 Welcom to toffy tv, I am joined by jazz ball, who is the chair of the Everton fan advisory board. There is a lot going on at Everton at the moment. There was a letter put in last week signed by a lot of fan groups, ourselves included. There has been a lot of talk at the moment. The fan base is, yeah, it's angry. And we're looking at people like you for answers, I think, because just before if anyone doesn't know, just give us a very, very quick, brief overall view of what the fan advisory board is supposed to do. OK, so the fan advisory board got set up in July, early July, we all met for the first time with the aim of having sort of strategic involvement in key decisions at the football club to make sure the fan's voices are heard. At all level, at the highest levels in the club. Now, as you've only created in July, it's taken a little while to get organised, all the non-glamorous things, constitutions, terms of reference code of conduct, all the sort of things that make us organised. So over that period we've been meeting monthly. We've also had two quarterly meetings with Everton. So the first one was in July when we first met and then we had nothing in October. But we're finally, at the end of November, we got to the stage where we were finally there or there about to start doing some sort of meaningful stuff. So if you look at what we have been doing in November, there was obviously 12 months from the fan-led review. So that's obviously a strategic issue that's going to affect all teams in England. So that came up to an all-party parliamentary group that was taking place on the 15th of November down the House of Lords. So in advance of that, we were lobbying local MPs. We were asking them to make sure, well, we were asking them to one attend this APPG for football supporters. And we were also asking them to support the full embodiment of all the recommendations of fan-led review. And on top of that, Julia, our secretary, actually went down to London and attended the meeting and asked Tracy Crouch direct on behalf of Evertonians about the timeframe and the white paper and whatever else. And one of the things that came out of that meeting was that there would be an independent regulator. Also in December, when the ticket prices were released about Man United, we obviously felt a bit aggrieved because normally in the Premier League, across the Premier League, it's got agreed in 2017, got re-voted last year that all our weight of fans will only get charged £30. That sort of happens a little bit in the championship on a reciprocal basis. So if clubs have that agreement, they can put a price cap on it. And it's obviously very disappointing to see that we're either going to get charged £45 or £46. So we sort of got together, put our statements out. That got a lot of attention. On the back of that, we also wrote to the FA, to Mark Bollingham, the chief guy there. And now we're set up a meeting with the director of public relations for the FA. So we're going to be meeting with them. And then also in December as well, we've got to the stage now where we absolutely recognise the movement at the moment and fans' sentiments. And let's be clear, none of us are happy at Evertonians at the moment. You know what I mean? It's not one to beat around the bush. You show me at Evertonians who's happy that we're at the bottom of the league. You know what I mean? I'll say, he's a fucking cop. I said, ooh, I had my friend. But you know what I mean? None of us are happy with who we are at the moment. So not trying to take anything away from the campaign then it's now or anything like that. But in effect, they've done their letter, you use the sound up to it. And it's gone straight to Masherry. Asking the owner questions about sort of replacing the chairman, the board, the executive. Where the fan advisory board sits, where, as opposed to taking a view, where an organisation that has to represent all fans. Now individual members of the fan advisory board have strong opinions. You may see on social media that some of these accounts have signed up to the NSNOW statement. So I think all that makes it a broad church and obviously helps the conversation go. But where we sit is, we speak with the highest levels of the club. So we've got an opportunity now to canvas this fan opinion. I didn't just want to, or we didn't just want to take it off Twitter because we want to meet fans. We want to see what they got to say. And we want to hear it from the fans mouth in effect. We want to speak to all Evertonians, give everyone the opportunity to tell us what they think. To give us questions that if they want the mask and direct of the board, give us them. And then we'll take them to the club. Now, because we deal with the club at the highest levels, I'd like to think that that would elicit a response from the club. So I suppose that's the sort of background to what we are, how we got to now and obviously in terms of the meetings that were just announced today that will be going forward. Yeah, it's, you know, you are deemed as a shadow board in a way. That's always been the same, hasn't it? And I suppose you're right, you've got a, maybe neutral's not the right way, but you are right. You've got to represent all fans, haven't you? And you are giving the fans an opportunity. There's going to be two face-to-face meetings. The first one is this Wednesday, 7pm at the Blue Base. And then on Sunday at one o'clock in the hot walk, which a lot of people will appreciate that. And just on that, so ideally we wouldn't have had it in any sort of club real estate because we want to maintain our independence. So obviously this, it's only came about from last week, last Thursday. We committed that within two weeks we would have had these sessions, but because of the short timeframe, St Luke's is unavailable, for example. So we want to make sure that we had a fully accessible venue so that these sessions that we're having are inclusive. And the Blue Base was probably the natural choice there, even though it is officially, after the community of real estate, it is fully accessible. And a lot of Beds and Members, for example, go there on a match day anyway. So, yeah, we had to, I suppose a happy compromise of where we could have it. To be honest with me, I don't think there's any issue with it where it is. To be honest, the Blue Base should be open for things like this. It is a community, it is for the Everton community, as far as I'm concerned. It should be a place where fans, there's too much, there's too much of this, us and them thing. This is our football club. These people might own it, but this is our football club. The Custodians, the Custodians. Yeah, there shouldn't be this idea of an us and them situation, especially as you're the people who are going to represent the fans and all the fan base. So I think it's absolutely spot on there is, and the hot wok is just for added food. And we all like food. Yeah, we all like food. So there's two meetings that people can attend. Can people just turn up to the East? So they can, but we'd rather people go on and touch with us purely so that we know what numbers we're expecting. We're not going to be keeping any data or whatever else. It's purely in terms of, in fact they haven't even asked for names, but just ask for people, if they are attending one of the face-to-face ones, just ask them to get in touch with us. So some people have just done it on a Twitter handle and that's fine. However, for the virtual ones, they'll probably come on to in a minute. Yeah, there's two virtual ones. Thursday, this Thursday at 7pm on Zoom, and on Monday at 7pm as well on Zoom. So how do people get involved in that? So again, so add the demos or send an email to chair at afc-fanadvisieboard.com. Now we are asking for names and email addresses on that, but that's more to do with sending out all the links to the meetings. And as soon as the meeting's held, finished whatever else, then all the personal details will be getting scrubbed. So yeah, and when the hot wok won, there'll be people registering because they'll probably just want to put their order in for them. So what are you looking to get out of these meetings? Okay, so number one, we're not there. We're not the club. Okay, so we're not the club. We're fan representatives, I suppose. So what we want to do is we want to give every other tone the opportunity to come to us and tell us what their current thoughts are about the club. If they want to ask questions at a club, give us the questions. We're not there to argue that it's hot or anything now. I've obviously been sort of in and about working with them for a little while now. So I did three years on the forum before coming here. So I've got like a little bit of exposure in terms of the club's articles of association, for example, and stuff like that. So if the way the conversation goes, I won't be speaking on behalf of the club, but I may be trying to draw out information that I'm privy to and just to make sure it's a bit more structured so then when we do present it. For example, the articles of association say there's going to be three executive members on the board. So if people say sack the board, I'll say, okay, well at the moment just explain who's on the board. The articles say we need three executive directors and just try and tease out a few questions on that just so that it is all structured and that way, at least when we present it to the club, it's more likely to listen to the gods. Ultimately, and I've said this on shows, we've done it. Sack the board is a very general thing to sing. You are trying to get a point across, but there is more to it than that. There is obviously legal stuff that has to go on. You can't just get rid of a board and not have a sitting board at a company. You need to have board members. Because I found this is that people tend to say things that aren't always true and then it gives the club an opportunity to come back and go, you said this thing, which is not real, we could never do this, or you lied about that or you gave an incorrect fact about this thing. See it all the time. People try and get a point across by maybe going a little bit over the top. Just to illustrate that, I've seen Alan Shearer last week from whatever managers and he said like, we've been through nine managers on the far of the Shearer. That immediately gives the club a chance to come back and go, we haven't done that nonsense. So everything else you're saying is nonsense. It gives them an opportunity. So it is important that you do get people to understand what can happen and what is right and what is wrong. As you say, it's about presenting a case, a series of questions, statements to the senior levels of the club, the board, the executive board, so that if it's done in the right way, hopefully that will elicit the response. That's what we want. Ultimately, we're not happy. You can't hide facts. If you look at the accounts and you see years and years and losses now, there may be lots of different reasons for that. That might be because the recruitment wasn't smart and they did the big figure numbers that you see. You can't get away from the number of managers we've had. There's lots of truths that you've got to be a realist about. These are all facts, not just making them up. So it's just about having a conversation with them in a way that I imagine they would expect. They're not going to... Number one is you're expecting anyone from Everton at these meetings? No, no, no. So if that was the case, it would be Everton's meetings. It wouldn't be ours. But to give you an old analogy of when I was in the army, so we used to do duties in the mess hall, and you go round and see the private soldiers and ask the food, and like that, it's shit. Why is it shit? Because it's shit. Now, if you go in at our level with that, you're not going to get in from out of the Maya, but if we went back and said, he said the chicken was undercooked, the fries had been on the hot plate too long, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you're being constructive with it. Yeah, I get that. No, I think what you're saying is spot on, because I think there has to almost be two plans of attack here. Fans will be there on Saturday voicing their opinions after the game. You'll be supporting the team through the game, before the game, after the game, and they'll want the media attention. The club don't respond to stuff like that. Well, what I mean is on the face of it, they don't respond to that. They're not going to send someone else, they're just going to have a conversation with someone about what they're doing. It's great. It gets media attention, and I think it's absolutely spot on. People should be protesting if they feel like things are wrong, and that's in all ways. But what you're doing is... We will never tell any Evertonian how to spot Everton. No, no, no, and that's what I'm saying. There's different ways of attack. There's that way which drives on, which the media can attach to, and then the media can start asking questions as well, which is what they obviously are at the moment. And then there's the other plan is obviously yourselves finding out what the points are. Because like I said, sack the ball is such a broad thing to say. Get into the fine detail that then you can then go and speak to them. And whether people like the fans for them, whether they like what you're doing with the fab, they are here, they are representative, and it's important that... I always think public meetings are huge. It's the same thing I said last week too to the guys from NSNOW. It's like you've got to go and speak to people. Twitter isn't real. You've got to go and speak to people face to face. And in terms of the meetings themselves, there will be a sort of three part of it, I suppose, an introduction, so we'll tell people who we are as the fab. I mean, what we plan to get out of this session. The second part will be just an open conversation that we may be probing a little bit of information, but all that's going to be getting scribed out. And then at the end of it, the summary of the meeting, we're going to turn round to everyone who's attended and share what we think the feedback is, so that it's all agreed by everyone who's been there. Now, what we're not going to do is share each meeting's notes immediately, because we don't want a sort of limit conversation for the future meetings. However, once all four meetings have taken place, we'll be doing a consolidated summary, and we'll be publishing that, and we'll be sending it to the board or to the senior level. So everybody who has attended the meetings will have had the chance to agree on what the meeting outputs are, and they'll also be able to validate that they have been captured in the actual summary. I think this has got to be the number one question for you. Do they have to come back to you, the board? They don't have to, but ultimately, the club has been very supportive of the fan advisory board. So I genuinely feel that if we do this in the right way and present structured questions or what have you, they'll be in a position where they have to engage with us. No, because I think that's really important, because fans are asking questions now. There was obviously a letter put in last week. No response at the time of recording. The media are asking questions. There's absolute silence from the club. There's no one talking at the moment. We'll have to wait till probably Frank Lampard's press conference on Friday to hear his thoughts. He's not really giving thoughts out on it, because he's the manager. He's under enough pressure. I think for me personally, what you're doing is brilliant, because it's an avenue that is open to us now. We should be attacking from all fronts, because all we want is the best for every football club. Like you've just said there, this is something that hasn't helped to set up. So they should play into it, and if they don't play into it, then it gives us as a fan base more ammunition to say they are simply not listening. They're not listening at any level. To be clear, this isn't the first time this has happened. Rewind 12 months or whatever, for the forum, in the previous guys of the forum, at a similar time as last year, wasn't it? When the 27 campaign was there, the originals had their thoughts. If you know your history campaign, the People's Club campaign, and we met with all three of these, and we turned around and we got all the notes and we summarised it, and we presented that back to the club. At the time, the forum was at an operational level, where it'll be different this time, as it's going straight into the top of the club, as opposed to a lower level, and asking them to elevate it if you like. I think it's really important that people, fans, get a chance to speak their mind at all levels, so this is hugely important. Also on that, is your opportunity? If you look at the amount of comments compared to the amount of people who are actually getting in touch, this is your opportunity to come and speak to us and get your thoughts captured. And ultimately as well, a lot of people don't want to go to a match and have to deal with this. They don't want to do that, they want to go to the game and support the team, and this is where there is divisions, where it's about getting the message right and saying, well, I'm going, we're in a relegation battle, people don't want to be sitting there singing, and sack the bourgeois in the game, you want to be backing the team. Which I personally agree with, by the way. While the 90 minutes is on, it's probably the best part of 105 minutes at the moment in it. But while the match is on, let's just get behind the boys on the pitch. I've got no issue with that whatsoever. I mean, when the fourth goal goes in against Brighton, you can fully understand why. So this is an opportunity for everyone, and I think what fans have got to do is be open to everything now and every avenue of attack. So if you are sitting there and you are thinking, do not listen to me, this is an opportunity to go. Wednesday night, seven o'clock, blue base, Sunday, one o'clock, hot walk, or the two zoom meetings, seven o'clock on Thursday, seven o'clock on Monday. There's your opportunity to get involved and be part of getting your voice heard so these guys can put it to the club. And I think that anyone who's got any feelings about what's going on at the moment, this is a great opportunity. Don't leave it, don't leave it in your head. Get to one of these meetings, but we're not asking for names for the face-to-faces, it's just numbers. We're trying to keep a grip on. We don't want the hot walk or the blue base to get in trouble because too many people turn up, for example. I'm the daughter so we can get chairs set up and whatever else and that, but please, please, please come down and tell us what you thought of. Brilliant. All the d-cells will be in the description of this video. Get over to the... Watch your Twitter account for the... So it's EFC underscore fan advisory. There you go. We'll re-suite all that as well. So big thanks for jazz to coming in. Tell us all about those meetings and let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure you get in touch with the guys if you're going to the meetings as well. There you go. Thank you for watching. See you later.