Strategy Off field ideas (was "Crowdsourcing @ ...")

[76woodenspooners]

Here's the problem ...

If the general opinion of the folks here on BigFooty are representative of the wider supporter base, us supporters see the club as swimming in cash and greedy for more.

Who could blame the supporters thinking that? Diminishing value from membership, Poor quality of expensive merchandise, phone calls trying to sell expensive raffle tickets, etc, etc.

Whereas the club see themselves as more like paupers trying to make a dollar stretch a very long way. I've heard Ed complain about it on a few occasions.

And who could blame the club feeling that way? Putting a competitive AFL team on the park, and servicing a membership of 80,000 people plus hundreds of thousands of other supporters ... And having only $70 million to do it. Collingwood might compare favourably to most other AFL teams, but compared with other businesses of similar profile (as the club does) it's not unreasonable that they feel poor.

This gap between how the members / supporters see the club, and how the club sees itself is only going to get worse.

What to do? How to fix it?

To steal a quote from Heloise Pratt: "It's 2016, Get with the program!"

Crowdsourcing is where it's at.

Crowdsourcing is when you get a whole bunch of people to work together to achieve something on scale. Wikipedia is a pinup crowdsourcing project. Often it's voluntary work as in the case of Wikipedia, and sometimes it's not.

We have a membership of around 80,000 people plus many more supporters. All of them passionate . They go to games. They watch games on TV. They spend enormous amounts of time on social media and consuming traditional media.

Collingwood has a huge amount of untapped human capital at its disposal.

Crowdsourcing is not a new concept. Our cheersquad is crowdsourced. Our President and board are volunteers, we have a proud heritage of volunteering at Collingwood (but not sure if there's so much these days?).

What is new about modern crowdsourcing is coming up with innovative ways to mobilise and coordinate people. And coming up with innovative tasks to apply them to.

Crowdsourcing has more benefits - it engages members and supporters in the life of the club. That's what a club is all about, surely?

Of course you can't run an entire club this way.

However there must be plenty of opportunities on the periphery where members and supporters can contribute. What are your ideas?

Poll above

 

[TradeDraft]

Time.

Would like to keep as much Money as I can

 

[76woodenspooners]

An idea ...

Open up the club's media department for use by the supporters to create their own content.

Maybe team up with an education body (Melbourne Polytechnic?) to provide a course around it.

The club could help with providing access to equipment (cameras, studio, editing and sports analysis software?), access to source content (champion data vision?), general support, and publishing content.

Many people might remember the podcasts we used to produce here on BigFooty. It was a wonderful project - different people contributed music, content, recording, editing, publishing, etc, etc. I reckon it was made amazingly well. With access to the club's resources even more could be achieved.

Benefits ...

(1) More Collingwood media content.

(2) Programs by the supporters for the supporters, what's not to love about that?

(3) Being able to target different demographics. A footy program for kids? A footy program focusing on gameplan analysis? A footy program focusing on history? A footy program focusing on drafting?

(4) Members / supporters being engaged in their club.

(5) Members / supporters being trained in new skills (a good news story in itself!)

Consider this ...

There's a YouTube channel called 'Mighty Car Mods' run by a couple of lads out in Western Sydney. It has around 1.8 million subscribers and around 3 million weekly views.

Here's one of their better episodes - nearly 5 million hits.



The commercial networks would be doing cartwheels if they had TV programs that were rating anything like that success.

 

[TradeDraft]

An idea ...

Open up the club's media department for use by the members and supporters to create their own content.

Maybe team up with an education body (Melbourne Polytechnic?) to provide a course around it.

The club could help with providing access to equipment (cameras, studio, editing and sports analysis software), access to source content (champion data vision), general support, and publishing content.

Many people might remember the podcasts we used to produce here on BigFooty. It was a wonderful project - different people contributed music, content, recording, editing, publishing, etc, etc. I reckon we did amazingly well, all the more so considering we're a bunch of anonymous people on the Internet. With access to the club's resources even more could be achieved.

Benefits ...

(1) More Collingwood media content.

(2) Programs by the supporters for the supporters, what's not to love about that?

(3) Being able to target different demographics. A footy program for kids? A footy program focusing on gameplan analysis? A footy program focusing on history? A footy program focusing on drafting?

(4) Members / supporters being engaged in their club.

(5) Members / supporters being trained in new skills (a good news story in itself!)

Consider this ...

There's a YouTube channel called 'Mighty Car Mods' run by a couple of lads out in Western Sydney. It has around 1.8 million subscribers and around 3 million weekly views.

Here's one of their better episodes - nearly 5 million hits.



The commercial networks would be doing cartwheels if they had TV programs that were rating anything like that success.

That sounds like a Pretty Cool Idea and It would keep costs down for the Club as I dare say the Members do it for Free or for Very Cheap

 

[76woodenspooners]

Another idea ...

Organising the hosting of viewing interstate games at the Holden Centre

Rather than charge supporters $55 for a hamburger and the privilege of watching an interstate game on the TV at the Holden Centre ...

Get a bunch of members together to crowdsource the running of the event. Maybe tie it in with some events management training. Maybe team up with a college that teaches that kind of stuff so that the participants can get some recognised qualifications. Maybe there are members out there who already have skills they could contribute?

Events are helped to be run by volunteers the world over ... Fun runs, film festivals, election campaigns ...

And it wouldn't be the first gathering to watch an interstate TV game organised by passionate Collingwood supporters. It happens nearly every weekend of the footy season in most capital cities of Australia.

It'd seem worthwhile to give the members a crack at helping to organise the official club event at the Holden Centre

Benefits ...

(1) Supporters being involved in their club

(2) Getting access to a wider pool of ideas for these kinds of events and having the supporters put their stamp on it (For example, I reckon the footy is more about eating meat pies than hamburgers? )

(3) Wider appeal through social media (Hey BigFooty folks, me, Temploar and 100volt1 are helping the club to host the showing of the West Coast game at the Holden Centre. 100volt1 is putting together a special pump-up video which we'll be showing before the bounce, we'll be baking Temploar 's Grandma's secret meat pie recipe ... Come on down and join us)



(4) Potentially providing opportunities for supporters to develop new skills (a good news story in itself!)

 

[Temploar]

(3) Wider appeal through social media (Hey BigFooty folks, me, Temploar and 100volt1 are helping the club to host the showing of the West Coast game at the Holden Centre. 100volt1 is putting together a special pump-up video which we'll be showing before the bounce, we'll be baking Temploar 's Grandma's secret meat pie recipe ... Come on down and join us)

What the heck!? Even I didn't know she had a secret meat pie recipe!

What are you doing hanging around my grandma anyway 76? Even more so... WHY IS SHE TELLING YOU HER SECRETS AND NOT ME?
I'm telling my grandfather about this new development. You're tearing this family apart 76.

I thought you were my friend, it looks like I'm a fool.

 

[jmac70]

I vote for 76 as our next CEO.

 

[Kappa]

I vote for 76 as our next CEO.

Probably knows more about footy than most of our board.

 

[Jasper84]

With the current climate on here, we could probably concentrate all the hate and harness it into some sort of mega death ray. I hear world enslavement is very lucrative these days. Or we could just heat up people's porridge. There are no bad ideas.

 

[doodles98]

There are some seriously good ideas in there '76. But the problems with legal liability and the risk that entails to the club would be a very major impediment to such supporter empowerment. The club and AFL are hugely concerned with image and PR. As was seen with the anti-muslim banners at games, there are plenty of supporters who we really don't want anywhere near these sort of things. How do you vet it?

 

[Baltimore Jack]

IMV, we don't represent the wider supporter base in fact we are unrepresentative of them.

 

[Scodog10]

I'd do both given the opportunity the problem is the opportunity isn't there. The club really isn't all that inclusive.

For instance say I wanted to get access to behind the goals footage and while we're at it the GPS data to help explain a few issues we're having to posters in an effort to lower the temperature somewhat (given I'd say BF, Nicks and FB forums are the most vocal detractors). I email the club asking to meet someone to access said data what sort of response do you think I'd get?

As a supporter base we're treated like mushrooms kept in the dark and fed s**t so whilst it is a noble thought you've presented 76 in reality unless you plan to apply for a management role with the club in the near future it probably isn't worth discussing.

FWIW I didn't vote because I couldn't choose both.

 

[76woodenspooners]

... It would keep costs down for the Club as I dare say the Members do it for Free or for Very Cheap

Totally agreed TD

What do the club want money for? Often it's to spend on hiring people to do stuff? So let's cut out the "raise money to hire people" part and go straight to "get people to do stuff". And the supporters will bring their passion to the task. Can't do this for every role at the club, or even for any of the existing roles. But could potentially create a swathe of new roles

 

[76woodenspooners]

What the heck!? Even I didn't know she had a secret meat pie recipe!

What are you doing hanging around my grandma anyway 76? Even more so... WHY IS SHE TELLING YOU HER SECRETS AND NOT ME?
I'm telling my grandfather about this new development. You're tearing this family apart 76.

I thought you were my friend, it looks like I'm a fool.

It was you who told me about it!!!

Back when you were surfing the fast food joints of Craigieburn vowing never to eat McDonalds again, you mentioned that you wished your Grandma would simply bake you one of her secret recipe pies **. Remember?




** Or I could have just made that up to get me out of a pickle

 

[Vicky Park]

76, terrific left field thinking, as always.

Picking up on doodles98's point about liability, and Scodog10's point about the club not being inclusive, some of your ideas could take root and flourish outside the club, or perhaps with club support and sanction. That might also be a way of vetting what goes on (doodles98 again), because sadly I think that has to happen.

Crowdsourcing is an amazingly successful phenomenon. Can't recall an example of where it has been applied in footy, although a proto-version (pre/social media) could have been the campaign to save the Western Bulldogs years ago, started by the little kid who donated his pocket money.

I feel that with potentials such as this, and the impending women' league (not related, I know) great change is afoot in the AFL. I want Collingwood to be at the forefront of such change. I hope the CFC Board has some visionary members, because we need them to be. To pass ideas down the line to the dour corporate Perts of the world.

What could be the first project?

 

[Vicky Park]

IMV, we don't represent the wider supporter base in fact we are unrepresentative of them.

Interested in why you think that BJ.

 

[Temploar]

It was you who told me about it!!!

Back when you were surfing the fast food joints of Craigieburn vowing never to eat McDonalds again, you mentioned that your Grandma would simply bake you one of her secret recipe pies **. Remember?




** Or I could have just made that up to get me out of a pickle

I know what I said and that was not one of them. Into the slammer you go!

 

[76woodenspooners]

But the problems with legal liability and the risk that entails to the club would be a very major impediment to such supporter empowerment.

Yeah, I agree, the risks are a major issue.

We couldn't simply fling the doors of the Westpac Centre open and expect these ideas to simply work. It'd take careful planning and management by people who know how to do this stuff.

But it has been done before. There are plenty of successful volunteering programs being run all around the country. Collingwood do have volunteers and have had them right throughout our history.

IMO the world is tending that way, all the more so for not-for-profit community organisations, which is basically what Collingwood is. There is probably even IP that the club could develop around it?

The club and AFL are hugely concerned with image and PR. As was seen with the anti-muslim banners at games, ...

Totally!!!

Even setting aside the anti-Muslim banner example ...

... Imagine the media department helping Shpeshal Ed and Scodog10 produce a YouTube video where Shpeshal Ed looks straight down the barrel of the lens and says "Ya know Scodog, I reckon the time is now for Buckley to go" (Scodog nods). How would the club feel about that??? The club have enough trouble with mainstream media types, let alone 'passionate' Collingwood supporters being given a voice!!

It IS a big minefield. But the benefits are enormous. And Collingwood is essentially a community organisation run for the benefit of the community. It is worth the club asking itself the question "How to make it work?" rather than "Can it work?"

At the end of the day, us supporters ARE the club. There has to be a way to make it work.

... there are plenty of supporters who we really don't want anywhere near these sort of things. How do you vet it?

Yes, I agree.

I reckon the club does have its supporters who cause them grief. You even see it from our supporters' point of view where there are those amongst us that others fund embarrassing (some folks on BigFooty, Cheersquad)

So it seems easier for the club to just keep the whole supporter base at arms length, and vet those who they'll let get close to it by payment for access. Not sure that model can be sustained without alienating the wider supporter base. Maybe it's time for the club to think differently?

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Interested in why you think that BJ.

I meet up with a very wide range of people through-out the week, many of them Collingwood people
None of them say or act in the way people have on this board over the last 2 weeks, in fact almost all of them talk in moderation, recognise we have issues and discuss alternatives without any hysteria or lunacy.
Previously I have mentioned BigFooty to many of them, some say they have heard of it, but I am yet to find any others who post here

I suspect there are no more than 200 hard core posters on this board out of a membership of about 78,000
I don't believe this board reflects the views of the vast majority of the 78,000 in other words, it captures one group within the Collingwood supporter base but is not reflective of the entirety of that base

 

[Anzacday]

Now this is a thread worth reading.
Well done 76woodenspooners

 

[76woodenspooners]

I meet up with a very wide range of people through-out the week, many of them Collingwood people
None of them say or act in the way people have on this board over the last 2 weeks, in fact almost all of them talk in moderation, recognise we have issues and discuss alternatives without any hysteria or lunacy.
Previously I have mentioned BigFooty to many of them, some say they have heard of it, but I am yet to find any others who post here

I suspect there are no more than 200 hard core posters on this board out of a membership of about 78,000

I know what you mean, and I have had similar experiences myself.

It's pretty easy to read BigFooty and conclude that Collingwood supporters want Buckley frogmarched out the front doors of the Holden Centre in disgrace. Already.

But when you really look into it, it's only a small fraction of BigFooty posters who actually think that way. And they seem like the vocal minority because those who disagree would prefer to simply wander out of the thread or off BigFooty altogether.

If somebody created a thread poll "Should Buckley be sacked after round 4?" I believe the results wouldn't correlate with the venomous green bile currently being spewed in Buckley megathread.

I do believe that BigFooty posters are reasonably representative of the wider supporter base. It just sometimes takes some heavy duty filters to appreciate it.

I don't believe this board reflects the views of the vast majority of the 78,000

Compare with AGM's as an example - the folks who technically vote for our President and board - look around the room at one of those. Do they look anything like the crowd you see at the footy?

 

[mattys123]

I meet up with a very wide range of people through-out the week, many of them Collingwood people
None of them say or act in the way people have on this board over the last 2 weeks, in fact almost all of them talk in moderation, recognise we have issues and discuss alternatives without any hysteria or lunacy.
Previously I have mentioned BigFooty to many of them, some say they have heard of it, but I am yet to find any others who post here

I suspect there are no more than 200 hard core posters on this board out of a membership of about 78,000
I don't believe this board reflects the views of the vast majority of the 78,000 in other words, it captures one group within the Collingwood supporter base but is not reflective of the entirety of that base

I think forums like Bigfooty, EBW and Nicks are a fair representative of the Pies fan base.

And here's why;

Go to a game, how many fans actually yell out and how many sit there and just clap politely unless something extreme happens? It's the same on the forums. Only a small percentage actually post regularly (the noisy fans) while the rest either post scarcely or not at all, and are just viewers.

Thus while the content on here may not appear to be a representative of the fan base, overall it is, because you have the same tytpes who support the club, be it at the game or on TV/Radio, on the forums also.

I offer this thread as an example on Nicks;

http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?t=79641

More "viewers" than actual posters.


Edit;

As for the topic on hand, I believe the club can do more to get fans involved. And it's not just the club, the AFL could do more too as a brand. It seems the fans are no longer stakeholders in the game, we have very little say on rule changes or anything else that changes (prices, venues etc).

The AFL fans association tried to get off the ground (Joffa was part of the movement) but it doesn't seem to have gotten far.

An actual fans representative on the AFL board, or at least in regular contact with the AFL heads would greatly benefit all involved.

Another area is commentary. How annoying are modern day commentators? I'd rather be able to press the red button and listen to 2-3 Collingwood fans, absolute randoms, call the game than listen to BT, Dwayne, Bruce or Basil spill their inaccurate, over the top dribble each week.

There are ways to include us fans, but it isn't happening.

 

[76woodenspooners]

Another idea ...

Decorating the Holden Centre

How long has it been since the posters of past heros have been updated around the Lexus / Westpac / Holden Centre? (Dunno)

Poll the supporters about how they want their club to be decorated?

(A) The 1920's (pics of the machine team)

(B) The 1950's (pics of Kyne, Lou, Rose, Weiderman & co)

(C) The 1970's team (pics of Hafey, Ray, Greening, Carman ... )

 

[76woodenspooners]

Another idea ...

Membership Liaison / Advisory Boards

I gotta admit, this is a rehashed version of something I posted ages ago.

Have the club establish a set of membership liaison / advisory boards.

Each one would consist of a bunch of members (dunno, maybe 12 to 20 people?) who would represent their particular demographic. They would serve as a contact point for the wider membership to provide feedback about things like the gameday experience, merchandise, membership packs, etc, etc. They would collate and feed this back to the club. They could also provide help to fellow members - members helping members. Which kinda happens on forums like this anyway, but there's currently no support from the club so it can seem like the blind leading the blind at times.

For example, ColinWood posted recently about how the gameday experience has been going downhill for her and her dad. Some of the things she posted about seem like they could be caused by some of the club's recent measures to try and improve the gameday experience (eg Barracker's End stuff). ... Maybe it's just been poorly communicated / planned / surveyed by the club? With a member's liaison / advisory board she'd have recourse beyond waiting on hold for ages to get through to the membership department (for what end?) or posting on a fan forum.

Perhaps different membership liaison / advisory boards could be broken down into the following demographics ...

(1) Primary School Age Kids and younger ... Run by members who are parents, primary school teachers, childcare, etc. This is the age that kids pick their footy club ... for life (for those who have a choice ) These are the members of the future. It's important to consider how this demographic perceive the club. For example - what effect has the Essendon drugs saga had on kids of this age group not choosing to follow Essendon? What effect will this have on their club in 15 years?

(2) Secondary School age kids ... Run by members who are parents, school teachers, etc. At this age kids have settled on their team and are learning about the game.

(3) 18 to 29 ... "Tomorrow's leaders". These folks are the same age as the players.

(4) 30 and older.

(5) Interstate and Overseas ... If we're going to be the biggest club in the land, let's consider the wider land outside of Victoria.

There are a bunch of things that would need to be considered for this. How to govern them? Who do they report to? The club can't just hand out contact details ... How can contact be made whilst maintaining anonymity? None of these problems are insurmountable.

 

[Saintly Viewed]

I vote for 76 as our next CEO.

Agree Gary would be excellent.

(Jokes)
Would be hilarious if he was Mr alert in disguise lol.
Yes 76 would be great