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Any students? Here is your goal for The Forest!
- Thread starter Jason Svoboda
- Start date
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I would love to be a part of The Forest like this and helping make it happen. Unfortunately any effort I make to get students on their feet during the game just gets hit with blank stares and continued sitting.
Keep fighting the good fight
Please don’t give up.
sycamore tuff
The Renn Level
They use to tell me to sit down. I’m in my early 60’s now. I still stand. I was in the middle of the drake fans a couple sundays ago in st louis. It was fun. We stood the entire game.
At least I don’t get told to sit down by others. Probably because I am not blocking them from having their faces in their phones while the game is going on. Would’ve loved to have experienced the St. Louis atmosphere this year!
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You would have been one of 4 students in the Indiana State student section at Arch Madness. From what I saw - we had the worst student turnout in STL. But overall - we had a pretty good fan turnout that you obviously were referencing and would have enjoyed.
This should be on Forest leadership. I remember when I was in school, if you went down onto the baseline seating, the Psycho leaders basically expected you to be into the game and would deny you access at future games. I know people that got sent up into the 2nd level.
I still contend The Forest needs better administrative leadership and organization. I would assume it is registered as a student organization through the school so they should have one or more faculty members as the sponsor. If they aren't every helpful, maybe it makes sense to find replacements for those people. They are key to setting expectations and having group continuity.
The faculty advisor for the forest (according to ISU Treehouse) is Tammy Shike. I think that could be changed up a little. She couldn’t handle separate dance and cheer teams
I tried calling Ms. Shike and was informed she is indeed the faculty rep for The Forest.
Furthermore, she rarely comes in to the office.........usually only on game days or practice sessions.
I sent her an e-mail stressing the importance of The Forest and asking her what her plans are to grow this organization.
I will share her response if/when I get one.
Is this idea as stupid as it sounds?
Offer an elective class called "School Spirit" or "The Forest" for 3 credit hours. And in that class, assignments include attending Basketball games, or football, or any other sport, and sitting/standing in The Forest section.
Part of the curriculum could be learning about all facets of the history of Indiana State University.
Offer an elective class called "School Spirit" or "The Forest" for 3 credit hours. And in that class, assignments include attending Basketball games, or football, or any other sport, and sitting/standing in The Forest section.
Part of the curriculum could be learning about all facets of the history of Indiana State University.
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Not a stupid idea, but with the way the University is currently cutting programs and entire colleges, creating a class would be a very long uphill battle.
I think every university should have a class like that as a required GenEd class for all freshmen.
I think every university should have a class like that as a required GenEd class for all freshmen.
This is my upteenth time posting something like this but lets do it again:
1) This is going to be disliked by some, but The Forest's focus should be solely on being a basketball organization a la Cameron Crazies, etc. It is a lot easier to recruit and get a time commitment out of someone if they know there are a set amount of events or expectations -- in this case we essentially have 15 home games per year and then organization related events for fundraising, recruiting, community engagement, etc. . It's also easier because people can focus on one sport and can learn the cheers/nuances/etc for said sport.
2) They need to identify someone else from the school to get involved in the regular and ongoing advisement of the organization. I'd recommend Dr. Greg Bierly, who oversees some of the Honors College stuff. IIRC, he is a dual Sycamore and Michigan State graduate and loves college basketball. So he has external experience with traditions at a bigger school that has a pretty large fan base and attendance. If he isn't interested, ask him for recommendations as I'm sure he knows other faculty that like hoop.
3) The Forest also needs to be set up like a Greek-letter organization with official positions and committees -- ie President, Vice President, etc, Cheer Committee, Recruiting Committee, Community Engagement Committee, etc. If the first folks don't know how to get this set up, reach out to the Pikes, SAE, whoever to help come in and set it up. They can teach you organization, process, continuity, all the way down to Robert's Rules of Order to run the meetings. You will also likely get some crossover members as many have campus involvement initiatives/requirements to qualify for and win their National Organization's National Awards.
4) Create an alumni advisory board to help get an external perspective, help you knock down barriers/blockers you may have, bounce ideas off of, etc.
5) For the fundraising, I'd recommend doing a yearly basketball shirt. If you're familiar with Notre Dame football, they do a yearly football shirt and tens of thousands are sole yearly. They've been doing it for 33 years now and provided you do it right and the shirts aren't poorly designed/generic shit like most ISU gear, it will take off. I'd love to buy a quality Sycamore basketball shirt every year and knowing it went to funding something like The Forest would make it a no brainer.
Anyhow, just how I see things. Otherwise, we're going to continue to see the same disjointed student section where we have some good participation years and then they completely disappear just as we've seen over the years.
1) This is going to be disliked by some, but The Forest's focus should be solely on being a basketball organization a la Cameron Crazies, etc. It is a lot easier to recruit and get a time commitment out of someone if they know there are a set amount of events or expectations -- in this case we essentially have 15 home games per year and then organization related events for fundraising, recruiting, community engagement, etc. . It's also easier because people can focus on one sport and can learn the cheers/nuances/etc for said sport.
2) They need to identify someone else from the school to get involved in the regular and ongoing advisement of the organization. I'd recommend Dr. Greg Bierly, who oversees some of the Honors College stuff. IIRC, he is a dual Sycamore and Michigan State graduate and loves college basketball. So he has external experience with traditions at a bigger school that has a pretty large fan base and attendance. If he isn't interested, ask him for recommendations as I'm sure he knows other faculty that like hoop.
3) The Forest also needs to be set up like a Greek-letter organization with official positions and committees -- ie President, Vice President, etc, Cheer Committee, Recruiting Committee, Community Engagement Committee, etc. If the first folks don't know how to get this set up, reach out to the Pikes, SAE, whoever to help come in and set it up. They can teach you organization, process, continuity, all the way down to Robert's Rules of Order to run the meetings. You will also likely get some crossover members as many have campus involvement initiatives/requirements to qualify for and win their National Organization's National Awards.
4) Create an alumni advisory board to help get an external perspective, help you knock down barriers/blockers you may have, bounce ideas off of, etc.
5) For the fundraising, I'd recommend doing a yearly basketball shirt. If you're familiar with Notre Dame football, they do a yearly football shirt and tens of thousands are sole yearly. They've been doing it for 33 years now and provided you do it right and the shirts aren't poorly designed/generic shit like most ISU gear, it will take off. I'd love to buy a quality Sycamore basketball shirt every year and knowing it went to funding something like The Forest would make it a no brainer.
Anyhow, just how I see things. Otherwise, we're going to continue to see the same disjointed student section where we have some good participation years and then they completely disappear just as we've seen over the years.
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EvilleSycamore
The All-MVC Level
At $342 a credit hour ( current rate) that's an expensive season ticket! Too many times i had to laugh at the sight of a football player who needed to check an elective box taking folk dancing or Ballet with Greta Treber, that would never be used in their future.
I’ll be talking with her on Thursday afternoon.
Does anyone have any questions you would like answered?
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Why don’t you have sign ups for The Forest at new student orientation? They used to do that and it got them, literally, hundreds of members. Start building school pride right away!
_LukePMartin
The Blue Level
I don't think there is any secret that our biggest challenge, in my time here at least, has been student engagement. Outside of when we had the '79 reunion game, there hasn't been lines on lines getting into the arena.
Nick Powers, who is the student leader of The Forest currently, has been great in my interaction with him...I wish I was around when Tommy Lynch was here, as I can only hear those great stories.
One of the areas I have always tried to push is doing events on campus with our athletes. They are such tremendous people and when people get the chance to know them, they will want to go support them in so many ways. There were a few times we did Square Donuts passing out in the morning in the Commons, just trying to get them in front of the students.
Keep sharing ideas and communicating them. Across the country you see departments have to do more with less staffing. We are no different but can't be an excuse either to not get stuff accomplished. I sure hope there is a day where we aren't talking about potential of it happening, it is our reality.
Nick Powers, who is the student leader of The Forest currently, has been great in my interaction with him...I wish I was around when Tommy Lynch was here, as I can only hear those great stories.
One of the areas I have always tried to push is doing events on campus with our athletes. They are such tremendous people and when people get the chance to know them, they will want to go support them in so many ways. There were a few times we did Square Donuts passing out in the morning in the Commons, just trying to get them in front of the students.
Keep sharing ideas and communicating them. Across the country you see departments have to do more with less staffing. We are no different but can't be an excuse either to not get stuff accomplished. I sure hope there is a day where we aren't talking about potential of it happening, it is our reality.
I think one thing that we have to remember is that many don't pass through the commons. I've mentioned this to certain sports administrators before. While its great to have a banner there to promote games and game times, and its great to host activities there, it still misses a good number of students. Maybe I should start passing out the campus announcements and highlight games on it for students.