I’ve been a Football Club member for many years and more recently the “Screaming Eagles†as and when it was introduced.
The benefits I receive are wide and varied and include discounted access to games both home and away, cheap transport to away games, discount on merchandise and priority access to finals and SOO tickets.
Over the years I’ve been invited to coaching clinics run by Des and Dennis Moore, Been offered the opportunity to put questions to the management and coaching team via the official members site, my daughter was selected to run out the team against Parra at the SCG a few years ago (when that was a draw for junior members) and I was recently invited to represent the club at the members forum at the SFS where I was able to raise a number of concerns to Messrs Gallop and Annersley.
During the season I receive regular emails regarding team and club news, get access to the MWTV site to see training sessions, post match press conferences etc and I’m also able to access a “members only area†at after game functions where I get to chat with the players and staff.
I've met all manner of people from around the country through the official forum and am pleased to now call many of them mates.
I know the management reads the MWSE forum on a regular basis to \"listen\" to the fan base and it is not uncommon to see Grant Mayer post on there from time to time.
During the current World Cup I know that members have been offered free tickets to games.
Whilst the workload to the membership team seems to increase each year I’ve found Aaron, Grace and Alicia to be pro-active, friendly, helpful and keen to do what they can to assist the membership base.
During the season they work under enormous pressure with limited resources (both time and money) and often against very tight deadlines – I know from experience that the job sometimes involves very early starts and very late finishes and can sometimes mean no real day off for weeks on end.
The club has shown a number of initiatives to tailor the membership to fit people’s wants and needs including a range of memberships for people from “out of town†and also “breaking†the benefits down so that the package is more of a “user pays†type offering.
The club organised all manner of events for members last season including 2 great functions in QLD (Titans and Broncos) that were massively attended by local and travelling members alike where they had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the club management and also players both current and “Old Boysâ€Â.
I know many people that assist the club in all manner of ways from sponsorship through to turning snags at fan days.
There are many who assist as volunteers with such glamorous sporting essentials as “Stuffing envelopesâ€Â, giving out the Eagle news at the game and selling raffle tickets to help raise much needed funds – These people give up their free time to do what they can and are the life blood of many clubs – True supporters to my way of thinking?
I have no problem in the current economic climate with people who simply can’t afford to get membership but to be hyper- critical of the people who do so much for the club they love (both those who are employed or volunteer their time) and to underestimate or devalue the importance of the funds that membership brings is (I think) sad considering our very recent history.
Interestingly, I often find that non-members are usually the people who are so vocal at their opposition to media ownership rather than the game being owned by supporters……..
