Paul
Finney said that the official club Twitter accounts often re-tweet
messages from the players' personal accounts. Therefore there is a lack
of consistency here, particularly as the club are happy to re-tweet
positive messages, but when there are posts that they don't like, they
step away and don't want to be involved.
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Ron
Norris raised that the players use of Twitter, whether it was positive
or negative, was interesting because you learn more about their
character and personality and what they're really like. He saw this
as a positive overall.
-
A
general discussion was had about the use of social media and how it can
impact on a player or staff, and that for many of them, it goes beyond
the club they are presently employed with and can extend to past
clubs or rivals. They are constantly under attack on these platforms
and some may not have the correct education and training to deal with
the constant scrutiny they're under.
-
In
general there are not too many positives for the players, albeit, it
was agreed that when players like Clint Hill, Jamie Mackie, Bradley Orr
and Shaun Derry among others were using it, you could really get
a sense and feel of the team spirit and friendships around the club.
Joey Barton later joined in, but on the flip-side, when that banter
started to die down and the team were struggling – it created a
perception where fans could read between the lines and
connect stories of a dressing room split or lack of harmony and team
spirit back to these things.
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There
were discussions about young players, and some examples of players at
other clubs who had hundreds of followers, but then having made their
senior debut, suddenly saw themselves within minutes gaining
thousands and thousands of new followers and becoming known on an
international scale. The platform is powerful and needs to be handled
well.
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Ian
Taylor said that the club are putting plans in place to hold workshops
and tutorials for the 16-18s and Under 21s from the summer. This will be
focused around improving their understanding of journalism
and how to use things like social media, and will be held at a college
where the club themselves will attend and deliver the training.
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The workshops will be run with David Baker from the academy education programme.
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Everybody agreed this was great news and a really good initiative.
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Neil
Dejyothin raised that the official QPR accounts are often re-tweeting
other associated accounts, which can lead to a lot of duplication if you
happen to follow them all. He suggested that perhaps there
is another Twitter account created that's sole purpose is to do this,
so if you only want to follow one and get all the news of all the
accounts, you could.
-
Paul Morrissey and
Ian Taylor acknowledged the idea, but also stated that part of the
strategy for some of those accounts, such as the QPR Ladies, is to help
raise awareness about them, but they also took on
board the potential for a person to be spammed with the same
information.
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Clive
Whittingham said that in comparison with other clubs, the club's use of
Twitter and social media was one of the best out there.
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Steve
Sayce said that the recent improvements to the mobile version of the
website were a lot better and that the innovation and other areas the
club explore, such as Storify, Google Hangouts, and Vines were
really good.
-
The
general view in the room was that there was excellent and innovative
work being done across all social media and there was a great
consistency to it as well.
-
Simon
Dorset asked if there was any way London Call In could be freshened up
and wanted to know who the show was primarily aimed at, such as the
die-hard supporters. He felt that there wasn't anything in the
show for him personally – and that the type of conversations had been
ones he'd ordinarily have done the pub (albeit more explicit).
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Ian
Taylor said that there would be a review of the format at the end of
the season and that they would assess changes with a view to
implementing them over the summer. The London Call In will always be
compared
to the Open All Rs Podcast, which is at the other end of the scale in
terms of topics and discussion – and it's unofficial.
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Paul Morrissey said
they are looking at the balance of the show and want to better utilise
their access to the players and staff, which is the main reason people
want to watch and which is their unique selling
point, and they hope to be able to deliver something a bit more
spontaneous and reactive, with a more relaxed feel. They feel the
current format has reached its natural lifecycle and has hit a ceiling.
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They're happy to take on board any ideas.
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Simon
Dorset raised that perhaps things like Financial Fair Play could be
discussed, as nobody understands how it works or things like treatment
news and injury news.
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Paul Morrissey said
that modern day manager's like to keep their cards close to their
chests and do not want any information revealed about the state of their
players. This approach in recent years has been
reflected right across football.
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Clive
Whittingham said they should focus on that wider access. It was agreed
by all in the room that the Behind The Scenes press videos were a
fantastic and fascinating addition this season and that the more
content produced like that, the better.
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Neil
Dejyothin said perhaps they could focus on similar themes for players
and staff – and what it's like and what it takes to become a player or a
coach, or what's it like to be a part of a football club, whatever
the role, etc.
-
Ian
Taylor and Paul Morrissey said that the London Call-In was a platform
for fans to air their views and that fans from the group would be
welcome to attend on the show.
-
It was raised whether QPR can stream live matches anywhere outside the UK, or is this restricted to just one country?
-
Ian
Taylor confirmed that the agreement covers Malaysia only. The Football
League will not grant the club rights to extend this into any other
territory.
Communication around New Stadium
-
There
was a request for a general update on the state of play – and questions
were asked on why the club made such a big announcement before several
property, environmental and legal issues are resolved?
-
It
was also discussed that the 2018 completion date appears to be
ambitious and there is a question mark whether it's really deliverable
in that time, as well as whether QPR would own the stadium themselves.
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It was also asked what fan consultation would be expected.
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Ian Taylor stressed that the whole process is obviously complex and sensitive.
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The
Club have taken on board an external property PR company called Forty
Shillings, who are helping manage the new stadium and training ground
announcements.
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Forty Shillings have been involved with Arsenal's Emirate Stadium and Wembley Stadium developments.
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All
of the PR and communication messages linked to the new stadium are
calculated and strategic. The initial announcement was made to create
awareness and bring a lot of stakeholders and landowners to the table
for discussions. They're making fantastic early progress on a complex,
complicated and huge undertaking project.
-
The London location makes the project even more complex than the likes of MK Dons and Coventry City.
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Ian Taylor reminded everybody in the room that the club has never publicly put a timescale for the completion of the project.
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Ian
Taylor said there communication with fans would be key to the project
and towards the end of the season a wider consultation will take place
and that there will be a number of public consultations around
the wider project and stadium when the time is right. Those are the
next steps and there will be more details in terms of infrastructure and
general updates.
-
The
club has already started liaising with fans with a recent transport
survey after the Wigan Athletic fixture. They are mindful that this may
be irritating but everybody in the room said they actually enjoyed
receiving those surveys.
-
Ian Taylor confirmed that QPR would own the stadium.
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Steve
Sayce asked in what form the consultation would be in and that
questions also need to be asked about how the legacy and history of
Loftus Road is handled. Steve mentioned that fans would want
reassurances
about this, as it will break our hearts to leave what is a very special
place to a lot of us.
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Ian
Taylor confirmed that various discussions are in place on how best to
pay tribute to Loftus Road and that it's very much part of their
thinking and plans.
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Neil
Dejyothin said that the PR surrounding the new stadium needed to be
handled with care, and that the club have to find the right balance
about being excited to move, or talking about all the corporate extras
a new stadium could bring – because in reality – fans don't really care
about that and if they suspect the move isn't to do with football or
QPR first, they're more likely to be upset, especially if they don't
feel the new stadium represents what's special
about their club.
-
Clive
Whittingham asked who was responsible for overseeing the new stadium
project and a discussion was had about the difference between people at
the club who live very different lives to fans making key decisions
about what is and isn't good about a stadium.
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The
owners and senior management's experience of football is very different
to the supporters, they may come to every match, but they sit in a
different environment and are from a very different world to most
fans and that we come to football for different reasons. Clive said he
would be interested to know what senior management would say their best
and worst five stadiums would be and is confident they'd be quite
different to most fans.
-
Ian
Taylor re-iterated that fan consultation would be key to all of this –
and that we would have the opportunity to share our views and that they
needed to be taken on board. Mark Donnelly is currently overseeing
the project for both the new stadium and training ground – along with
other influential figures within the trade.
-
Neil
Dejyothin said the QPR1st Supporters Trust were currently researching
and putting together information that may be useful for the club and
supporters to consider and that more details on this would be
announced soon on www.qpr1st.com.
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Clive
Whittingham raised an issue whereby the club have announced staff
arrivals in the past, only not to mention when they've left. This has
happened on several occasions with some scouts and more recently
with Shaun Hallet, who was leading the Warren Farm project and had a
couple of videos dedicated to him on QPR Player when he first arrived.
-
This
obviously leads to the question of who is running the scouting and
training ground projects now? And why does the club not mention when
some staff have left?
-
Paul Morrissey said
that the usual policy was to announce both a person’s arrival and
departure, and it was simply a mistake that they hadn't announced when
somebody had left.
-
Ian
Taylor said that Mark Donnelly, who Shaun Hallet reported in to, is
running both the Warren Farm and stadium project. Ian Butterworth is
overseeing the scouting set-up following Ian Broommfield's departure.
The scouting structure beneath remains unchanged.
-
Neil
Dejyothin raised that he would like to see more consistency with the
departure messages, and that sometimes they were too short and cold,
that you could sense the club were frustrated with whoever was
leaving – or in some cases – it gave the illusion that something
happened when you may not have realised.
-
There
were others who disagreed, saying that some who left didn't deserve it,
and it puts the media team in an awkward position. The media team
generally took this point of view, albeit they acknowledged Neil's
point of view too.
-
Neil
Dejyothin understood those concerns, but said that standards and
ethics, and the consistency of that should be adhered to whenever
possible. There doesn't need to be a big fuss made (unless they are
worth
it), but a simple "thank you, we're disappointed it didn't work out and
good luck in the future", no matter what, just helps show our class as a
club a bit more.
-
Neil
Dejyothin raised the point about standards and ethics again, and that
while it didn't work out for Jose Boswingwa and that he didn't help
himself, it wasn't helpful that his personal information was revealed
in a press conference and that contributed massively to his downfall in
terms of how he was perceived by supporters. The club put itself in an
awkward position and that had long lasting effects, which were
avoidable.
Former players recognition
-
The
Alec Stock day was well received, as was Wayne Fereday's half-time
appearance on the pitch, and it was asked what is being done to build on
that, especially in light of some recent comments by Ian Gillard
on the Open All R's Podcast where he clearly felt there was more room
for improvement.
-
Ian
Taylor said the media team in particular are passionate about doing a
better job of recognising former players and staff and some of the
recent initiatives are a step towards achieving this. They were
disappointed
they didn't seem to reach the standard Ian Gillard expected, but are
determined to put this right.
-
Clive
Whittingham, Neil Dejyothin, Paul Finney and Steve Sayce spoke about
the expectations of some of the former players and staff, and raised
that the lack of knowledge and history about QPR at board level
may play a part in those peoples perception of treatment. It's possible
they want to be greeted and welcome by the owners and directors, but
it's not clear whether those people in the club know who these people
are well enough and what they mean.
-
Ian
Taylor said that going forward there will be a better focus on
particular milestones, such as birthday's or anniversary's for former
players and staff and the club will be highlighting fixtures next season
to build on that.
-
Paul Morrissey said
they recognise that a lot of the work done is still more reactive than
pro-active, and that some of the measures they're putting in place are
to move towards being more pro-active about
these matters.
-
Ian
Taylor accepts there has been a mismanagement on the clubs part in
terms of looking after its former players, staff and key figures, but
they are now constantly striving to ensure the club makes forward
strides in this area.
-
Ian
Taylor confirmed that Andy Sinton, Phil Parkes and Clive Wilson will
all be guests of the club between now and the end of the season and that
the Winton Family have been invited to the Nottingham Forest
game and the club will be running a programme piece about their
involvement over the years and paying tribute to the late Harold Winton.
-
Ian
Taylor said that the W12 area of the stadium always has a former player
as a Guest Speaker and that they hope to involve whoever that is with
other activities around the stadium on a match day in future.
-
Paul Morrissey said
they will be having some discussions about potentially renaming some of
the boxes to legendary players or staff, and that a Hall of Fame and
other initiatives are being discussed and proposed,
but obviously with Loftus Road being a small stadium, it may be that
some of those things can't arrive until we move to a new ground.
-
Ian
Taylor said they hoped to have a legend present at every home match
next season, but also stressed that some former players and staff were
not actually interested in returning – because their interest in
football was not the same since retirement.
-
There
was a general feeling in the room amongst those who attended, that
despite the lack of space, we ought to have an area in the stadium
dedicated to former players and staff, and that we lacked this in
comparison to a lot of clubs. It's something the club should consider
as a priority and would go a long way to accommodating those key figures
and making them feel more welcome.
-
Ian
Taylor said they were meeting with some other fans to discuss ideas to
help with this and were keen to take on board any ideas from all.
-
Colin
Henderson said that it would be worthwhile for the club to consider
doing a Q&A on the website with former players and staff, so that
younger fans could learn more about them.
-
It
was recognised by all in attendance that the club is making progress,
but that also that it will take time to get to the level we'd all love
it to be. The work being done now is a positive start and a good
step in the right direction.
It was asked what more could be done to promote the Youth?
-
Ian
Taylor said that this area has improved significantly since the
appointment of Andy Watkins (Club Journalist) around fifteen months ago.
The club do more press and PR on the youth and other set ups than
most other clubs, including the QPR Community Trust and QPR Ladies.
-
The
official QPR website alone has published 81 articles since the start of
2014, which includes 55 articles on the Under 21s and 26 on the Under
18s.
-
There
is a comprehensive Academy Review in the match day programme, latest
match reports from both the Under 21s and Under 18s fixtures and there
are both manager and player reactions, squad stats, fixtures,
results and tables. There is also a "Getting To Know" features where we
focus on a different youth-team player each work and coverage has
expanded from one page to four pages.
-
They are happy to take on board any further ideas.
-
Clive
Whittingham said that the piece he did on the youth team that were done
as a result of these meetings on LoftForWords was one of the best
received features the site has had in the past year, and many
around the table would love to do it again. Paul Morrissey and Ian
Taylor were more than happy to arrange another one of these in the
future.
-
Neil
Dejyothin said that the coverage of the QPR Ladies was excellent and
they now feel like a part of the club from the outside. It's a huge
improvement.
-
Ron
Norris said that it would be great if they could somehow do a story on
following a player from his mid-teens up until the point he wins a
professional contract, and have an archive over a period of time
that shows what it's like to go through that process.
-
Steve
Sayce said that his eyes were really opened when he did the recent
Tiger Feet walk and found out about so much amazing work the Community
Trust do. He felt he'd only known about fifty percent of what
they did before, so any further promotion of their work would be
welcome.
-
Paul Morrissey said
that they obviously had to get the balance right and be careful about
how much news they put on the official QPR site, as obviously most
supporters are going there for news and information
about the team.
-
Ian
Taylor said they are waiting on confirmation of Tony Fernandes' diary
ahead of his meeting with fans in April or May. The club's Supporter
Liaison Officer, Andy Rees, will be liaising with fans in due course.
-
Neil
Dejyothin spoke a little bit about the meetings over the past year and
that the media team could be proud of what they've achieved in that
time. It was recognised that it was brave to meet and engage with
supporters in the way they did, and they've had a fantastic season to
date, and hopefully feel, as all of us do, that the relationship they've
had with supporters is the best it's been in years.
