MINUTES
Rangers Fans Board Meeting
Date: Thursday, January 08, 2015
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm GMT
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Location: 1 Floor Boardroom, Argyll House, Glasgow (and WebEx video conference)
Invited Attendees:
Fans Board:
Alison Clark-Dick, Christine Murdoch, Gary Gillan, William Gillan, William Paterson, William
Findlay, Robert Callaghan, Tom Clements, Alan Fraser
Rangers:
Jim Hannah
Regrets:
Tom Johnstone, Zia Islam
Agenda Items
Owner
Welcome and Agenda Review
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Attendance Apologies
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Minutes of Meeting from November 26th
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Changes to be made to the ‘Any Other Business’ section that Gary picked up
incorrectly. Rangers First and the Rangers Supporters Trust did not request to
attend a meeting – it was a hypothetical question posed at the meeting about
what the RFB’s position would be should groups such as RF and RST request to
attend
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Once this change was made the minutes were adopted
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Proposed: Tom Clements
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Seconded: Alan Fraser
Christine M
Any Other Business
Rangers Board Directors Welcome and Introductions
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Correspondence Received / Address to Rangers Board Directors.
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No Board of Directors representatives could attend the meeting due to
ongoing business operations priorities
Communications Proposal to Rangers’ Board.
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Gary G discussed that a communications proposal was sent to Rangers Board
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leadership on January 5 designed to increase the communications channels
between Rangers and the fans. To date no response has been received and
Gary will follow up again next week
RFB Representative Reports, Correspondence Received, Issues, Concerns & Discussion Points
Female Fans
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Haven’t received any correspondence this past month.
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Lots of activity of Social Media that will be addressed later in the communications report.
Alison C-D
Families
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Correspondence received from a family member whose family sits in the Broomloan Front
and have been sitting there for a number of years. The Blue Order now position themselves
Christine M
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in front and stand for all the games and blocks the view for the existing fans, including the
family. Proposing to speak to the Ticket Office for next season to have them seated in a
different area
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JH: Suggestion to have David Martin (Head of Security) contact the individual.
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Action: Jim H will contact David M to arrange dialogue with the family to try to
come to a solution
Overseas Fans
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Still no resolution to why half of the recent Charlie Telfer / Dundee United statement was
removed from the website after being published.
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JH: Website content is put in by the website owners or as ordered by Rangers
leadership. Will need to find out what happened on this occasion
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Action: Gary to liaise with Jim H to determine what the decision-making
process was at that time
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An email was received from Andy Carey (Calgary, Canada) informing that the RFB acronym is
also the Republican Flute Band. It was discussed and agreed that this is of no relevance or
consequence to RFB and that we will continue using the RFB acronym
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Correspondence received from Colin Glass (Naples, Florida):
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It is my belief that the FB needs to publicly propose a vote of “no confidence” in
the current Rangers Board. Failure to do so would see the FB being viewed as
part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. If the FB does not have
the stomach for this, then they should at least formally propose a motion of no
confidence in the Club Chairman, whose performance at last week’s AGM was
utterly disgraceful, indeed repugnant.
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After discussion it was agreed that RFB’s role is not that of voting noconfidence or otherwise but to represent fans overall and not one individual
fans request
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Action: Gary to email Colin back verifying this stance
Gary G
Fans in Glasgow/Govan
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Not receiving a lot of correspondence and not much dialogue shared at the matches.
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Complaint received against Alison Clark-Dick regarding a comment made on Social Media
against Craig Houston (on Alison’s personal Facebook page)
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It was made on Alison’s own personal Facebook and represented Alison’s own
point of view. No further action will be taken.
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Action: William Gillan will email Craig Houston back reflecting the information
above
William G
General discussion around the need for discretion as a RFB member and on information that
is posted on Social Media.
Disabled Fans
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Since the previous meeting I’ve received a few more complaints in regards to the parking in
the Albion, namely non wheelchair users getting into the section reserved for wheelchair
users. I gather that sometimes access is being gained by holding up a Blue Badge alone as
opposed to the parking pass which clearly states “RSC DISABLED CAR PARK PERMIT” on it.
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Also, some wheelchair users in the East Enclosure who currently have permits for the Albion
and are struggling with the distance between the car park and their respective entrance and
exit points. I did raise the issue in the meeting I had with Liz Kay prior to the last Fans Board
meeting, in particular the car park at Edmiston House being made available as it presently
lays empty during matches. I’ve been assured that they have looked into using Edmiston
William P
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House car park for that purpose but it’s presently not possible to do so.
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A couple of cases have been brought to my attention concerning a long standing problem.
They concern a couple of gentlemen both long term season ticket holders whose health has
deteriorated to the point where they can no longer use their season ticket seats.
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The first one is from a Mr James Walker who sent me the following.
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Hi William, Firstly thank you for your email, I, along with my wife have been a season ticket
holder in the main stand since God knows how long >My wife joined me there in 1980 and up
until last year ,I was able although disabled and struggling, to make the stairs.
… We still pay our season tickets for the main stand (my wife and I) my daughter pays for
hers in the Govan front. As I cant manage the stairs to the stand I have to phone Liz Kay
sometimes twice a week to see if there is room for me to get in usually there is but there has
been the odd occasion when I couldn’t it is disappointing as I would like to got every home
game when I am able and even some away games too if there was access By the way Liz Kay
has always put me in the East enclosure as I have had a disabled parking badge for the
Mafeking Street car park for several years I just thought I would fill you in with some of my
details, once again many thanks for your reply I shall be happy to hear from anytime
Jimmy Walker
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Action: Jim Hannah will raise this with David Martin again to see what can be done to better
inform the stewards that are manning these areas to ensure they’re supporting the users.
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The second one I don’t presently know the name of as I was just informed about it the other
day by Mr Steve Sinclair a wheelchair user who attends hospitality in the Argyle suite.
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There's a wheelchair user in hospitality , that due to severe ill health will in all probability be
unlikely to be fit enough to attend matches unaccompanied again . This is obviously an issue
as it would double his costs for the Argyle suite something he is not in a position to do,
however my question is what is current waiting time for a place in wheelchair areas.
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WP: I’ve been in dialogue with the Ticket Office and have been advised that there are
currently 158 people on the waiting list for a wheelchair space though it should be noted
that some of those have actually been offered a season ticket but have declined to take one
some on the basis of their health and some because they feel the match to match scheme
suits them better. I’m unsure as to the number who have actually declined a ticket but
believe it to be a relatively small number overall.
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WP: The longest someone currently waiting for a season ticket has been waiting on one
without receiving an offer of one is six years, it would have been considerably longer but the
opening up of the 35 spaces in the East Enclosure will have greatly reduced the waiting time
in that regards.
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WP: There are currently 86 supporters on the match to match scheme who have been
allocated 2-3 games per season, 43 of those have also registered to be notified of last
minute availability all of whom have been contacted or attempted to be contacted for at
least 1 game this season.
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WP: Unfortunately like the rest of the stadium the wheelchair section is suffering from the
general apathy and lower attendances. This has caused a rather bizarre situation where we
are finding quite a lot of wheelchair spaces laying vacant during a game whilst people are
screaming out to attend. This is due to people simply not informing the Ticket Office that
they will not be attending. I have pointed this out to the Ticket Office and hope to meet
them when mutually convenient to see if we can come up with a solution to this bizarre
problem.
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Ethnic Minorities
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No significant correspondence received. Discussion points provided prior to the meeting by
Zia will be discussed during the Social Media discussion later.
Zia I
Under 18’s
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Karen Todd from Northern Ireland purchased a ticket for a game which was subsequently
moved for TV. Karen was offered a discounted Ibrox tour as a consolation for the
inconvenience and has to get in touch with the club for this.
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Give founder members the exclusive benefits promised in the starter pack
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JH: This will be happening going forward as I was speaking with Robert Boyle
and he confirmed that the pre-match Member emails will start to go out
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before the match vs. Hearts on January 16
William F
ACD: At Parkhead they have student season tickets which are apparently very popular –
should Rangers consider offering this to students going forward?
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Action: JH will check with Susan Hannah on the current offerings for students
Ibrox Match Ticket Purchasers
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Stewart Franklin emailed Robert C on December 15 with a series of questions that Gary G
and Robert C will work together to respond to the points made and will liaise with the RFB
on questions raised that can’t be answered by both of them.
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Various supporters have contacted me regarding Old Firm tickets timelines and availability Attended a meeting with Jim Hannah, Susan Hannah, Gary Gillan, and Alan Fraser to discuss
the ticket allocation. Felt the meeting was very productive. Will be discussed later during
Any Other Business.
Robert C
Corporate Fans
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No significant correspondence or queries received in the last month.
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Discussion around selling out corporate hospitality for a Saturday Hearts game that is then
changed to a Friday and negative comments received about this. Agreed that Rangers are at
the mercy of television in this regard.
Tom C
Rangers Official Members
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No significant correspondence received other than general enquiries and statements of
discontent with the way things currently are with the club.
Tom J
Season Ticket Holders
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Correspondence received from Alan Rae – general request about Mike Ashley’s hearing with
the SFA – what happened? Also, when the manager resigned why did it trigger a clause of a
salary increase?
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Discussed and agreed that such time has passed that all of this information has
been readily available in the media. No action required
Alan F
Discussion around Old Firm game ticket allocation – the main allocation of the 21,000 tickets
received was that 83% will be allocated to season ticket holders.
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Susan Hannah (Rangers Ticket Office) asked that no other communication from
RFB be forthcoming on the allocation numbers until it has been made public on
the Rangers website. GG reinforced the need for absolute discretion with any
information that is shared with the RFB of a sensitive nature
Any Other Business
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Communications Presentation – Social Media Proposal
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All
Discussion around the requirement for more social media presence for RFB
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Specifically discussing Facebook and Twitter
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ACD: To make RFB as accessible and transparent as possible we need to up our
social media presence
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AF: Discussion around an ‘E-Newsletter’ and the potential to send this to
members on a bi-monthly basis
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AF: I will speak to a colleague and get a social media ‘guide’ put together to
discuss at the next RFB meeting
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A conversation will take place with Robert Boyle (Rangers), Alan F, Alison C-D
and Jim H on the pros and cons of Facebook and Twitter which the minutes of
will be sent to the entire RFB for discussion and decision
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JH confirmed that Robert Boyle is keen to meet up and discuss with
RFB representatives on the social media topic
Discussion around having a RFB page in match day programs or on the Rangers
website (for example). More discussions to follow
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CM: Looking at a fans survey – agreed that this will be discussed at the next meeting after
the social media discussions have been concluded.
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Celtic League Cup Semi-Final Ticket Allocation
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AF: Various correspondence received on the role of the RFB and the requirement for
ongoing communications with the club
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Dealt with under Season Ticket Holders discussions above
CM: During this period of uncertainty the RFB has done our best to get off the
ground, and support the fans as best we can which has proved very difficult in
these times of uncertainty
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WP: Charity Foundation. ACD chatted with Connal Cochrane (Rangers Charity Foundation)
and he’d like to come to a future RFB meeting. Agreed.
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Date for future meetings – trying to get more consistency into the dates / timing
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Doodle – agreed to utilize this tool for availability for future meetings. JH to
send this out to everyone for population for the February meeting
Meeting Close and Date of Next Meeting
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Meeting brought to a close at 9:09pm
Christine M
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