Guest Post by Paul Christmas (Joint Chairman of WHUISA)
I attended the West Ham Supporter Advisory Board meeting on 24/01/2017 at London Stadium and the attendees were as listed on the minutes (https://www.whufc.com/sites/ Over 200 people from our 600 strong membership took the time to send their points of view. The documents filled 2 A4 files and I took every response into the meeting.
On behalf of the members I made a number of your points during the meeting with examples to hand on each topic which are listed in the minutes. I was able to speak on to your behalf but had a huge amount of information.
Twice I was asked to hand over all documents from the membership which I did not do. I was not going to provide the club with your personal data. Further the consensus of opinion amongst our members was that many people had previously written to the club and had not received a response at all. I include myself in this as I sent a registered post letter to the chairmen in late December which has not been acknowledged. On this basis what is there to say there would be no response to our evidence? I was not prepared to pass everything to the club without a check and balance being made on your behalf. This is supported by the club admitting they had problems handling correspondence from fans from the start of the season and had now changed their system. However this should not have happened in the first place and the club should have been ready from day 1 in the new stadium to cope with queries. That damage has now been done and is one of the reasons why WHUISA was formed in order to take fan’s complaints direct to the club and get answers relayed back to them without them being lost or left unanswered. West Ham is one of the few major clubs in the country that did not have an official supporters association or Trust.
We now have one. WHUISA are pro-fan and not anti-board. We want to help the club with the issues raised but with the large volume of paperwork and the ‘devil being in the detail’ I was not able to get all points across in the meeting. To this end I have requested a meeting with the club to present our evidence in a formal manner which can be fed back to you byWHUISA and the club working together in an agreed and appropriate way. I await their response.
This was my first SAB meeting and I was left wondering for the future of the SAB. It is well known that a week earlier there was a meeting between the club and West Ham oriented websites / bloggers and internet TV. If, as we were told the SAB ‘is the forum for going forward’ why is there ongoing direct contact between the club and this group? Surely they should be part of the SAB? By being separate and having first chance to meet the club surely this undermines the credibility of the SAB and what it is meant to stand for.Further a meeting between the club and this group has been earmarked for April a full month before the SAB are due to meet again at the end of May. I questioned this and requested that the SAB meet monthly to get a firm grip on the issues but this was not forthcoming. It was stated at the meeting the intention would be to merge the 2 groups but with separate meetings already planned it seems this will not happen until next season which seems too late.
Further due to firmly established nature of the association WHUISA politely requested but were not afforded a 2nd representative at this SAB meeting. Taking an active part in the meeting and taking notes is not easy for 1 person at all. This will be why there is a delay in getting this to you as I work full time and have other responsibilities. However as can be seen from the minutes Bondholders had 3 reps while Club London, East Upper, East Lower and Bobby Moore Upper each had 2. Disability supporters were rightly represented by 2 people due to the differing nature of disability. It is understood some groups attending the website meeting in the previous week also had 2 or more representatives.
The SAB is the club’s primary form of direct correspondence with its fans but I was unsure on behalf of whom a number of SAB members spoke. The group has come from previous meetings and being hand-picked. During the meeting the gentleman representing the BML made a point about the outer coverings around the pitch which was very commendable. However as a season ticket holder in the BML I, and indeed anyone in the group of 40 who I go to the matches with, did not know in advance he was representing the BML. There had not been any chance prior to the meeting for us to meet / put forward any views or opinions we may have had.
I shall state very clearly now that I am not singling this man out at all for any criticism and he was not at any fault in any way. He has been put in this situation by the club.This also applies to other members of the SAB, for whom I have the utmost respect for, at the meeting. For the majority at such a high profile meeting it was unclear exactly on whose behalf and under what mandate they speaking for during the meeting. I, on the other hand, have 600 people I represent and had sought their opinion and received over 200 replies. I thought that the new SAB would be about people speaking on behalf of a significant number of fellow fans. To this end I can understand the 2 SAB members speaking on behalf of fellow disabled people and I think it is disgraceful that there is not an official disability supporters association. I encouraged all other SAB members to join WHUISA so the fan’s voice could be heard in the correct and proper way through official channels with openness and transparency. WHUISA have asked for more people to come forward to represent other groups in the West Ham family and have been contacted by a disabled person while we would be happy to have the 2 reps at the meeting on board.
WHUISA has structure and integrity. We are a new association but are ready to work on the issues facing us all in the new stadium through open, honest and productive channels of communication with West Ham United Football Club as well as to foster a relationship of accountability.
WHUISA shall update you when we have further news but in the meantime your feedback on the above issues is most welcome.
Paul Christmas
Joint Chair
WHUISA.
Very good Paul.Thanks for using your limited spare time to do this for other fans.
Im struggling on one point though “WHUISA are pro-fan and not anti-board. “.Ok all well and good but how does that work when Nigel ‘Its my party and i will cry if i want to’ Khan is one of your head honchos.Jesus wept he is one of the biggest anti board/Brady men around.Going to stay impartial for the sake of the fans is he.Do me a favour.
Oops Kahn, apologies
I think you will find Nigel was anti move more than anti board,if you can differentiate between the two Billy.I dont know,im not a mind reader & really dont want to know what goes on between Nigels ears tbh.Its probably a place not many want to go 😂😂
Whatever you think about Nige at least he’s always had the same point of view! Better that than jumping on a bandwagon to make yourself feel popular because you need to be part of the crew 😃
I lost all Faith at the time when they were going to invite the thousand people that had replied to an email 2 go and have a meeting with them they cancelled it I think three times in the end and then just picked who they wanted. Unfortunately it is what it is now. What you have to remember is the majority of Us were supporters a long time before they were here and we will be a long time after they go
Divide and rule also comes to mind
Well like it or not its a valid point isnt it and Billy certainly aint the first i have seen on sites mentioning it.Im sure the guy only wishes to do good but it isnt surprising some are sceptical.Frig me it was only last week he was parading his Brady Out flags on another site.Why the hell wouldn’t some be sceptical.
I couldnt care less whos in WHUISA myself,im sure they will all do their bit for us.
the man who is the most disrespectful & rude when it comes to others views has come over all sensitive.Dont like it when the boots on the other foot eh!!
On a scale of 1-10 in my priorities in life who is on the whuisa comittee is about -40.Fair play to them for what their trying to achieve but i really couldnt give a f*ck who is on it.Im sure they will choose 10 men brave & true to take the good fight to the enemy lurking beyond the ramparts of Little Miss Big Knockers Castle 😁
Youve got to laugh havnt you.One comment from Billy & its drama city.As for the kind gentlemen who says there are t****** who post on here maybe he should try looking closer to home when using that term.
This is a classic example of divide and rule.
First, invite the bloggers so that you can disseminate your propaganda, then separately handpick a selection of supporters who overwhelmingly represent no one but themselves. They may be good men and women but if they don’t have a means of formally collecting fans views and representing them, then they can only represent themselves. I suspect these latest initiatives are a response to the development of WHUISA and are an effort to control its impact. All fans should support an independent group to represent them or accept that the club will always drive the agenda and respond to feedback only when they feel like it and in a way that suits them, as they have done to date.
All credit to Paul Christmas, he is making a serious effort to reach out to all fans and ensure their complaints and feedback get properly presented to the club and that the club, in turn, responds. That is worth supporting and fighting for. Probably all the other special interest fan groups (eg disability) would be better off being a part of WHUISA, There would be much greater strength and influence in solidarity. A properly constituted and representative body is much more powerful.
I had no interest in joining because I don’t believe their agenda. The fact Nigel is on the committee confirmed that thought. I have nothing against Nigel as he is a fan of the club I love but I don’t want him representing me. He is anti the move, anti the board and anti just about anything West Ham these days. He would have us move back to UP if he could, demolish the LS and drive the current owners out of the club. I don’t need to email Nigel to have those facts confirmed as he has stated them many times.
The post by Paul above is typical of what I expect it’s just in your face aggression. WHUISA will always find something to ***** about. Nigel’s article on the WHUISA site is anti SAB and now Paul’s article here is dissing its members. Why should the WHUISA have its own meeting with the club? It only represents 600 fans, Sean represents many more on C&H as indeed do all the blogs who attend the blog meetings. Of the 600 members you have many that just joined because they wanted to join like it is the Tufty Club. One said I’ve joined my wife and kids too to swell numbers!
I have nothing personal against the WHUISA or Paul and Nigel and good luck to them but I get fed up of constant sniping at the club and owners and everything I’ve seen so far from the WHUISA is just that
Oh and the business card is rank bad taste being modelled on one of the ICF’s calling cards. Grow up lads it’s no longer 1978.
You are here now however and you have £3,000 of members money in your bank account so good luck! Stop preening with self importance and if I may suggest try to get invited to the blog meetings as personally I think they will carry the most weight representing many fans such as KUMBs 22,000 members. It is the blogs that get the true feedback and people like Upthejunction and Sean that can relay that to the board.
Finally for what it’s worth I think Nigel should be unbanned from here as I’d be happy to debate with him on here. His views are polar from mine but he seems a decent lad.
I believe there is room for everyone John and a number of organisations represent the fans including KUMB, WHTID and Claret and Hugh. C&H have 54,459 registered members on the website as it stands today and we are officially associates of the Football Supporters’ Federation and listed on their website.
It is true we are not affiliated with the FSF as we have not been democratically elected to represent the 54,000 plus fans but at the moment neither are WHUISA. They have an interim committee which includes Nigel and Paul but have promised to hold proper elections when they reach 2,000 members at which point anyone can put themselves up for election to the permanent committee.
At that point the members can vote in the same committee or replace them including Nigel if they want. It is democratic organisation whose members will ultimately decide on the leadership and the agenda.
I support the aims of WHUISA and hope they can come to an understanding with the club over future dialogue and participation in meetings but I am mindful these guys and gal are the interim committee and they shouldn’t be burning any bridges too early before a permanent committee is elected by the members.
We are all part of West Ham’s family
Sean can I just say Paul seems a nice lad and I like Nigel’s desire and the fact he does defend his position and as GW says above he sticks to his beliefs. I simply would not want him to represent me as our beliefs are so far apart. I also believe from the articles I’ve read here and on their own site the WHUISA simply want confrontation with the club for their own means. As I say for me I’m happy being represented by you via this site at the blog meetings (whether you like it or no lol)
Nigel is no longer banned and has promised to behave himself 😉
Lol well done Sean.Not sure that Nigel & behaving himself goes hand in hand though 😂
Lmao nice one Sean. If he decides to post you will have to move this thread to the top. It will be fun winding him up if he must behave