Further to this year’s role appointments, Matthew Batten has taken on the Women’s Team lead, and is keen to engage with Reading FC Women fans from across membership – you contact him via matthew.batten@star-reading.org.
We recognise that this is a very important role which we have not been able to do as much as we would have liked on – although in recent years we have actively lead on engagement with the Club to challenge the decision to move to part time, and with the Club and wider football stakeholders through the withdrawal from the Championship and moving to Tier 5. We still know we can and do need to do better in this space.
We know from within membership there is a lot of appetite to help out, but less so to join the board. We completely understand that with this being a voluntary role, it can be quite the commitment. As a volunteer network, we sometimes need help – as this work develops it is likely we will become more ambitious and that may require more work than we can do by ourselves. If you have interest and think you may have capacity and ability to help STAR really deliver in this space, please do get in touch with Matthew so we can deliver the focus on Reading Women that it deserves.
For now, Matthew is keen to understand from you what issues are at the top of Reading FC Women’s fans agenda. Please do reach out to him.
He is also keen to build networks, so he can be proactively engaging with the membership and fanbase so he is representing them to the Club, the media and the local community appropriately – on the matters that are important for the Women’s fans.
Since taking on the role, Matthew has already been in contact with Emma Hopkins and Chris Berry from the Community Trust, who are very welcoming of engagement with STAR. Coming from his work on trying to reduce the impact of the withdrawal from the Championship, alongside his involvement in Sell Before We Dai Matthew has built a good network across football – and is already engaging with the FSA Women’s networks and Women’s supporters Clubs/Trusts.
While personal life means Matthew will not make every Reading FC Women’s game, he does have a season ticket and hopes to make it along at times – and looks forward to seeing you there.