Fans' forum

Access the fans' forum website: www.charltonfansforum.co.uk

The role

The role of the fans' forum will be to convey the views of supporters to the club to ensure that Charlton continue to address issues that supporters care about.

Previously, the elected supporters' director had direct input into the football club board. Now, though, the aim is for the panel to ensure a wider, and more representative, pool of opinion to greater inform the club as it makes a host of decisions.

Chief executive Steve Waggott said: "The plc board was determined that a direct link between the fans and the board should continue and that the opinions of supporters should be heard at the highest levels of the club.

"We feel the new forum will be an improvement on the old role, because not only will it share the workload around, it will allow the club to hear more views and allow the club to better communicate the thinking behind decisions."

The panel is planned to meet three or four times per season, although it's important to note that on-pitch football matters will not be part of the forum's remit, although an informal discussion will take place after meetings.

The history

The precedent of the supporters' representative director began in 1992 when the Valley Investment Plan (VIP) was launched to help finance the work necessary to enable the club to return to The Valley from Upton Park.

The VIP scheme established the opportunity for one of its members to be elected to the football club board to represent everyone who had contributed.

From 1993-2003 this position was held by four outstanding individuals - Steve Clarke, Craig Norris, Mick Gebbett and Wendy Perfect - who participated with great enthusiasm in the decision-making processes of the club.

The end of the VIP scheme then led to an expansion allowing all adult season-ticket holders to vote for a representative in 2003, leading to the election of Sue Townsend and, subsequently, Ben Hayes, in 2006.

The duo, also outstanding, continued to offer sound and constructive input and most importantly made sure the views of ordinary supporters were heard in the boardroom.

Indeed, the club's only two female directors have been appointed via this process, in the shape of Perfect and Townsend.

How did the election process work?

Prior to the expiry of the VIP scheme at the end of the 2001/02 season, everyone who had contributed to the venture had the opportunity to elect a representative.

After 2001/02 the Charlton board decided to extend the process, with the result that the VIP scheme representative became a more general fans' representative.

Voting was open to all of the club's season-ticket holders over the age of 18, with Townsend the first to claim the revised position in March 2003, and this process was repeated at the following election in January 2006.

The previous month saw fans invited to submit to the board their applications to be elected for a two-year period, along with a 100-word statement explaining what they would bring to the role plus 50 nominations from fellow season-ticket holders.

Voting took place online and in person at a polling booth located at The Valley at two home first-team fixtures, and the process was independently overseen by former Addicks elected directors Norris and Clarke.

In summer 2008, the club announced that an election would also take place for three supporter representatives to join the new fans' forum.

In the event, however, it was confirmed that six Charlton season-ticket holders, rather than the three previously planned, would take up positions.

Said Waggott: "If the purpose of the forum is to gather the opinions of fans, and feed them into a format that prompts discussion, then sometimes the wider you throw the net the better, as long as the process is manageable and doesn't become too unwieldy.”

The fans' forum members

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