Supporter Liaison Officer

The Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) is a vital connection between fans and the club. The current SLO at Cheltenham Town is Kaylene Isherwood who can be contacted by email: slo@ctfc.com

Kaylene is part of The Supporter Services Group at the Club.

The Supporter Services Group

Kaylene is the full-time Digital Marketing Executive and Supporter Liaison Officer (SLO) at Cheltenham Town. She is passionate about sport and fully converted to a football fan when she moved from the US to the UK in 2018. She moved to Gloucestershire in 2022 and has been attending matches ever since. Email the SLO: slo@ctfc.com

By post: Supporter Liaison Officer, EV Charger Points Stadium, Whaddon Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 5NA.

Dave Beesley is the Fan Elected Director (FED) at Cheltenham Town and vice-chair of the Robins Trust. He was elected to serve a second term as the FED in 2020, having served as a board member of the Club since 2018. He also made significant contributions to the interim findings of the government’s Fan Led Review of Football Governance, led by Tracey Crouch MP. Email the FED: dave.beesley@ctfc.com

Dave Hardy – known to many as Snowy – is the matchday Disability Liaison Officer at Cheltenham Town. He has been involved with CTFC since 1991, working on the gate until 1998. Since then, he has been working on match days in a voluntary capacity supporting spectators with disabilities. He has enjoyed working with the SLO team for the last two seasons and is looking forward to continuing doing this with the new set up. Dave also recently won the Volunteer of the Year Award at the 2023 GCPA Care Awards for his volunteer work at Lillian Faithful Care’s Royal Court care home in Cheltenham. Email Dave: slo@ctfc.com

Chris Russell, Matchday Supporter Representative, has been a football fan all his life. He came to the Robins after many years coaching amateur youth sides locally and volunteers on match days to help answer questions from home and away fans. Chris also works at the University of Worcester, where he teaches and carries out research exploring the experiences of people living with dementia as they participate in sport. Email Chris: slo@ctfc.com

Ade Medcalf, Online supporter representative, has been a supporter of CTFC for the last 15 years when he moved from London to Gloucestershire. He has an absolute love for the club and all those that follow and are involved with it. Recently, he moved to the North East and set up the ‘North East Robins Group’. His most cherished moment was when Cheltenham Town beat Sunderland AFC on a Tuesday night in February 2022. The one thing he misses the most since moving up to County Durham is the fact that he can’t get to as many of the games as he would like to, but when the opportunity arises, he is there. He will therefore represent supporters in an online role. Email Ade: adrianmedcalf258667@gmail.com

Kelly-Marie Selby is Cheltenham Town's Her Game Too ambassador, working to improve matchday experiences for women and girls. She hopes the partnership will not only help give women more of a voice at the club but help to see changes made. Kelly works as the main point of contact between Her Game Too and the club, maintaining a close working relationship in order to develop the aims and ambitions of the movement. Email Kelly: kellyselbyhgt@gmail.com

Sam Lear, founder of Proud Robins, has been a fan for more than 20 years. He is a founder of the Proud Robins and also a Robins Trust board member. Together with the club and the Football Supporters Association he works to ensure that everyone who enters the gates at Whaddon Road feels comfortable, bringing their full and true selves to matches without fear of discrimination.

Proud Robins was launched to support and build LGBTQ+ inclusion and acceptance for fans, players and staff at the club. They are a social group for LGBTQ+ Cheltenham fans, allies, together with their family and friends, providing a welcoming space, as well as a platform from which to raise awareness of, and campaign against all forms of discrimination and equality, and particularly homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in football.

If you would like to find out more about Proud Robins and its activities, campaigns and events, or find out how you can join, please follow them via X @ProudRobins.

The SLO Role

The Supporter Liaison Officer is a UEFA mandated position in football clubs and is strongly encouraged by the Football Supporters’ Association. The SLO role is not standardised and is therefore variable between clubs - at Cheltenham Town this has varied in the past between voluntary roles and club staff roles.

As well as being a link between the club and the supporters, the SLO is also connected to the vibrant community of Supporter Liaison Officers working with clubs across the country – this allows the SLOs to share best practice and experience of dealing with issues that are common to clubs of all sizes.

Whilst the role of a Supporter Liaison Officer may vary from club to club, here is an outline of the areas where the SLO can have a positive input:

Make contact with the visiting Club SLO prior to matchday and provide relevant information for travelling supporters.
Liaise with the Club Safety Officer and be aware of all recommendations and safety information relating to matchday.
Offer to welcome away coaches on arrival and meet the visiting SLO.
Be visible and available to home and away supporters around the stadium on match days, to give information, answer queries and receive feedback.
Actively seek feedback about the match day experience.
Report feedback from fans to relevant party at the Club.
Liaise with away SLOs to ensure CTFC fans have relevant information for away fixtures.
Engage with fan groups wherever possible, face-to-face and using the CTFC SLO Twitter account.
Work with Cheltenham Town and the Robins Trust to establish positive links with current and potential supporters.
Share information that the Club wishes to disseminate to supporters.
Act as a bridge for dialogue and discussion between CTFC and supporters.
Work with other stakeholders e.g.: security staff, Disability Liaison Officer, and the police, as required, to encourage safety and a positive matchday experience for all fans.
Be a point of access for supporters to give them a voice to express their concerns.
Recognise and explore the diversity of the fan groups, and their differing needs and concerns.
Give all fans a voice to express their views and concerns so that the matchday experience is optimised for all.
Make links with SLOs at opposing clubs to promote positive relationships between supporters of CTFC and those clubs.
Answer queries from fans who prefer to use email rather than use public social media as a forum for discussion.
Engage with other CTFC staff to ensure no overlap or unnecessary duplication of work and ensure that CTFC supporters receive the best service possible and consistency and transparency of information.
Recognise and identify gaps in knowledge required to perform this role and take steps to address them.

To contact the SLO please email slo@ctfc.com