Update on GT FB Recruiting Initiative

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I've given to roll call every year since I graduated (20+ years), but it wasn't until I joined this board almost 2 years ago that I realized that Roll Call was NOT connected to the athletic association in any way and the Ath Assoc requires a separate donation. I have since started contributing to both, but to echo the post above, would not be if it weren't for this board. I was a more "casual fan" before the 14 Orange bowl -(I went to every home football game when I was a student, but living out of state, can only make one game a year now), but I think I would have been willing to give earlier if I had known.

I am really surprised that you are only now realizing that the Roll Call is totally separate from any athletics donations (AT Fund). I got out in 1966, and it was made clear from the start that the two donations were totally separate and unconnected.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

@gtmegafan
As we go foward Cant we get the various AA clubs around the country competing. I had to move from houston to fla to get any info on gt football

Hell, I live in Augusta, GA and we don't even have an AA club here. Count yourself lucky to have found one. In Augusta, it's the mutts or nothing, club-wise, merchandising-wise, and media-wise. Beating the number 15 team in the country (Miami) last week didn't even get us mention on the TV sportscasts here, and only a minor little blurb in the newspaper.

 

[iceeater1969]

Hell, I live in Augusta, GA and we don't even have an AA club here. Count yourself lucky to have found one. In Augusta, it's the mutts or nothing, club-wise, merchandising-wise, and media-wise. Beating the number 15 team in the country (Miami) last week didn't even get us mention on the TV sportscasts here, and only a minor little blurb in the newspaper.

IMO
If presented with a commitment by gtaa to recruit in Texas and with use of Alumni Association list , Texas would raise more than Florida and south ga.
The major city suburban schools are all top rated in football and academics
Lots of big city kids who know about Gt

I went thru south ga on business a few years ago. Of course I wore Gt shirt. I found zero Gt folks at restruants, motel, gas stations. But boy oh boy did the "regular folks " all have their uga gear. No sidewalk fans here. Recruiting in south ga with academic issues and uga competition has to be tough.

 

[Vespidae]

First, many thanks to Ibeeballin for being an early mover in getting our initiative known on this site and to the moderators of this site for their patience while we worked out our communication plan and allowing me on to help inform the board.

I'm working with the GTAA on this initiative in the capacity of lead donor/advisor/cheerleader, and I really appreciate the enthusiasm with which this has been received thus far by members of this board and other boards. It's clear that there is a genuine desire amongst the GT Fan and Alumni community to see our athletics department become a leader in talent identification and recruiting, and Todd is committed as AD to seeing us achieve that objective across all sports. Investing in an enhanced level of staffing and technology for football is an important first step in that direction.

After our first 9 days, we are a little over 35% of the way to the first level goal on an annualized basis - assuming the donations represent the first of a two year commitment. (Some have made it clear in their instructions and others have not.) That's a good start, but we would really like to be able to declare "mission accomplished" on hitting our target by signing day, so that Coach Johnson can share more with the broader public about how the resources will help enhance the efforts going forward and get the staffing completed in time for the post NSD planning and evaluation period for 2019 and beyond.

With that in mind, I ask that if you are planning to make a donation to this initiative, please let the GTAA know as soon as possible, even if it will be in the form of a later stage commitment.

Finally, if there are questions that you would like for me to answer regarding this initiative, feel free to post them in this thread and I will respond. I will not overextend into areas that I am not in a position to speak about, but I will respond as best I can to questions that will help you make an informed decision about whether or not to participate with us in this initiative.

Thank you again for your commitment to GT and GT Athletics.

First, thank you for organizing this. I did a study of how Athletic Associations are funded and without a doubt, a strong ORGANIZED approach is essential to raising the flow of funds needed for FBS play today.

What help do you need to more fully organize this? It does seem haphazard a bit in both the launch, the copy, the website (did anyone else get frustrated at the error codes?) There is a lot of experience on this board that would love to help and honestly, TStan could probably use it.

I think if you made a legitimate, organized appeal with a way that was simple ... you’d already be at 100%.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

IMO
If presented with a commitment by gtaa to recruit in Texas and with use of Alumni Association list , Texas would raise more than Florida and south ga.
The major city suburban schools are all top rated in football and academics
Lots of big city kids who know about Gt

I went thru south ga on business a few years ago. Of course I wore Gt shirt. I found zero Gt folks at restruants, motel, gas stations. But boy oh boy did the "regular folks " all have their uga gear. No sidewalk fans here. Recruiting in south ga with academic issues and uga competition has to be tough.

Our new qb recruit is from south GA.

 

[Vespidae]

Also ...to add on to what others have said ...

I’m a Tech grad, an Emory grad and a GSU grad. Hands down, Emory knows how to raise money. GSU is second ... just in terms of communications, outreach, frequency, etc.

Tech is the worst. I’ve been called to buy tickets, but never to donate for special initiatives. Heck, my golf club does.

Create an app. We need money, Click. Easy.

There are so many advanced tools to use that would catapult Tech into the stratosphere and make us a rock star in fund raising. Sadly, the image I have is of a bunch a guys sitting in the O’Keefe gym using punch cards.

 

[iceeater1969]

Generally Engineers do little to market themselves.
They believe that in the end they will get what they deserve.
They usually only get it in the end.
My company had 100 pipeline project engineers and managers . Getting them to ask client for budget increase or an atta boy letter during a happy phase of the ptoject was a virtual impossibility .


We seem to be doing this like street corner kids begging money for their youth softball team to play in tournement cause they forgot to get money from parents.

I

 

[okiemon]

I'm an alum as well as a Roll Call donor, AT Fund donor, and season ticket holder, all since 1967, and I haven't received an email.

Except for the season ticket bit, same here. Have only read about it here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Towaliga]

Hell, I live in Augusta, GA and we don't even have an AA club here. Count yourself lucky to have found one. In Augusta, it's the mutts or nothing, club-wise, merchandising-wise, and media-wise. Beating the number 15 team in the country (Miami) last week didn't even get us mention on the TV sportscasts here, and only a minor little blurb in the newspaper.

Heck, I live outside of Atlanta, and the day after we beat Notre Dame, the AJC had a three paragraph write up ( two sentences per paragraph) about the game in the paper we got, but a two page article on how a UGA high school b’ball commit is still committed.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

This thread:
1 post updating the fund raising initiative,
4,362 posts describing how badly the GTAA rolled out the initiative.

Anybody got anything else?

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

This thread:
1 post updating the fund raising initiative,
4,362 posts describing how badly the GTAA rolled out the initiative.

Anybody got anything else?

The point being, there is a sense of optimism that we may be on the cusp of changing things. Lets take this critical initiative and frankly a refreshing change of pace and accelerate it and turn the AA into a machine instead of the joke it has been. In this case we need to exactly copy Stanford. In the past it was nothing more than tilting at windmills trying to get the AA to run a grassroots funding campaign. Now it feels like there is a chance for our voice to be heard, so there are 4,362 posts about how bad the GTAA is.

 

[4shotB]

This thread:
1 post updating the fund raising initiative,
4,362 posts describing how badly the GTAA rolled out the initiative.

Anybody got anything else?

So, some of us believe in treating the disease (or root cause) rather than the symptom. We can complain about fans who complain about GTAA's abilities to market and connect with the fan base. Or, we can fix the problem. What's the old adage - a customer who complains is infinitely better for your business than the silent one who just leaves.

FWIW, this site remains the SOLE source for any knowledge that I have of this initiative.

 

[Lavoisier]

Well that's the main idea behind this isn't it? Get $100 from 10,000 fans and you got a million dollars? It looks like the big donor stuff is going to the broadcasting facility, golf, tennis, and (hopefully) a locker room so this project has to work by getting lots of people involved. Lots of us are worried it isn't and then will look like a failure. If it fails the athletic department may not try it again.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

Well that's the main idea behind this isn't it? Get $100 from 10,000 fans and you got a million dollars? It looks like the big donor stuff is going to the broadcasting facility, golf, tennis, and (hopefully) a locker room so this project has to work by getting lots of people involved. Lots of us are worried it isn't and then will look like a failure. If it fails the athletic department may not try it again.

Then it would be the AA who failed. An energized and effective AA would learn from a single effort and improve each subsequent campaign from the mistakes of the previous one.

 

[BCJacket]

I am really surprised that you are only now realizing that the Roll Call is totally separate from any athletics donations (AT Fund). I got out in 1966, and it was made clear from the start that the two donations were totally separate and unconnected.

Just my personal experience: I got out in 2010. I was never explicitly told that Roll Call didn't support athletics. I guess if you look at the fine print you could figure it out... But I didn't know until I saw it here on the Swarm. Started sending some of my money to the AT fund instead.

Maybe there was more institutional support of Athletics in the 60's and it was made clear, because there was a desire from the Hill to solicit support for both?

I get mailers, phone calls, etc ad nauseam for Roll Call. I get hardly any communication from athletics about fundraising, except my 'donation' with ticket purchases. Haven't seen anything about this initiative anywhere but on this board. Personally, I probably wouldn't even be looking at the board in the offseason if it weren't for the DC hire.

I just wonder how many potential donors are tuned out of GT football until September and aren't seeing this?

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Just my personal experience: I got out in 2010. I was never explicitly told that Roll Call didn't support athletics. I guess if you look at the fine print you could figure it out... But I didn't know until I saw it here on the Swarm. Started sending some of my money to the AT fund instead.

Maybe there was more institutional support of Athletics in the 60's and it was made clear, because there was a desire from the Hill to solicit support for both?

I get mailers, phone calls, etc ad nauseam for Roll Call. I get hardly any communication from athletics about fundraising, except my 'donation' with ticket purchases. Haven't seen anything about this initiative anywhere but on this board. Personally, I probably wouldn't even be looking at the board in the offseason if it weren't for the DC hire.

I just wonder how many potential donors are tuned out of GT football until September and aren't seeing this?

This is why it is incumbent upon each of us to email this information to all our fellow GT grad friends to make sure they are aware of it.

 

[gtg970g]

This thread:
1 post updating the fund raising initiative,
4,362 posts describing how badly the GTAA rolled out the initiative.

Anybody got anything else?

From the ramblinwreck.com homepage I cannot find a way to navigate to the fundraising initiative; it's not even under Football News. The simplest most basic thing the AA could do is provide a link on their home page for the fundraising initiative but no one there has thought of or been able to execute this simple task. I hope they include information when season ticket renewals start but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[BuzzbaitGT]

Just my personal experience: I got out in 2010. I was never explicitly told that Roll Call didn't support athletics. I guess if you look at the fine print you could figure it out... But I didn't know until I saw it here on the Swarm. Started sending some of my money to the AT fund instead.

Maybe there was more institutional support of Athletics in the 60's and it was made clear, because there was a desire from the Hill to solicit support for both?

I get mailers, phone calls, etc ad nauseam for Roll Call. I get hardly any communication from athletics about fundraising, except my 'donation' with ticket purchases. Haven't seen anything about this initiative anywhere but on this board. Personally, I probably wouldn't even be looking at the board in the offseason if it weren't for the DC hire.

I just wonder how many potential donors are tuned out of GT football until September and aren't seeing this?

+1

I'm a lifelong sidewalk fan. (Dad got out in 1952. He raised me right.)

Despite being a FB season ticket holder, I've yet to hear from GTAA about this initiative through my e-mail address that they use to contact me. Like you, I also learned of this initiative through various Tech message boards — GTSwarm, the Hive, Stingtalk, etc.

I'll be making my donation today, but the lack of communication on this from GTAA leaves me SMH.

 

[Lavoisier]

I honestly think GT needs a shadow AA to do this kind of fundraising properly. I wonder if they've gotten so used to wine-and-dineing the big money guys that they honestly have no idea how to communicate with the 4/5 of us that aren't millionaires.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I honestly think GT needs a shadow AA to do this kind of fundraising properly. I wonder if they've gotten so used to wine-and-dineing the big money guys that they honestly have no idea how to communicate with the 4/5 of us that aren't millionaires.

Paraphrasing, that's literally what they said last week when I spoke to them. They realize they've lost the base of the triangle and are trying to begin improving things in that regard.