Is OUSP Fit For Purpose?

[Carpy]

The recent example where OUSP reported on the non-payment fiasco, and this is my interpretation of events, was a perfect example of a certain Mr Benson playing games. A regular meeting between club officials and OUSP was used, by him, to impart the information that, yes, something had happened and it had been dealt with. Matters of this sort were never seen as pertinent to OUSP (not from recall of the set up) but, and I know this first hand, Benson does not like OxVox. He considers them to be too "political" whereas OUSP, because of their set up and modus operandi, are not involved in the governance side of the club's business. They are there to deal with day to day matters, a conduit for supporters/fans to the club and vice versa. Here was a golden opportunity to ignore OxVox and drop a bombshell on OUSP. Devious, comes to mind.

OUSP, faced with this, obviously very important, information made a decision to publish this information immediately and out of context of their normal minutes. Whether they discussed this with OxVox prior to publishing, I have no way of knowing and nor do I have an opinion on the rights and wrongs of that decision. What I do know is that in publishing the information, this has been jumped on, by those who do not have a taste for OUSP, as being another reason to shout foul, unfairly in my opinion.
Benson has an agenda, he has his own version of the EFL desired Fan Engagement Plan. So far, neither OxVox nor OUSP have reacted favourably to that plan (and that's being diplomatic)

I still maintain that there is plenty of room for both OxVox and OUSP. Both are made up of dedicated and intelligent folk with skill sets to assist both supporter and club alike. ( it maybe worth adding that you also have to be pretty thick skinned to serve either, as I know from personal experience)

Good response, but this further highlights my concern, I’m afraid.

Adam Benson is pretty widely acknowledged as a danger to our club. He doesn’t care how long you’ve supported us, he doesn’t care about our traditions, our culture, our history. He is quite obviously someone who just bulldozes his way through. The very fact that he avoids OxVox is the very reason I feel OUSP undermines the role that OxVox has. My suspicion is that he doesn’t like OxVox because he is fully aware that OxVox has a relationship with the ownership, whereas OUSP, I suspect, does not.

OUSP and OxVox co-existing in a time when we weren’t about to lose our stadium, weren’t facing the inability to build a new home, and weren’t losing multiple millions a year through the generosity of our current owners might have been a perfectly acceptable scenario. But with all of this going on, I don’t think we can afford to have the likes of Benson or Williams picking and choosing who they speak to based on who they like more, or more accurately, who gives them the easier ride.

I have nothing against the OUSP volunteers; they do thankless work, and I know my strong views on this topic may suggest the opposite. But you don’t have to look far to see clubs that are poorly run and in serious trouble (looking at you, Swindon and Reading). OxVox is our best chance to prevent this, and they need to be as strong as possible to do so.

I would just love for them to exist at arm’s length from the club under OxVox (an improved OxVox, hopefully).

 

[BillyTurleys CurlyWurly]

With this further information I hope OUSP treat and have the same respect levels toward AB as he has towards OxVox, fellow supporters of OUFC.

The bloke is a tosspot.

 

[Essexyellows]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this.

As posted by others its another obstacle/filter between us and the senior bods.

When the "Customer Advisory Board" is set up then it will be either OxVox or OUSP as a minority vote on a club dominated board.

If either are to take the supporters representative post then it MUST be OxVox who are democratic and representative of us purely by numbers so have far more leverage than 6 or 7 willing volunteers that get nothing but platitudes from the Club.

If said volunteers want to do something constructive for supporters then volunteer for OxVox.

Please respond via Pumble.

Save the ink, I`ve turned that off on the basis I can read.

The whole premise of the OUSP was to be the thin end of the wedge towards the creation of the Customer Advisory Board spawned from the Crouch Report.

And plenty of people fell for it without having the vision of how they were being steered and, to a large degree, taken advantage of, so the Club can tick a box on the "engagement" list.

We already had a long standing, democratic and independent supporters body who hold a degree of leverage with the Club based purely on numbers.

If we have to have someone on the CAB then it MUST be them.

As for "fit for purpose" the senior bods at the Club palm everything off to OUSP and/or OxVox and fan engagement has actually got worse since the creation of OUSP so make of that what you will.....


PS: Having served on the Board of a national organisation with circa 55k members I might just know what it is like to be the volunteer in the chair, but part of the "job" is to listen to criticism (and there is plenty!) and understand where that opinion is coming from or on what it is based.

The same organisation also had to deal with Parliamentary Committee`s and various legislative proposals and were successful in putting forward strong cases that made the voice of their members heard.

Ah yes, now the updates are chuntering on about the "Fan/Customer Advisory Board".............. who would have thought it eh?

 

[Paul Cannell]

In football as in life. Stop being so miserable and support OUSP.