How do I give money to the club?

Looked at the application form that I was given on Saturday as I fully intend to buy a season ticket before the last home game (my conversion now complete having played for the Supporters club last Saturday). I realised that it was all very convoluted. Basically, you have to physically take that form to TP and pay with either card (or rather the club will phone you back for card details), cash (unwieldy) or cheque (does anyone actually have a cheque book nowadays?). I appreciate that the club doesn't have full-time staff that you can phone and give your card details to but how about the club advertising the account details so that, at least, existing season ticket holders can transfer money (many people have internet banking nowadays) and put their existing season ticket number in the customer reference? I mean I will probably do all the manual stuff on Saturday but it would be good to have a slightly easier way of doing it.

Also how do I become a member of the Supporters' Society? I can't see any membership details

Comrade Powell provided this on the old forum site

http://www.ilovebathcity.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=361

Cheers Ben. May be worth a Sticky in the Supporters Society section on here.

The information on that link is mostly out of date and is presently being updated by the committee. Hopefully it will be downloaded to this forum in the coming month.

Have you also considered joining the Supporters Club, Marc? Members' subs are used along with our other fundraising schemes to benefit Bath City - around £7k has been paid since August to cover the team's travel to away fixtures.

Marc Monitor wrote:Looked at the application form that I was given on Saturday as I fully intend to buy a season ticket before the last home game (my conversion now complete having played for the Supporters club last Saturday).

Indeed, you passed the first exam (and got to witness a rare sight - me scoring two goals in a game)   

comrade powell wrote:The information on that link is mostly out of date and is presently being updated by the committee. Hopefully it will be downloaded to this forum in the coming month.

Have you also considered joining the Supporters Club, Marc? Members' subs are used along with our other fundraising schemes to benefit Bath City - around £7k has been paid since August to cover the team's travel to away fixtures.

Bloody hell, how much do you want out of me? OK, where do I sign up

If ever you wondered why we find it difficult to attract fans, here it is.
In summary then, we make it almost impossible to buy a season ticket - unless you can decipher the instructions and are v persistent. The guy then asks about supporters organisations and gets 2 different answers, one with an out of date link on an out of date forum. The official twitter account has not made a tweet since December. I can't see any entries on the Face Book site "No stories to show". The website looks like something from the '90's

No offence intended to all those putting in a lot of effort but I fear its wasted and you are just talking to each other and those 'in the know'. It needs coordinating and sorting to make it an asset to help the club grow. We need to make it easy to follow Bath City through any channel so that we can acquire new fans and retain those we already have.

A couple of points here, RM.

Firstly, I am a bit of a dufus so often miss simple directions.

Secondly, as always with this board, I often get PMed instructions. However, you have to know to find your way to the board so your point stands about new supporters.

Thirdly, and perhaps more importantly, I have brought up in the past the club's issues with marketing and publicity a few times in the past and it is one of my bugbears. On a small level, I try to attract fans and, even, sponsors and sometimes it feels like I - and anyone else trying to promote the club - is doing it despite the club. However, while this was an issue with the last administration, it appears that the new chairman etc. are trying to get this sorted for next season. Taking over a football club that is pushing for the play-offs and keeping that on the rails is, no doubt, really hard just to keep going on a day-to-day basis.

In some ways, I am glad that there isn't some short-term quick fix and that the club are looking to get the marketing and publicity sorted long-term and in place for next season. Part of the problem of the last management was that they were all about the short-term and never seemed to looking beyond its nose and invest time and money in the longer-term projects like the website, Facebook, Twitter, publicising further afield than Twerton etc leaving it to volunteers who have little time for large scale endeavours. I would rather see a long-term view in updating all these areas and getting them in place for next season and beyond . Yes, this does mean that a lot of momentum from the excellently pushed and attended "Pay What You Like" match may be lost but, in the long-term, it may pay more dividends than one-off promotion days (like the awful Polish one).

If it gets to next season and all this issues that you mention (along with publicising at the two Unis Freshers' week fairs rather than thinking about it in October when it is too late) aren't done then I would agree with you but I get there feeling from the club that this isn't the case.

Thanks Marc
It all sounds encouraging. Do you (or does anybody else) have any idea of who owns the responsibility for this if there any specific plans or actions in place? Or is it just a generic thought that something must be done. Not doubting you. Just looking to establish some substance or ownership of your assertions. What is the source of your information for example?

Well, I am not sure that I want to name names as I don't want to talk for other people, rather let them do it for themselves if they wish. Also I am not exactly sure where the responsibilities lie so don't want to attribute them incorrectly. However, it has been people who have worked in and for the club as well as discussions with other people that have concerns about the same issues as you and I and have been in discussion with the club. I think that the "wait and see while everything beds down" line was mentioned in a couple of threads on the old site.

Really, you don't have to take my word for it and I could be being fed a whole load of flannel and we won't really know for sure until next season.

Roman Mike wrote:The website looks like something from the '90'.

90s retro is very much in at the moment   

It certainly is - Fiat has only just introduced the rounded lozenge shape or squircle as they call it.