This post seems to be getting at the people, who are doing a fantastic job at the club,
I feel they is some good ideas been put forward, but is they going to be any volunteers to stand in town on a Saturday etc i feel every one needs to help is some way or another whether it be bring a friend the next game or even dish out a few leaflets.

Well done Malfax , at the end of the day if this club is going to succeed it`s going to have to "think out of the box" we can`t keep doing the same stuff all the time .The clubs who do succeed will be the ones who do things differantly.

I`ll volunteer .

I have just spoken to Angela who is in charge of The Woolshops ,we can take a table down on Saturday .If it is fine like now we can go in the centre with the table ,if wet it can go under the Mark`s canopy .But we can have people wandering around as well. Who wants to give a hand?
Malcom can we have some of the old programmes to give away?
We will need some leaflets to give out ,does anybody know leaflet printers?
We can have this for the next three Saturdays so if we have not time to get it together for this week eg get leaflets printed etc we have two more after that.But as it is such an important match Sunday why not do it?
In the words of the famous Delia "Come on ,lets be having you".

i will help for a couple of hours, sounds like a great idea as long as they is no time restraints on leaflets etc, would be a good time to push the cash fax lottery if we are allowed to in the town

I have just tried to ring the club but I am only geting a recorded message as I think that the pushing of the lottery is a good idea. We are not allowed to sell things or we get charged (a lot) but we can raise awareness for free. Thanks for your offer of help I have just looked at the weather forecast and guess what at the moment it`s giving it`s going to rain all day. We will see it may alter.

Yer true mate and some are only their as volunteers i.e. UNPAID.
BUT the club has to LISTEN and if some people are not prepared to do that even if the idea is utter rubbish then we will not keep people onboard they will become disillusioned and stop supporting the club.
Change happens in all walks of life, you have to be prepared for it and adapt, businesses are having to do that in the current climate, those who have dynamic leaders will survive and those who don't won't end of.
I have a lot of trust in the people at the club but when I hear things like our rent has not been paid I cannot defend the club, how stupid, we have to be squeeky clean so come the day we want to 'negotiate' a deal we have no 'baggage' that will drag us down.
Things like this hurt the clubs reputation, and management need to sort it out.
It was like one week I was in the office and somebody who will remain nameless who is not connected to the club was in there counting out the money. There may be a good reason for this but I feel like asking - why???

Professionalism puts clubs ahead of others, look at Sheffield, how do they manage to do it on the gates they get???
I am not having a go at people at the club and I hope this is taken in the context of a debate about OUR club not taken personally as like I said I have no problem myself with anybody at the club when I want something doing and contact them.
Keep an open mind guys, maybe have another fans forum and get this out in the open and get a 'suggestion' form going round?
We do need to lift the support and money coming in, we should all be prepared to help them with this.

Well why didn't you just ask why when you were in the office rather than posting it on here?

It would have been explained to you that we always have two people who reconcile the money - as we only have 1 paid member of staff in the admin office the other person is a highly trusted volunteer who has helped us out for years. That person is always supervised and only given the money to check once it has been counted.

In future if you have a query or worry please ask there and then. Now it has been posted on here it makes it look like the Club just leaves money lying around and asks random people to count it - which I can assure you absolutely does not happen!

Unfortunately ideas are worthless unless somebody grabs hold of them and make them happen.

I can vouch for that.

So very true , I would also like to point out that Mike started this thread and it was telling us all we need to increase revenue into the club.It was a positive post so lets keep all comments on here about positive ways to help the club increase people through the gate and extra revenue in the club.
I for one would like a fans get together especialy if we know people who might help out with printing etc.

Here's a scenario.you order a tv from a shop and when you get it home they have sent you the wrong one.The shop apologize for the mistake and reorder your tv.The new tv arrives and once again you get it home and it's the wrong one.you speak to the shop again they apologize once again and reorder the tv.same thing happens a third time and a fourth etc etc what do you do?you get your money back or if you havnt paid anything you cancel the agreement and vow not to give that shop any of your hard earned money again.

The"they are volunteers"argument wears very thin.

Never used that argument.

Here's a scenario; You make arrangements to have a business logo on Man U playing shirt, you see the logo on the shirt every game but then don't pay for it.

wow, to say we all support the same team we aint half good at sly digs at each other. How about all pull in same direction??

When all the clubs start to do that we will all start to get somewhere

Till then , we're all doomed , doomed I tel ya , DOOMED

Here's a scenario; You don't make an agreement to have a business logo on a Man U playing shirt but see the logo on the shirt every game and then are asked to pay for it. No order, no discussion.

And another; You are told by Man U that in return for spending a small fortune and being a good sponsor in times of good and bad, we'll give you a photo montage of all your presentations on stage with the players, then on presentation night forget to give them it and when it does turn up there are only a couple of photo's. To some of our past sponsors it's a BIG thing. Attention to detail is crucial and who can possibly be expected to pay for something they were promised but never received?

Here's another; You turn up one day and find somebody else is on Man U's shirt when you've been on their for years and they never asked you if you wanted to continue before giving it to somebody else.

The list can go on and on and it's no wonder that Sponsors have left in droves over the years.

Back on topic. If the Club are prepared to take on board the suggestions made by fans in a "Brain Storming" session, then I'm sure it will be well attended and there could even be a prize for the best ideas that are implemented.

Well said. Am sick and tired of all the back biting. People are coming up with good ideas that, if we have the time and resources, we will happily support. This thread has descended in to pointless jibes that won't achieve anything.

As for GFB saying about the volunteers stuff wearing thin - can I just tell you that this Club would not be here and operating without these volunteers. We came out of Super League, lost the majority of the paid staff but tried to continue what we were doing commercially and marketing wise as a Super League Club. This is where volunteers, starting with people like Stephen Pearson came to the fore.

The staff and volunteers here at the Club just get on with the job in hand. We are constantly trying to do things better - all suggestions and offers of help are welcome.

Great idea to have the stall at the Woolshops from JFFC and if they are willing to organise and man it we will help in any way we can - print and design leaflets, arrange players to be there, send Halicat, Richard will come along to promote the lottery. This is exactly the kind of thing we really appreciate.

As for Yob's comment about sponsors leaving in droves - I could quite easily give you the Club's side of the story but to be honest it is not something I think should be discussed on an internet forum. It is frustrating having to read things on here that the fans read and then take as fact. Sponsors leave but we also get many new sponsors - the reasons they have given you for leaving are probably very different from the discussions we have had with them.

I think that we have a fantastic sponsors base - especially with the facilities we have at the moment. I don't think there is anyone who has been in the sponsors lounge this year who you would get any complaint from. We have even better supporters - look how many buses we took over to Doncaster to help them out and our travelling support to Cas. We just need more of them and will welcome and help out with any suggestion fans have.

Let's just stop with all the back biting and pull together to make the Club we love prosper. We are watching entertaining rugby and enjoying winning ways - let's try and build some momentum for a push for Super League. If anyone does want to discuss any ideas or even grievances please just give us a call - I am quite happy to talk to anyone, explain any misunderstandings, deal with any complaints etc. etc.

Hope to see you all on Sunday. Sarah

Do the club have a database of past season ticket holders? If so, as we are now enjoying our most succesful season since 98 & playing the most exciting rugby, could we not send out invitations offering "mid season" season tickets & also provide them with a DVD of a past match where the rugby has been great.

That way, they can see for themselves what they are missing & maybe generate more fans (even if they were ones who had drifted away)

The problem you have though is this, I do believe Yob to be an upstanding member of the community and very shrewd businessman, anybody with any sense is not going to believe he is telling fibs now are they?
Im really suprised there have being any discussions with sponsors.Trying to contact someone who is running the club is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

On the volunteers note. If I volunteered to build your house and did a shabby job. Would it be ok because i was a volunteer?

Anyway back on topic griffax has a good idea about the past season ticket holders. Maybe you could add past sponsors to that list as well afterall it cant be that hard to dig up a database containing all this info can it..........

despite being council owned, would there be any benefit (for both clubs) to finding a stadium sponser ,or has it already got one?

it could be called The Safeway Shay or something

The lack of interested parties to pay for naming rights is one of the reasons so many new stadiums are not getting built at the moment

The days of massive deals for ground sponsorship have gone

GFB - why don't you try picking up the telephone, emailing the club, call in to the office if you need to talk to someone. Quite surprisingly many people have done this today. Amazing I have spoken to people on the phone, answered emails and also answered queries from people who have called in the office today. Not that you will believe it but one person came in to book his kids in as mascots after they had been to a kids party that the rugby league staff had organised in their own time (voluntarily) at the stadium, one had won a prize of diners for two at the Sheffield game and enjoyed it so much he has persuaded his company to take a match sponsorship at the Fev game and one lady came in to buy 4 home shirts for her kids as Ben and Shad had been in to their school and given them tickets for the Barrow game and told them to wear blue and white.

Most of these would not have happened without volunteers. Let's get rid of them all then and we wouldn't have as active a schools programme, no cheerleaders programme, no entertainment or PA on a matchday, no commercial sales, no merchandise or internet shop, no matchday sales people, no dinners and no player appearances at amateur club events etc.

As I have said previously if you would like anything explaining or questions answered contact us - many other people seem to manage it. Until you do that you can sit behind your user name and post on here with an obvious grievance and let us get on with our work - no matter how useless you think we are. And yes we do have databases going as far back as our Bluesox days and we use these for mailshots and have been working on the excellent suggestion Griffax made earlier about mini season tickets last week.

what about just a small/ moderate deal? better than nothing! and may develop into something better you could hope

What about creating a game based on Halifax RLFC for kids- something like Top Trumps card game for example.

Its a shame that people have had a bad experience with Fax in the past but I truely believe the club has improved in many area especially since Mr Clay has come on board. Fax is manned by Humans who do make mistakes like we all do. However they also need to learn from the mistakes made.

I feel the club and fans need to work a lot more together-however the Fans need to help the club more as most are volunteers like Mal. The problem is people feel they have to commit themselves etc-wrong you just need to help where you can whether that be in a big or small way. If you can only help on a stall for example for 3 hours a year than that is better than nothing. Sometimes help need not be a big thing or require a lot of money or time. It just requires somebody to spend an hour or two away from a TV and do something worthwhile.

does anyone remember the shay babes? got the shaymen national recognition! (to sun readers anyway)