Last week, HawksF5 announced that it was restricting some information to fully paid-up members only. Some of you thought it was a great idea, some of you thought it was a bad idea. Some of you even accused us of being elitist! Perhaps we could have announced it in a more positive light or maybe approached the subject a little differently, but for whatever reason it has left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth so I thought I’d write this post (off my own back, and as an individual). Let me start by explaining where your money goes: Your money goes towards supporting our players. It’s a simple as that; whatever we raise over a season goes directly towards helping that fine squad of men that devote their weekends to play for the team that we all love. Whilst the Hawks are a proud and successful club they are, in the strictest of definitions, an amateur sports team. Blackburn Ice Arena does an excellent job of organising everything Hawks related and the Mohawks Supporters Club admirably raise funds to provide equipment and support for the team and the players but ultimately if a player breaks a stick during a game then it is he himself that will have to replace it and should he get injured whilst entertaining us on a Sunday evening, he still has to get up on a Monday morning to go to work and put food on the table. Earlier this season David Meikle picked up an injury that required some attention. An appointment with a physio was arranged by HawksF5 and it was paid for by money raised through our members. Last night, two of our players left the game early as a result of injuries. Should they require any assistance then they know that they can approach HawksF5 and we will support them in whatever way we can. And so back to my original point, we are trying to raise our membership numbers so that we can better serve the players we cheer for every weekend. Some people saw last week’s development as ourselves trying to make our services “pay-to-view”. That simply isn’t the case; we are merely trying to provide perks to our membership in an attempt to persuade people to join our organisation. We could have had t-shirts and badges made to give out but, as a group, we decided that putting our money towards the players was more important than trivial giveaways to entice people to join. Without spending any money, the only things that we can offer to entice members are the services that our volunteers provide. If you were to pay £10 to join HawksF5, the players would see £10 worth of benefits from it and as a member you will have a say in how that £10 is spent. In fact, why stop there; as a member you will have a say in how we spend all of our funds, such as the general donations that we receive or the profits that we make from running “F5 Party Buses”. As an organisation we have plans for things beyond hockey such as raising money for Cancer Research, social outings as a group and even an F5 holiday. Our financial situation is as open as possible and everyone can see where every penny goes. If you don’t wish to join HawksF5 then you don’t have to. You can still use this Facebook group to discuss all things Hawks and to catch the latest news, the radio will always be free to enjoy, our party buses are open to all and the player interviews and (soon-to-be) game highlights that appear on the big screens in the arena will be available to everyone no matter what happens. We just want to try and give you a say in all of the things that we do and in all of things that we are trying to achieve. If you would like to be a member or if you have any issues or concerns that you would like to discuss further then please do not hesitate to contact me or come and speak to me on a Sunday. In case you aren’t fully aware of who to approach, I’m the Che Guevara impersonator with the microphone in the big glass box. Oz Phillips Chairman, HawksF5 Independent Supporters Group
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:02:46 +0000
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