Hi everyone, hope you’re all doing well! Every now and again I like to let people know where we are as an organisation so that people can feel informed about what we do and what’s to come from SheGulls. So, to coin a popular football journalists’ catchphrase, here we go…

SheGulls Structure – Several fantastic people have been heavily involved in SheGulls and helped us to develop to where we are now. I believe it is time to recognise them with positions within the organisation that reflect their input.
Ben Atkins will become our Chief Research Officer (CRO) utilising his knowledge of football, the women’s game and Brighton & Hove Albion, to assist in day to day activities. His support from the outset enabled the foundations of SheGulls to be built.
Claire Highton-Stevenson will become our Chief Communications Officer (CCO) responsible for public relations and growth of our existing supporter community. Her gregarious nature and passion for the game makes her an obvious choice for this post.
Joe Sayers will become our Head of Audio/Visual (HAV) continuing his valuable role as producer of the SheGulls Podcast and directing our upcoming video content. The catalyst behind Albion Obsessed, his experience in the media space is invaluable to us as we move forward.
Jo Davis will become our first Honorary Board Member in recognition of her outstanding kindness, generosity and assistance to both SheGulls and her fellow Albion fans. A former Brighton & Hove Albion player, Jo is a fixture at games and is also part of the club’s Fan Advisory Board.

Fanzone Takeover – I’m not sure if I’m allowed to officially call it that (yet), but yes we will be back in the Fanzone prior to the game against Chelsea at the Broadfield – Sunday 2nd March. Kickoff is currently scheduled for 3pm, so we should be there from 1.30pm onwards. We’ll have flyers, song sheets, posters, stickers, copies of She Kicks for the kids, and some fun new bits and bobs to give away – so please come see us! In even more exciting news, all things being equal, we will be joined by the Fan Advisory Board, Proud Seagulls and Her Game Too! Told you we were taking over…

Away Travel – Some of you may be aware that there was some form of travel to the away games at Liverpool and Manchester United, despite there being no ‘official’ option. The Liverpool coach trip was sponsored by the aforementioned Jo and was hugely successful as both a fan experience and an exercise in showing the club that there is appetite for travel North of London. The Manchester United trip was arranged by Claire as a car sharing enterprise, which was equally successful on a slightly smaller scale. Thank you to everyone involved in both journeys for your dedication.
As a supporters’ group we encourage the club to look into extending the range of their official travel options, whilst also acknowledging the barriers and costs involved. SheGulls will continue to support and promote alternative schemes where possible in the meantime. I would also add that club arranged travel has increased from one game to four this season – and prices have been subsidised with the addition of Kissimmee as a sponsor – so progress is being made.

Songbook – We continue to invite people to submit new songs or chants to be included in the SheGulls Songbook. The page is available via this website so in theory anyone with a phone at the game should be able to access it and join in! If you come see us at the Fanzone before the Chelsea game we might even have a handy way of directing you to the right place, quickly and conveniently!
A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed so far and to everyone who makes an effort to get the crowd going at our games. It’s a brave thing to do – please don’t think it goes unnoticed.

BeGulls – We announced our dedicated section of the website for younger fans late last year, including bringing the beloved Scooter on board as our official mascot. Rest assured we haven’t forgotten about BeGulls! However, due to increased requirements in other areas of SheGulls and a month without the internet due to moving house – the full launch will be moved back to the Summer when I can give it the full attention an endeavour like this deserves.

Julie Hemsley Interview – Some of you may know that we had the immense pleasure of interviewing former Albion player, coach, manager, England Lioness, and first ever female FA Council member, Julie Hemsley, at the end of last year. Aforementioned delays have meant that this footage has so far remained unreleased, but we will have news on this soon and a release date via YouTube is pending.

The FSA – We continue to work closely with the Football Supporters’ Association and I always grateful for the support Debs provides as part of the FSA Women’s Game Network. Our next meeting is early February so I’ll feed back to you what I am able to in the following days.

Media/Interviews – One of the most frequent questions we get is why we don’t have more interviews with the players – be it in person or in written form. There’s two parts to this answer – the first is that they are busy people in general and finding adequate or convenient recording times can be challenging – the second is that we haven’t been permitted or invited by the club to do so as it stands. Hopefully this is an area we can make progress on as I am allowed to participate in the press conferences and I don’t believe I have embarrassed myself yet!

Fan Survey – That’s right, the second annual SheGulls survey will be available to complete very soon. If you’d like to have a say, or voice your opinion about the club, travel, parking, atmosphere, food, merchandise, or even about SheGulls – please do give us a few minutes of your time so that we can gather as much data as possible. It is our intention to collate and analyse this information for presentation to the club so your submissions will be crucial to that work.

I think that is all for now, but if I have a brainwave later on I’ll let people know I’ve added something.

As always we aim to continue to build this fabulous community around Brighton & Hove Albion women’s football team. Are we perfect, no, can we do everything we wish we could, no – but we do what we can, when we can – and I would never ask any more than that of our volunteers.

So thank you to them, and of course all the fans, without you both SheGulls would not be where it is today.

Always a pleasure,

Duncan x