I've heard DC is good at finding out facts.

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"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Stephen Hawking

"The overweight"?!

Point?

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QuakerSam ...Once a Quaker, always a Quaker

I don't understand it. How and why are the overweight a group to engage with? I get the others but this one seems random. It's like engaging with the underweight or maybe people with brown hair?

Probably down to the growing problem of obesity in the country - i don't think there's a growing problem with underweight people although it obviously does exist it accounts for a much larger percentage of the population.

And last time I checked, my brown hair wasn't an issue.

It's about community engagement not community correction though surely?! So by your logic (that the club are going to work with fat people to make them slimmer/healthier) are they going to work with the old to make them younger and the disabled to make them more able??

I get the engagement thing for all of the "distinct groups" other than the fat people one. Surely this is about listening to what the groups want from the club in order to bring the society and club together in a football sense. I just can't see what the point is in engaging the club with the overweight. Is it in case they would prefer wider chairs and plenty of half time food?

I've been reading this forum for years, but don't feel the need to comment on every thread.
I took offence at your Murders FC jibe. There are a lot of Liverpool fans in Darlington, including myself.
Keep your hate for other clubs off this forum.

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Our Football Clubs are for life, not just for business!

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WTF are you on about?

Some overweight people, through exercise and healthier diets can become healthier. The club could (I've no idea what they are planning) run fitness classes which will help overweight people get fitter. Raising the profile of the club in the community.

If the club can run classes which make the old younger then I don't think we'll ever have to worry about money ever again!

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Ok, I'll keep it simple for you seeing as you can't separate my serious points from my more tongue in cheek examples.....

This concept seems a confused mix of 1) the understandable element of wanting to engage with the community to shape the club and 2) wanting to fix deep rooted problems with society. 5 of the groups fit into section 1 and the overweight thing fits into section 2. Normally in life a plan, strategy, mission or whatever needs to have a very specific,well thought out purpose. Please don't get your knickers in a twist because I dared to only agree with 5 of the 6 points.

Here is another flippant example... Maybe another group to engage with would be the poorly educated! We could raise the clubs profile by educating people! Wow!

Ok, I'll keep it simple for you seeing as you can't separate my serious points from my more tongue in cheek example.....

The concept isn't just about getting more people through the turnstiles. It's about raising the profile of the football club in the community, and creating good PR for DFC by hopefully improving the community. Not all of these things will be directly aimed at getting people into watch. The hope no doubt is that long term events like a fitness boot camp and interview skills training will encourage people to give the club a go. I believe some of the events will aim to help restore links between the club and the town.

I'm certainly not getting my knickers in a twist because you "dared to only agree with 5 of the 6 points". I just thought your post was illogical.

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Surely it's obvious that these 'groups' of people are identified by some funding stream that we want to get some money off. When applying for grants etc they often have identified 'groups' as part of the criteria for applying.
I didn't read anything other than that into it.
I think SOME people (on here and at the meeting last night)need to stop trying to find ulterior motives for why 1883 are doing things, we need to trust them, help them, advise them what we know (if it's truthful and HELPFUL) ask them questions out right if we want to know something and just jump on board it's going to be a fun season (fingers crossed!)

No, it's not obvious. In fact it goes out of its way to point out that it is purely just to engage with these groups in order to get them on board. It's not even hinted at that it's a revenue stream. And even if it were its a bizarre one at that to have income to a football club from making fatties thin and giving jobs/skills to the unemployed.

Let's face facts the club are struggling to survive as just a football club at the minute so let's leave world peace and African poverty to other people and focus on a select few core issues.

Of course there may be a plausible explanation, unfortunately the people blindly defending it seem to know as much as I do about it. Hopefully someone close to the strategy can elaborate...

The thing is, I don't think "making fatties thin" (as you so delightfully put) and giving jobs to the unemployed is solely about making money (although I doubt 1883 will be doing anything which costs the club much money). It's about positive PR, and trying to repair some links with the town (as DFC has quite a bad reputation with many in the town). Long term of course this may lead to increased attendances.

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

To move forward as a CIC we have to actively engage the community of Darlington as a whole. Not just the footballing community.
Regulations and guidelines are set down by the powers that be that 1883 (us) have to adhere to and that would be the community engagement list already commented on.
Its not about getting more bums on seats, its about us going out into the community and doing our bit.
In doing this is does open more revenue streams for us, we`ll be able to go out and apply for grants etc hence the reason (I think) we`ve gone down this route.
However all along since a fan takeover was proposed it was always about becoming more active in the community and this proves this is the way forward

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@Charliejovi on twitter

I have some sympathy with these comments.. my personal view is that the CIC is a good thing but is most effective when you engage on one strand. For me, getting the youth involved with the club is the top priority but with this you generate other spin offs i.e child obesity, football for the disabled etc. These sort of outward looking objectives have started to creep into work objectives. The key thing is to keep it simple and keep it relevant to football and package it appropriately. There are many things of benefit to Darlo that also have community dividends. Let's just go about our business but look for activities that have a social dividends. Stenhousemuir is an example of a CIC. No mention of solving poverty or saving the environment in their mission statement. Check the video.
http://www.stenhousemuirfc.com/cic/

A good example locally is Deano's matchday programme for youngsters. I also think we should do a charity day.

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This empty sanitised shell of a stadium, a cathedral to the vanity and narcissism of one man. It’s very difficult to fall in love with football amongst the rows of empty seats. The notion that a stadium has worth beyond its potential commerical value or it’s proximity to transport links – as a spiritual repository of the hopes,fears and agonies of generations of supporters, or as a physical manifestation of the football club in the community, is a dying one in football (Sam Volkman)

Agreed. Get a healthy and successful core then branch out into peripheral bolt on activities but not before. Football with a community spin, not community with a footballing spin.

Aye, football is the focus. Football still has mass appeal so it is a useful lightning rod. As a CIC we would be obliged to provide an annual report. There are certain activities that are no-brainers, kids coaching etc but some other things of interest are the RESPECT campaign around schools. I am also interested in racism in football. Check out the Canterbury city topic.

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This empty sanitised shell of a stadium, a cathedral to the vanity and narcissism of one man. It’s very difficult to fall in love with football amongst the rows of empty seats. The notion that a stadium has worth beyond its potential commerical value or it’s proximity to transport links – as a spiritual repository of the hopes,fears and agonies of generations of supporters, or as a physical manifestation of the football club in the community, is a dying one in football (Sam Volkman)

Just don't appoint the obnoxious keyboard warrior Mazz/Jazz as Community Liaison Officer and I'll be a happy man.

Oh shut up you tart, it would be a pretty strange turn of events if they did, wouldnt it?

You should do the job - you could use your experience as a Liverpool fan to blame everyone else whenever we fuck up.

I think he's talking about himself, not you tman?

Jazz/Mazz=tough keyboard warrior

Why are you talking to yourself in here?

We want to engage with them as they eat/drink the most and therefore generate more profit on matchday, it is a common sense approach, if we can get 'them' past the chippy first that is.

Though with Darlo_Pete likely to be loitering in this area talking at message board regulars calling them by their first name in a self satisfied way this should remove any such obstacle.

Jazz maverick please pack in the Liverpool bashing. It's pointless and annoying to read.

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Shut up yeah mate?

If you don't mind it'd be appreciated .

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Thank you , bushead for being the calm voice of reason....

Why are you dragging this out you massive weirdo?

I assume you like to dwell on things without looking at your own failings, but this is odd.

You don't even know me or those others you slag off on a regular basis. This wouldn't be dragging on if it wasn't for your nasty, inane, vitriolic horrible comments. This site would be well rid of you in all your forms.

You seem a little obsessed mate, outside of this thread I can barely think of a single time we've crossed paths so god knows what I've done to upset you.