Recruiting--making good impressions

[Sycamore Proud]

Again I credit Tom James on FB:

Tweet from high school recruiting analyst EdgyTim: "3 Chicagoland commits to @IndStFB today. Sycamores making moves."

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Six kids total yesterday. Most I recall ever seeing in a day since I've been covering Sycamore football recruiting.

 

[Parsons]

Agreed. WELL DONE!

 

[Bally #50]

Agreed. WELL DONE!

To Coach Mallory, thanks for bringing recruiting back to a roar. Obviously Mike Sanford was off to a good start as well but no doubt, Curt has taken the bull by the horns and he and his team seem to be making impressions out there in the real world. 5am practices set the tone and good character seem to be the rule. Admittedly, I don't follow the recruiting like many of you, but coach (and his coaches) are certainly not sitting around waiting for them to call. His numbers were pretty strong on the deadline date but there has been a steady flow since then for 17-18. Like many of you, I can't wait till the first game.

 

[NewRelease24]

Tweet from @IndianaPreps:

"Anxious to see what @IndStFB has in store for commitments this week. They've had the best 3-4 days in the country. #Sycamores"

 

[WhenSycamoresWereIndians]

Just landed TE Cory Heinrichs from Center Grove. He will be a 4-year starter for the Trojans when he takes the field this year. Solid, solid pickup for the Sycamores.

 

[goindystate]

very encouraging to see so many kids from Indiana coming to ISU, don't believe I've seen this many commits from Indiana in the same class

 

[bluestreak]

Coach Mallory is doing just what he said he would do - recruit Indiana kids first. Love it.

 

[Westbadenboy]

This is great ! I am excited about what this coaching staff is and will be doing. I hope the athletic dept is also working their butts off within the community to get fans in the stands. And that they're planning a big push for that opening night game, both with Terre Haute and when the students return in August.
Wouldn't it be great to see 10,000 -- 12,000 there under the lights ...............it used to happen ---- could it be de ja vu all over again ? ? ?

 

[Westbadenboy]

And the down side ........

Pretty regular Varsity Club member here (including the last 2 -- 3 years) and not one note, card, email, phone call, contact, smoke signal, etc. from ISU about the athletic fundraiser ...........not one.

Is that even possible ? ? ?

Sadly ..........yes
:disturbed:

 

[Bally #50]

Pretty regular Varsity Club member here (including the last 2 -- 3 years) and not one note, card, email, phone call, contact, smoke signal, etc. from ISU about the athletic fundraiser ...........not one.

Is that even possible ? ? ?

Sadly ..........yes
:disturbed:

Possibly late? I am in the same situation. Nothing yet. My guess is that they have not begun the campaign officially. Yes, they had a start date but you'd be promoting a campaign in June that catches many people on vacations and with NO sports to tag along with. I look for football to be one of the biggest winners in this campaign and that as soon as Coach Curt's unbelievable recruiting class is officially over, they will use the "future" of our program to tell Sycamore Nation that we are on our way to greatness. Nobody has told me that but it makes sense to me. Of course, I am not an expert on fund raising but the size of the campaign isn't like MARCH ON and campaigns this small work a different way. I feel your frustration though, WBB!

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Sorry, this is on you guys.

It was announced here with a link to the Elevate website. It was announced on all of their social media channels with a link to the Elevate website. The information for all projects included is there as well as a link to donate. It's 2017, it's expensive and inefficient to mail something, especially when metrics show how little response there is to mail these days.

In case you legitimately missed it here, on Facebook, on Twitter, in the monthly Varsity Club email or at the Coach Caravan's, here is the link:

http://gosycamores.com/index.aspx?path=elevate

How about our fans start taking some ownership and personal accountability in the process and quit asking to be babied and spoon fed at every turn?

 

[Bally #50]

Sorry, this is on you guys.

It was announced here with a link to the Elevate website. It was announced on all of their social media channels with a link to the Elevate website. The information for all projects included is there as well as a link to donate. It's 2017, it's expensive and inefficient to mail something, especially when metrics show how little response there is to mail these days.

In case you legitimately missed it here, on Facebook, on Twitter, in the monthly Varsity Club email or at the Coach Caravan's, here is the link:

http://gosycamores.com/index.aspx?path=elevate

How about our fans start taking some ownership and personal accountability in the process and quit asking to be babied and spoon fed at every turn?

Good to know and I bookmarked it but it basically is a duplicate of their website. I bet that some type of mailer will be used in the next couple of months. This 65K is not a monumental task and with the success of our football recruiting, I think the football alumni could make up a large portion of it alone.

If they are depending on those media channels to make their number, I think it is a mistake. As we know, the best way to raise money is one-on-one and I think the Athletic Department Development staff will get it done, along with coaches and the Foundation.

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Good to know and I bookmarked it but it basically is a duplicate of their website. I bet that some type of mailer will be used in the next couple of months. This 65K is not a monumental task and with the success of our football recruiting, I think the football alumni could make up a large portion of it alone.

If they are depending on those media channels to make their number, I think it is a mistake. As we know, the best way to raise money is one-on-one and I think the Athletic Department Development staff will get it done, along with coaches and the Foundation.

So if the people won't read the emails, website or social media accounts, the school should spend money to do a mass mailing in hopes they read print?

As someone that did research on that for a site I owned, I found out that postal mailers have an average 1-2% response rate. Would that be enough to offset the cost of the Elevate marketing materials, mailing costs, employee time and other overhead?

 

[Bally #50]

So if the people won't read the emails, website or social media accounts, the school should spend money to do a mass mailing in hopes they read print?

As someone that did research on that for a site I owned, I found out that postal mailers have an average 1-2% response rate. Would that be enough to offset the cost of the Elevate marketing materials, mailing costs, employee time and other overhead?

I basically don't think the 1-2% is accurate. If it is the athletic department and the university have my e-mail address and if that is the way to reach me, THEN USE IT! At least send me the address of "Elevate!" Without notice, I plan to participate because I am well aware what they trying to do but I like some kind of indication via e-mail that something is up.

 

[Westbadenboy]

Jason ...........They have our email addresses. Total cost for sending out an email ..............Zero
I don't want to be babied and I won't be able to give much. But something coming directly to me (and all Varsity Club members) is hardly a big deal and even if it doesn't have my personal name on it, it would still be direct contact to me.

See Bally's comment above .............

 

[Jason Svoboda]

I basically don't think the 1-2% is accurate. If it is the athletic department and the university have my e-mail address and if that is the way to reach me, THEN USE IT! At least send me the address of "Elevate!" Without notice, I plan to participate because I am well aware what they trying to do but I like some kind of indication via e-mail that something is up.

Jason ...........They have our email addresses. Total cost for sending out an email ..............Zero
I don't want to be babied and I won't be able to give much. But something coming directly to me (and all Varsity Club members) is hardly a big deal and even if it doesn't have my personal name on it, it would still be direct contact to me.

See Bally's comment above .............

I said postal mailings.

As for the specific email on Elevate, it was sent out by the SAF on 5/19/2017 at 12:21pm. If you didn't receive it, check your spam folder or search your email address on file for the [email protected] email address their mailings originate from. If you would like, I can forward the email to you, just PM me your email address.

That said, it's still on you. I announced Elevate almost a month before it launched and then posted about it here. Bob, you're on Facebook and I'm sure you follow the SAF on there. Again, while I don't disagree they should do more in terms of fundraising, they've done what is necessary here and nobody really has a leg to stand on saying they didn't know about this.

 

[Bally #50]

I said postal mailings.

As for the specific email on Elevate, it was sent out by the SAF on 5/19/2017 at 12:21pm. If you didn't receive it, check your spam folder or search your email address on file for the [email protected] email address their mailings originate from. If you would like, I can forward the email to you, just PM me your email address.

That said, it's still on you. I announced Elevate almost a month before it launched and then posted about it here. Bob, you're on Facebook and I'm sure you follow the SAF on there. Again, while I don't disagree they should do more in terms of fundraising, they've done what is necessary here and nobody really has a leg to stand on saying they didn't know about this.

Actually, I had never seen that site until I searched it out minutes ago. It took a few tries before I found it too! I did NOT receive that e-mail on 5-19 and I will talk to Jeremiah and get that sorted out. Personally, because if you join now, it is effective to the end of June so I am waiting to 7-1. I am not being critical of the SAF because they will reach their goal and then some, but I should have received that e-mail and I do believe one nice piece of mail would have been called for. You say it's a waste of money but I say send it to the movers and shakers and it would have helped.

 

[Jason Svoboda]

Actually, I had never seen that site until I searched it out minutes ago. It took a few tries before I found it too! I did NOT receive that e-mail on 5-19 and I will talk to Jeremiah and get that sorted out. Personally, because if you join now, it is effective to the end of June so I am waiting to 7-1. I am not being critical of the SAF because they will reach their goal and then some, but I should have received that e-mail and I do believe one nice piece of mail would have been called for. You say it's a waste of money but I say send it to the movers and shakers and it would have helped.

Definitely... I'd reach out to them because they may have an old or bad email address for you. Or it could have been a clerical error. It happens.

As for your second point, don't worry, they had that covered, too. The "movers and shakers" got invited to the special intimate dinners they had in Indianapolis and Terre Haute. I was present at the Indy event (I definitely classed down the place) and folks like Tony Hulman were sitting front and center at the announcement.

 

[Bally #50]

Definitely... I'd reach out to them because they may have an old or bad email address for you. Or it could have been a clerical error. It happens.

As for your second point, don't worry, they had that covered, too. The "movers and shakers" got invited to the special intimate dinners they had in Indianapolis and Terre Haute. I was present at the Indy event (I definitely classed down the place) and folks like Tony Hulman were sitting front and center at the announcement.

Sadly, I was not on that list. Frankly, because my retirement "nest egg" is almost non-existent and I have told them that, they likely consider me not worthy. I will get more involved financially but likely will need to put it on quarterly payment schedule. I talked to Jeremiah about some of this at the Caravan. We'll figure something out. The days of both President's Society and Varsity Club aren't going to happen, I will do Varsity Club this year.