On Thursday night, representatives of Section 8 Chicago, the Fire's Independent Supporters' Association, met with owner and club chairman Andrew Hauptman to discuss the present state and future of the Fire.

We put across our belief that for the club to grow its base of supporters and have a passionate sold-out stadium, the Fire's leadership needs to increase its level of interaction and responsiveness with fans. The day-to-day relationship between supporters and the front office has improved recently, and we discussed how we can progress towards a stadium-wide supporter base engaged with the club through open leadership and steps that will increase the club's inclusiveness.

In the meeting, Fire ownership emphasized that they understand and share this vision, and will work to take the necessary action to achieve it. Ownership acknowledged that in the past, action has not always followed words, but that there was now a personal commitment from Andrew to ensure our goals are met. We were pleased that Andrew offered to pay for the replacement of the lost megabandera himself, and that he acknowledged the club needed to communicate better to promote the club’s successes and respond to feedback when the club falls short.

We discussed several short and long term goals, and ownership expressed to us that they are committed to the following:

• The creation of a Club Charter outlining the rights and responsibilities of supporters and the club, to be completed and signed before the start of the 2010 season.
• The institution of regular "town hall" meetings with season ticketholders for open discussion about the club, with the club chairman planning to appear.
• An exploration of how supporters can be more involved with the club, including consideration of club membership and recognized supporter representation.
• Growing the supporters' sections and realizing the goal of Section 8 Chicago's mission statement to "to unite all Chicago Fire fans, to create a dominant in-stadium force unseen in any American team sport and to establish a home-field advantage whenever the Chicago Fire play".
• A jointly approved replacement of the lost Megabandera, to be paid for by ownership.

We believe that through these steps, a culture of mutual respect can be established and we will be able to improve the engagement of supporters with the club in a positive fashion. We hope this will help ensure that tradition, honor and passion remains the hallmark of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club.

We appreciate the time taken by Fire ownership to discuss this, and look forward to working further with Andrew and the Fire’s leadership to achieve our shared goals.