Today I have received an e-mail from Widnes VIPs thanking me for joining. They say they are pleased with the take up so far!
I have to say I am really disappointed to see the membership so far is only 111 people that will raise just £20,160 per season towards signing new players or help retentions. I know all about the cost of living crisis & that many families are struggling but did think many more than that would sign up. Less than a year ago membership of the previous scheme was 1,000 people. With 90% leaving it makes me wonder we would have been better sticking with the former scheme. Some of it may be down to no longer being able to afford the monthly donation but I bet quite a few people have just not got around to joining up. I just hope if the latter is the case that people do sign up sooner rather than later. The former scheme raised a really significant sum & we need to get at least somewhere near that former membership otherwise our squad size & quality will undoubtedly suffer.
I’ve joined but I haven’t had a mail from them yet, but that is a shocking statistic.!!! I can’t believe that number it just seems so poor from a club that is at the moment so forward thinking and has the support we have. What a bummer, where are the other 900
111??? I’m shocked that so many have decided to not join again,Looks like it may be the end of the scheme before its restarted…Very sad
That number doesn't surprise me at all. There has been little-to-no publicity, and what there has has been awful.
Incredibly, there's been more information sent to the previous members about the delays, problems and techniclities of setting it up than there has been promotional material about the aims, benefits and how VITAL any new scheme would be in making the club competitive again and challenging for SL rugby.
The scheme was initially talked about as being brought in-house as a club-run, professionally coordinated scheme and from the outside looking in it appears to be a quickly re-hashed VIQI with very little credentials of any sort. When people are challenged for money, they aren't going to be queueing up to donate to something as seemingly haphazard and off-grid as this.
Given that it seems to be the only option, I also think the CLUB should make a lot more noise about just how critical that scheme was last year and how big an advantage it would be if the numbers were anywhere near the previous levels. It was the one thing that gave us hope of not becoming Whitehaven...
It's not club run, that's the point. Agree about the communications of it, but it's only just started and it took VIQI 20 years to build up to the level it did. A far better solution would have been for those at VIQI to pass the baton on to new people to run - only they'll know why they decided not to do that.
@jdgsport I know what you are saying James but it was put on the Club site news board when it launched.
The fact the organisers say they sre happy with the numbers today is concerning & will not encourage other people to join up.
The new committee may well have plans for more publicity but to say they are happy with progress so far is not a recruiting message.
Do people on here not get it's Christmas,the country is on its arse and people are struggling??
But it's more important to waste their hard earned on a rugby league club.
🤷♂️🤦♂️
A far better solution would of been to have passed the mail addresses’ over to the new group so they could ask them to continue to assist with their contributions. There are nine hundred missing contributors, something not right there.It's not club run, that's the point. Agree about the communications of it, but it's only just started and it took VIQI 20 years to build up to the level it did. A far better solution would have been for those at VIQI to pass the baton on to new people to run - only they'll know why they decided not to do that.
@martin maybe people have better things to spend their money on 🤷♂️
Your probably right JJ but there was about 1000 (during hard times) paying till it folded and I would have thought surely more than 10% would have rejoined. After seeing my smart meter running haywire this last week I can understand where their monies are better spent👍👍@martin maybe people have better things to spend their money on 🤷♂️
@martin I'm sure it will pick up but atm the way things are I'm not surprised.
A far better solution would of been to have passed the mail addresses’ over to the new group so they could ask them to continue to assist with their contributions. There are nine hundred missing contributors, something not right there.It's not club run, that's the point. Agree about the communications of it, but it's only just started and it took VIQI 20 years to build up to the level it did. A far better solution would have been for those at VIQI to pass the baton on to new people to run - only they'll know why they decided not to do that.
There are probably legal reasons why Viqi couldn't do this, I'm thinking of GDPR which doesn't allow you to pass personal information to third parties without permission. Viqi possibly could have emailed every member and asked for permission to pass on the information and just passed on those that gave permission.
I joined in November but money was not taken till December, if that’s happened to a lot of people then I suspect the number may increase - hope so, we need over 500 to be worthwhile
If these figures are correct then this might equate to the squad being 3 players light which would have been funded through VIQI?
I was a member of VIQI, but haven’t joined this scheme.
Primarily, my interest for the club just isn’t there any more. I can’t get excited for mid table Championship rugby and it doesn’t justify me putting money into building a squad for poor rugby (in my opinion).
I’m also not too happy with certain aspects of how the club is run.
Also think there should be more information put out there why VIQI just disappeared. Did they know something about the club we don’t?