well lets try and put a few things straight!!!
Yes I was heavily involved in PIRAG along with a few others, in my honest opinion PIRAG was a great idea that was created by a very passionate group of fans that had no hidden agendas other than to help the club NOT THE DIRECTORS just the club. It was never intended to go into competition with the club or Squad Builder as it was only ever intended to help by raising more much needed funds for Squad Builder, helping by building a strong volunteer group that could help maintain the ground and help out on matchdays. Long before the very first meeting was called when we started getting fans to become members the group worked very hard getting a bank account set up, ideas in place and not forgetting the work Rach put in designing the website. Things were going smoothly and after a few meetings with fans/members things started to fizzle out in terms of support, as soon as we started talking about voting on a commitee and who would be responsible for what role that was when it was clear we didn't have much support.
After numerous e-mail to members to try and sort things out with no reply we decided to pick people out from the club, members and fans that we knew were passionate about the club and have helped in the past to try and put together some sort of commitee just to get things up and running and start to raise the cash that Squad Builder needs.
Mary Calvert was asked to Chair, Margeret Proctor was asked to look after the money side of things and the rest of us was going to work as a group to arrange raffles, events and to try and create a volunteer team.
Just before I continue, Iain it is quite easy to come on here and paint yourself out to be the good guy that is standing up for the members and to be honest I don't really want to get into a slanging match with you but if I remember correctly you left because me, you and the others were finding it hard to work together and when asked for information on members to carry on taking the group forward you have made it difficult. As far as I'm aware the only person that has the bank account, log in details for twitter and facebook along with all the other info is IAIN??
Rach has the details for the website and I am sure she wouldn't mind posting things on there if asked.
PIRAG and Sqaud Builder could be fantastic for the club if people would attend meetings and help arrange things and show some interest, its easy to come on here and ask whats going on and why isn't this done and who's doing this but we all felt like we were banging our heads against a brick wall.
Now for the reason why I took a step back from it all and I think why others did too, oh and for the doubters or the people that think I have an axe to grind just ask the people that attended the meeting I am going to tell you about.
A meeting was called to meet the directors to see what support we had and what we would be allowed to do on a matchday in terms of raising funds. Myself, Mike Smith, Margeret Proctor and I'm sorry I cant remember the other guys name who was there but we met with Gary Fawcett and Pete Spencer. The meeting was going well until once again the true colours of our fantastic board shone through. I aren't speaking for anyone but for us as fans that care about the clubs best interest and only trying to help to be sat at a table and be continously insulted was the final straw for me, the comments made from Mr Spencer was I have more money than you to Mike Smith and this was said numerous times through out the meeting, Mike smith was also challenged by Mr Spencer on what have you ever done for this place which to be honest my jaw hit the floor as Mike answered take a look around you because that is what we did
After numerous comments of I dont care what the fans think, Im not bothered if the fans like me or not and this is our club Mrs Proctor said if it wasn't for SB last year you wouldn't have probably had the players you got in Korki, obst, semi, barnet etc. Not forgetting that this lady has worked very hard and a lot of unpaid hours putting SB together, organising events, standing on the gates before games handing out leaflets, signing up new members, letters out to members when needed, birthday cards, keeping an audit trail of everything, dealing with the banking and many many more tasks only to be told by Mr Spencer that they would manage without SB and he coulod have bought all the players himself and when aske well why didn't you his reply was I didn't want to.
More and more shocking stuff was said and this post is long enough without boring you of all the details but for now that is why I have pulled away because they were putting too many hurdles in front of us regarding raising funds and after listening to the way they disrespected everyone around the table especially Mrs Proctor that was it for me.
These guys really believe they are taking this club to super league and they also believe that they are running the club better than its ever been run before and are the helm of a top championship club.
One last thing Mr Spencer also stated at the table that Cougar Mania was a failure
Try work that one out.