EDG Members Got Together on Monday
The East Devon Grecian (EDG) had two guests at their latest meeting at the War Memorial Club, Sidmouth. The meeting took place on Monday 29th October. This is a report of that meeting.
Julian was the first guest and he introduced to the Group the second guest Richard Knight, the latest volunteer to join the back room staff at SJP. Richard has two roles:-
The major one is Customer relations generally but also with a specific focus on match days and events at the park. He is very passionate about getting things right which includes working with every member of staff and volunteer at the club. He has organised and ran many training sessions already and hopefully this will help the match day experience for all home & away fans. But he also needs our help. If you see something that deserves praise or a way things can be improved then please contact him via reception at the club.
His second role is Personal Assistant to Julian Tagg:-
Julian Tagg explained that every day he has well over 100 emails to sort through and Richard takes on any of those that are relevant and that he can. These requests are many, wide and varied. Hospitality, signed shirts and footballs, Information requested from fans, The latest Banners and poster designs.Julian needed someone he could trust to get the Job done! Richard has proven time and time again, he has fulfilled that criteria.
Questions were put to Taggy and here is a selection of the debates had within the meeting.
- Taggy discussed the new Tablet computers on the gates. They were needed to generate statistics for each game. He also commented on his own experiences regularly watching the operation of the turnstiles. People obviously older trying to enter as a student or under 18. These tablets will help draw conclusions on each age group attend the games.
- He also commented on how well the gates run even though the majority of fans turn up 5 minutes before kick off which doesn’t help removing the queues.
- His thoughts on catering started with a huge debt of gratitude and thanks for the EDGs who helped clean the huts when the club regained control of the outside catering within the ground. It does again mean the club now have the pressures of getting it right with supply and demand. In an attempt to find a better way forward the senior staff now manage their own kiosks on match days as they have the experience and knowledge from providing the foods and
drinks in the past and they know first hand what the fans want with differs significantly in the different parts of the ground. All catering inside the grounds are managed by ECFC except the Burger stall in red square and the “bloke who sells quality coffee at the bottom of the big bank”. - Taggy explained the extremely difficult job that Pete Evans did particularly well and how grateful he was for it. He explained the all hard work Pete has done over the years in that position and how the club believe the way forward may be to split the role up to a degree. Interviews are still currently under way. The website is shocking and needs a lot of time to get sorted. Taggy has people in mind, and it is a focus of the current interviews, to help the club win back the fans
- One member asked if there was any Interest or financial connection from Ray Kelvin? Taggy expressed that Ray and Paul are very close friends, the interest is seeing his mate manage a team, that is as far as it goes. A resounding “No” then!