Communication failure - East-West day

[LostDoggy]

Yes, it has been and gone.

If it wasn't for this forum, many of the 300 or so supporters would not have turned up. Communication was very poor with an opportunity lost.
Lost memebership sales, food & drinks sponsored by the hard working East West group, and even the effort with tents etc.

So what can done about it?

For all who have signed up for this year (or did last year), we had the option of providing our email address.

Would you mind the club sending an email to members, of any upcoming 'significant' event?

One simple email could have hit the 'hard core' supporters, who inturn could spread the news.

Your thoughts?

[GVGjr]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Yes it wasn't a good turn out and so many people didn't even know that it was on. In previous year there has been constant reminders. I think we would have missed on getting some more members signed up.

[westdog54]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Cyberdoggie had similar concerns over the intra-club match.

Granted, the club have been trying to get the game moved, but its now only a week and a half away, and the 'news' was broken by TCD both here on BF.

Surely communication breakdowns such as this cannot be solely attributed to the redevelopment and working around it, the club still has to be able to effectively operate.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Cyberdoggie had similar concerns over the intra-club match.

Granted, the club have been trying to get the game moved, but its now only a week and a half away, and the 'news' was broken by TCD both here on BF.

Surely communication breakdowns such as this cannot be solely attributed to the redevelopment and working around it, the club still has to be able to effectively operate.

yeah i was hounding tcd about it after the emw day, i think that sparked him to ring the club up and hassle them.


I'm also concerned about the membership packages and cards.
Seems each year they are arriving later and later. From memory they arrived last
year only a few weeks to spare.
last time i checked i'm sure we weren't a government department

someone needs to get out the preverbial whip and start crackin it!

[Bornadog]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I think the East/West family day needs to be held in early February, not in the middle of school holidays when many are still away and not thinking of football. The ideal scenario is to have the intra club practise match followed by the meet and greet players. A ground in the eastern burbs would need to be found and communication obviosely has to be better. Personally, I find the east/West supporter group to be a bit amatuerish, and I am sorry if I offend any one, but Football is now big business and with membership approaching 30,000 things have to change.

[Mantis]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I think the East/West family day needs to be held in early February, not in the middle of school holidays when many are still away and not thinking of football. The ideal scenario is to have the intra club practise match followed by the meet and greet players. A ground in the eastern burbs would need to be found and communication obviosely has to be better. Personally, I find the east/West supporter group to be a bit amatuerish, and I am sorry if I offend any one, but Football is now big business and with membership approaching 30,000 things have to change.

What's the saying, 'If you want something done right you got to do it yourself'.

[GVGjr]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I think the East/West family day needs to be held in early February, not in the middle of school holidays when many are still away and not thinking of football. The ideal scenario is to have the intra club practise match followed by the meet and greet players. A ground in the eastern burbs would need to be found and communication obviosely has to be better. Personally, I find the east/West supporter group to be a bit amatuerish, and I am sorry if I offend any one, but Football is now big business and with membership approaching 30,000 things have to change.

I have been a member for a few years and and I have found them very professional. The work that Gwen McBeth has done to turn that group around has been impressive. Having said that, the day wasn't up to scratch or even the standard set in previous years for that matter.
Now that the club are coordinating all the supporter groups you would expect an improved day. Perhaps the communication lapse was due to the club not pushing the day well enough but every other year we have know about it three weeks before the day with constant reminders.

I have seen some of the things American sport does to entice and delight the supporters and we are a long way off the ball in that regard. It's probably due to the constant pressure on the budget but as Raw Toast always tells me, there is plenty of cost effective ways of getting the word out. Given that in previous years more members are generally signing up on the day it was certainly a missed opportunity in my opinion.

[MrMahatma]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Doesn't cost THAT much to do a mail out to all last year's members, a letter box drop to a few thousand houses surrounding the area and, of course, local PR is going to be free.

No real reason why something like this shouldn't get more support, and it'd pay itself off easily with membership sales.

[always right]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Doesn't cost THAT much to do a mail out to all last year's members, a letter box drop to a few thousand houses surrounding the area and, of course, local PR is going to be free.

No real reason why something like this shouldn't get more support, and it'd pay itself off easily with membership sales.

Letter drop to a few thousand houses Do you mean letterboxing it to addresses of existing members in the region, or a random few thousand? If it's the latter, I have no idea which houses you would target as I imagine the catchment area for people to travel to a place like Wesley College is quite wide. I know in my suburb alone you could letterbox three thousand homes and hit about 6 Bulldogs supporters.

I think a smarter way would be to run ads in the local suburban newspapers on top of an email and website alert.

[hujsh]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Letter drop to a few thousand houses Do you mean letterboxing it to addresses of existing members in the region, or a random few thousand? If it's the latter, I have no idea which houses you would target as I imagine the catchment area for people to travel to a place like Wesley College is quite wide. I know in my suburb alone you could letterbox three thousand homes and hit about 6 Bulldogs supporters.

I think a smarter way would be to run ads in the local suburban newspapers on top of an email and website alert.

Maybe a plane can drop them from the sky.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

Maybe a plane can drop them from the sky.

i don't know about a letter drop as, it is glen waverley and you'd be lucky if 3% of the population would follow the dogs. The idea is that people from the entire eastern suburbs can use the opportunity to sign up and get an autograph. Although i think it could be a good idea to advertise at the glen shopping centre prior to the event.

I don't have a problem with the date (ie january) i just think the club wasn't up to it's usual standards in getting the word out this year, as they have been with a lot of things.
This could be because they are under staffed due to other committments, or perhaps a change in staff?

What i'm getting at is that this should be pencilled in the calender permanently and the club should push each upcoming event the same way. The website, magazine and emails can do the job fine but for the east west day there was nothing.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

One easy way of getting the word out is to utilise sites like this. It wouldnt cost anything and would have hit 140 members plus any guests that just visit the site. There is heaps of inexpensive ways of contacting members.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I appreciate the discussion provided so far, the club can't change what has happened, they can only move forward.

If 25 percent of the club members provided their email details on their membership application, that would have been well over 6,000 people who could have been contacted directly by a push of the button.

Would you mind the club contacting you by email about important events?

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I appreciate the discussion provided so far, the club can't change what has happened, they can only move forward.

If 25 percent of the club members provided their email details on their membership application, that would have been well over 6,000 people who could have been contacted directly by a push of the button.

Would you mind the club contacting you by email about important events?

I always get emails from the club.

Looks like this:

[LostDoggy]

Re: Communication failure - East-West day

I got that email too.

And just got another dated the 31st Jan