The Albion Assembly

It’s been a big week for Albion after the transfer market that never really picked up any pace. They gave a chance for their hand selected fans to ask questions to the men at the top. What a great thing the club is doing, fronting it up and giving fans accessed to the decision makers. In fairness, I get the notion that other clubs don’t do that but there’s a few things about The Albion Assembly that really do bug me, so here goes:

Firstly I must say this is not a dig at those on the Assembly, I know a few guys on it and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The suggestion they are ‘happy clappers’ and ‘yes men’ isn’t for me, I know the people I know they have asked the questions we want answered.

The main problem I have is all the off the record chats that are had in these meetings. They only ever publish on the record minutes and that’s where the real problem is.

It’s a rock and a hard place for the club because they cannot publish what is said but say it to the assembly, those off the record chats are what fans actually want to know. The group was created to build bridges between the fans and the club, at the moment it seems to have built great bridges between twenty odd fans and the club. The 99.9% of the other fans left out in the cold just hearing about “off the record” chats that people can’t say anymore about.

So the group, I have no doubts, have asked about Pulis future, have asked why season ticket sales are “commercially sensitive” but the answers aren’t logged because they’re off the record, therefore making the Assembly look like one of two people. They’re either naive “happy clappers” for not probing more or they’re just happy to sit there and get inside knowledge to tell their mates down the pub to make themselves look good, feed their ego. Actually, they’re neither, they’re being shafted by people consistently not reporting on the conversations.

Since the minutes went up I have seen a few members on their high horse stating the effort and time they put in to the assembly. I get that but I think the members need to realise this is an oversubscribed group, you’re very easily replaced and talking as it’s almost a burden will just wind fans up more, you’re in a privileged position many others wanted and you choose to be apart of, knowing it could come with critics, don’t bleat on like it’s a chore.

My next point is who the club have got, I feared when they asked for the Twitter handles of fans they’d be getting a “certain type” of fan, I don’t know the group so I can’t comment on that but I do know the club haven’t been all honest with their recruitment. The club stated they would use the first round of applications to get more people in when required, yet when they required people they head hunted people that never applied. To me that seems like the club don’t want certain people in the assembly, possibly because they will ask questions they don’t want to answer.

I know the assembly members get very defensive when questioned but I’d urge them to look at it from the outside looking in, re-read the minutes from a blank point of view, it looks like the questions aren’t asked because it’s “off the record”.

I like the idea of the club trying harder with fans, I like the idea of them answering questions but if you’re only going to answer those questions with a select few that you’ve hand selected then you can’t blame the other thousands for wondering whether the Assembly is worthwhile.

I suppose the question you ask yourself is what has The Albion Assembly solved/created/done since it’s start and that will probably answer whether it’s worthwhile.