Hopefully more details emerge soon?

The most obvious thing I noticed about the video was the emphasis on ATTENDANCE!!

I noticed the emphasis on performance

Generically, it was up to us to attend and contribute... and up to the coaches and players to win and graduate

Very professional production ... but it's interesting that the Sallyport heads for the four pillars are ordered 1) Junior (Athletic competitiveness) - 2) Senior (Academic success) - 3) Sophomore (Life Eduation & Achievement) - 4) Freshman (Rice Values).

I suspect that there's no perfect assignment for these -- Academic Success/Senior makes sense, and who would want to be represented by the giddy Freshman -- but I'm just not used to seeing these presented out of order. :-)

Wish I could contribute more, but I did assign one-third of my annual contribution to the Owl Club.

Go Owls!!

Wow! Like so many others I have waited a long time for a professionally produced presentation of what Rice athletics represents and what it hopes to achieve on the playing field.

A warm and intelligent request by our AD that eloquently states the reasons why one should support Rice athletics.

Well done and unlike any other that you might see from other schools. A nice touch adding some of our coaches, current, and former athletes to the video. One thought might be an alternative edition which identifies these coaches and athletes for those not familiar with Rice athletics. Having the Chairman of the Board of Trustees identified as a former scholarship athlete is a strong message to those with limited knowledge of Rice athletics.

The five coaches who were featured at the end are the give who won conference titles this past year.

(07-14-2014 10:22 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  The five coaches who were featured at the end are the give who won conference titles this past year.

And identifying them as such would be good. I bet very few people outside Rice/CUSA/college football junkies would know Rice won CUSA last year.

(07-14-2014 12:09 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Hopefully more details emerge soon?

I hope so.

The obvious takeaway from this was that Rice Athletics needs our participation through giving, going to games, getting other to go to games, etc. Dr. K made this plainly obvious in his letter a few months back, if it wasn't obvious already to everyone already. We have a job to do and it won't be easy.

And I can appreciate the quality of the production. It was very nice piece, showcasing the great faces we have to represent our university.

However, with all this, I come away watching it with the thought of ok, that's nice, but enough fluff. I mean, we heard similar generalized goals at the Athletics Forum a couple years ago. Now, I do believe we have the leader/public face to accomplish these generalized goals, but they are still just general goals. And, while they are nice, without concrete plans, they are just hopes at this point. And, yeah, maybe I'm being a little impatient with Dr. K. But, there are some glaring issues that have to be addressed. And, the sooner they are, the better chance we have of improving our lot.

I agree with Tiki on the "Wow" factor of the production-- several notches above anything else we have ever seen produced by our athletic department. Yes, it's light on specifics and details, but that's to be expected in such a video. My only complaint is that once again Dr. K chose to release this via the seldom-accessed blog posting on riceowls.com rather than through an e-mail blast to the alumni base. The positioning of this video is more for those alums not yet Owl Club members or sporting event attendees and, consequently, I think this would have most effectively been distributed in concert with the ARA.

I think there aren't more details because we don't have them fleshed out yet. Having worked in the strategy area, this is an incredibly difficult thing to work through, particularly in a situation like this where we are starting from absolutely zero.

I'm willing to give them more time. At least we have something. And something beats hell out of 50 years of nothing.

As I've said before, I spent parts of 20 years doing bankruptcies, and the Rice athletic department has been the most dysfunctional organization I've ever been around. Rome wasn't built in a day.

(07-15-2014 07:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I think there aren't more details because we don't have them fleshed out yet. Having worked in the strategy area, this is an incredibly difficult thing to work through, particularly in a situation like this where we are starting from absolutely zero.

I'm willing to give them more time. At least we have something. And something beats hell out of 50 years of nothing.

Amen.

(07-15-2014 07:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I think there aren't more details because we don't have them fleshed out yet. Having worked in the strategy area, this is an incredibly difficult thing to work through, particularly in a situation like this where we are starting from absolutely zero.

I'm willing to give them more time. At least we have something. And something beats hell out of 50 years of nothing.

As I've said before, I spent parts of 20 years doing bankruptcies, and the Rice athletic department has been the most dysfunctional organization I've ever been around. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Understood, but we had something similar to this 2 years ago. I'm willing to be patient for a bit more, but this video, while a nice production, just didn't do much for me.

(07-14-2014 10:16 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  One thought might be an alternative edition which identifies these coaches and athletes for those not familiar with Rice athletics. Having the Chairman of the Board of Trustees identified as a former scholarship athlete is a strong message to those with limited knowledge of Rice athletics.

(07-14-2014 11:54 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(07-14-2014 10:22 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  The five coaches who were featured at the end are the give who won conference titles this past year.

And identifying them as such would be good. I bet very few people outside Rice/CUSA/college football junkies would know Rice won CUSA last year.

To be clear, my comment wasn't intended as a quibble with Tiki's suggestion at all -- in fact, I started writing my comment before his appeared, but I got interrupted, and I by the time I hit "post", his comment was up. So while it probably looks like I was quibbling with Tiki's point, I really wasn't. His point is a good one.

(07-15-2014 08:16 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 07:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I think there aren't more details because we don't have them fleshed out yet. Having worked in the strategy area, this is an incredibly difficult thing to work through, particularly in a situation like this where we are starting from absolutely zero.

I'm willing to give them more time. At least we have something. And something beats hell out of 50 years of nothing.

As I've said before, I spent parts of 20 years doing bankruptcies, and the Rice athletic department has been the most dysfunctional organization I've ever been around. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Understood, but we had something similar to this 2 years ago. I'm willing to be patient for a bit more, but this video, while a nice production, just didn't do much for me.

Yes, but the thing 2 years ago was 5 years in the making and the ball never got pushed any further. This time I don't think the ball is stopping here.

(07-15-2014 07:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  I agree with Tiki on the "Wow" factor of the production-- several notches above anything else we have ever seen produced by our athletic department. Yes, it's light on specifics and details, but that's to be expected in such a video. My only complaint is that once again Dr. K chose to release this via the seldom-accessed blog posting on riceowls.com rather than through an e-mail blast to the alumni base. The positioning of this video is more for those alums not yet Owl Club members or sporting event attendees and, consequently, I think this would have most effectively been distributed in concert with the ARA.

What blog are you talking about?

(07-15-2014 01:16 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 07:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  I agree with Tiki on the "Wow" factor of the production-- several notches above anything else we have ever seen produced by our athletic department. Yes, it's light on specifics and details, but that's to be expected in such a video. My only complaint is that once again Dr. K chose to release this via the seldom-accessed blog posting on riceowls.com rather than through an e-mail blast to the alumni base. The positioning of this video is more for those alums not yet Owl Club members or sporting event attendees and, consequently, I think this would have most effectively been distributed in concert with the ARA.

What blog are you talking about?

I shared it on Facebook with my fellow Rice alums. Forward it to your classmates and lets try to get the word out.

(07-15-2014 01:42 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 01:16 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 07:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  I agree with Tiki on the "Wow" factor of the production-- several notches above anything else we have ever seen produced by our athletic department. Yes, it's light on specifics and details, but that's to be expected in such a video. My only complaint is that once again Dr. K chose to release this via the seldom-accessed blog posting on riceowls.com rather than through an e-mail blast to the alumni base. The positioning of this video is more for those alums not yet Owl Club members or sporting event attendees and, consequently, I think this would have most effectively been distributed in concert with the ARA.

What blog are you talking about?

I shared it on Facebook with my fellow Rice alums. Forward it to your classmates and lets try to get the word out.

It was shared on Twitter through multiple Rice channels as well.

(07-15-2014 01:42 PM)owl95 Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 01:16 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 07:30 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  I agree with Tiki on the "Wow" factor of the production-- several notches above anything else we have ever seen produced by our athletic department. Yes, it's light on specifics and details, but that's to be expected in such a video. My only complaint is that once again Dr. K chose to release this via the seldom-accessed blog posting on riceowls.com rather than through an e-mail blast to the alumni base. The positioning of this video is more for those alums not yet Owl Club members or sporting event attendees and, consequently, I think this would have most effectively been distributed in concert with the ARA.

What blog are you talking about?

I shared it on Facebook with my fellow Rice alums. Forward it to your classmates and lets try to get the word out.

Already did!

Just grabbed a minute to finally sit down and watch the Dr. K video. Very inspiring. And very professional. A nice general outline for the future and obviously a not so subtle emphasis on getting more attendance and financial support from the Rice community. And I agree.
Still, I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more flesh on the bones of this vision. Marketing details. HRS renovation (obviously). Increased efforts to involve the non-athlete students and increase their attendance at games. Increasing the awareness and participation among alums who are not actively supporting Rice athletics at the present time. Etc.
Overall, a good presentation. But really just a beginning.

(07-15-2014 08:16 AM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(07-15-2014 07:57 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I think there aren't more details because we don't have them fleshed out yet. Having worked in the strategy area, this is an incredibly difficult thing to work through, particularly in a situation like this where we are starting from absolutely zero.

I'm willing to give them more time. At least we have something. And something beats hell out of 50 years of nothing.

As I've said before, I spent parts of 20 years doing bankruptcies, and the Rice athletic department has been the most dysfunctional organization I've ever been around. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Understood, but we had something similar to this 2 years ago. I'm willing to be patient for a bit more, but this video, while a nice production, just didn't do much for me.

My oh my...you have certainly changed since the early Greenspan days. Guess that is what happens when you get a few years of frustration with Rice athletics under your belt. Owl 69/70/75 and I welcome you.