Having now had the opportunity to reflect on Saturday and the comments received both directly and via the forum I feel the necessity to comment (sorry)
There are no group of individuals more committed to this Football Club nor more aware of the need to attract both new supporters and additional revenue than the Stewards, who I would remind you again are all volunteers. I find the criticism of the Stewards totally unacceptable and, to be honest very sad.
As has been posted elsewhere the Stewards, in addition to the duties set down in the Safety Procedures Manual (necessary for the Safety Certificate and therefore the operation of the ground) now cover supervision of the Car Park and also the Bar Door.
The Club has a responsibility to provide a certain number of reserved parking spaces for Match Officials, Sponsors, League Officials, the list goes on and without the sterling work of the Steward(s) doing this work, and I would remind you all being abused by people who cannot access the Car Park any more, the Club would fail in its reponsibilities on this issue.
The Bar, as we all know is a great source of Revenue for the Club and therefore its potential should be maximised. Unfortunately the Bar needs a licence and there are requirements incumbent upon the Club as conditions of that licence (together with the Safety Certificate) which necessitate the presence of a Steward on the Bar Door whilst it is open and, in fact until it has been vacated.
Also, very sadly there are people who come in to the Bar area who do try to ‘sneak’ through the back of the Bar thereby gaining entry to the match without paying. Again the Stewarding presence stops this from happening.
Maybe some other kindly individuals would like to assist the Stewarding Staff with these two tasks?
With regard to Saturday and the comments not only of ‘Cult of’ but also comments made to the Stewarding Staff and myself personally my personal views are as follows.
I concur with the need to attract young supporters into the ground but it cannot be at the cost of current supporters. Many people who have been coming for many years and are ‘guaranteed’ sources of both support and funds quite clearly were very unhappy with events on Saturday and some have indicated that, should these events become too recurrent they would seriously consider whether to continue to provide the support and consequent revenue to the Club.
If an individual parent brings their children, perhaps with a friend or two then in the majority of cases they will, quite correctly in my view, take steps to ensure that the children are adequately supervised and not permitted to run about shrieking and disturbing other people.
I strongly believe that, where groups of children are invited, such as was the case on Saturday (in my view a very positive move) it must be made clear to the accompanying adults that they are expected to exercise a degree of supervision over their charges.
On Saturday the Stewarding staff were put in an invidious position, complaints from regular supporters were responded to by polite requests to the Children to sit down and not to disturb the enjoyment of other supporters. These requests were generally totally ignored and when the Steward(s) spoke again to the Child they were accused of being heavy handed. I personally asked two young children to sit down rather than stand blocking both a staircase out of the stand and the view of other supporters and the away bench and was told , by a parent, that they were only kids and that I should leave them alone.
I feel that the poster who suggested that, should a Child fall down the stairs and injure themselves the Club would not be sued is being, at best naïve and at worst blind to todays litigious society and, what happens if a child careering around the stand trips an elderly spectator who then falls and sustains a serious injury (fractured hip etc)? Do you think that the Club would be excused any responsibility for that?
It has been suggested that the Children be accommodated in the Family Stand, excellent idea, that’s what it’s there for eh?
Sorry, slight problem – the sponsors who sit in there complaining to the Stewards about the noise and their enjoyment being disturbed.
If, as certain posters have suggested the Children should be welcomed and it is the responsibility of the Stewards to control them without upsetting them or their parents then maybe they’d like to volunteer to help next time we have an influx such as Saturday. (MarkEcky, Ballers, SW over to you)
Phil,
with respect there's not been any criticisms of the stewards in this thread. The only thing I can see is kidlad on page 2 asking whether it would be better if the stewards allocated them an area of seating and wathced over them. Now that's not the stewards job I know but it's not a criticism, nor is it such an outlandish idea if you don't work as a steward. i.e. some people are getting a bit irritated by kids running up and down the stairs, well who does suggest that they sit somewhere else or who does ask them to sit down. It's not really my place as a normal punter to do so is it. Only the stewards could really do that i think.
Neither did Ecky criticise, he just siad that the door doesn't need to be opened really when there's a fire door next to it but if you want I'll man it wiith Gary if it helps matters.
I can see why the stewards felt put in a bit of a position on saturday, fair enough,but I think a bit of this is the stewards feeling undermanned and undervalued. That's fair enough, don't we all want a bit more tlc?
- Guys I know you do an awesome job, your professionalism and training is a credit to the club and gave me faith that we would always be back here - seriously when we used to go to Unibond grounds and their token gesture was a luminous bib on a 7 year old ballboy I always reflected on the fact that we're a proper outfit, Rays excellent ballboy group, the stewards, the presence of a St. Johns ambulance hut etc.
What I'm saying is that we have 3 groups going in 2 stands, schools, sponsors and grumpy ol...resident stand dwellers
but you can't really cut back on either of them. The thing is when there are large groups being admitted their is less likely to be guardian control. I think on schools outings the adult to child ratio has to be something like 1:5 - in a primary school where there is possibly only 1 male teavher you're not going to get 5 female teachers giving up their saturday afternoon, why would they, there'll be stewards there won't there
Maybe the solution is too offer 5 free adult tickets to groups of 25 children, if it brings parents down who wouldn't normally then so be it. But for some people to complaina bout their pesence is a little off, like I say in a football ground you don't choose who else is there or if they can make any noise or not. That's not a particular criticism by the way Cult, clearly if kids are disturbing peoples view etc someone needs to have a word somewhere and I'm well aware that if a kid fell down the stairs we'd have our arses sued, absolutely no doubt.
I don't know, it just seems a touch negative. Maybe what's needed is a steward (and I know we barely have enough) who is in the stand to be a child specific steward, not to be forever chasing them around but to be introduced to the parents/guardians associated with teh group beforehand to strike up a relationship (wahey
) with them, explain the situation about the health and safety to tehm and when tehy are running riot just quietly have a word with the guardian who they are on good terms with. Otherwise guys it will look like you're jobworths when you go over to the kids, as this thread shows perceptions are different. And as a teacher I acn assure you that if you start on 2 kids sat in a gangway quoting health and safety legislation you might as well be speaking dutch to them.
And if Ecky, myself or I dunno Karen Rowley/Bill Coop did it we'd just be the organiser person that it wouldn't necessarily be as effective. DO you see the halfway house i'm getting at here?
Yes, yes, yes, I know it shouldn't be in this section but nobody will get to read it otherwise. Don't move this message Gaz, think of it as your birthday present to me. Birthday was Tuesday and we all know what an enjoyable day that was, oh what a lovely start to the day 
