(08-04-2017 11:54 AM)sportsfan Wrote: (08-03-2017 01:43 PM)NIU32 Wrote: The below was a friend of mine's initial reaction to this board. I have to agree so I thought it was worth sharing. How is it possible that they would get no representatives from Chicago, Rockford or the surrounds larger markets that we need to capitalize on??? Obviously, DeKalb and the western suburbs are important as well, but my initial reaction to this list is that we missed the boat with some key areas.
What a joke.
http://niu.sidearmsports.com/news/2017/8...board.aspx …
25% of the panel is townies (although I can see the logic wanting locals opinions and participation/attendance but 25% seems excessive).
Not a single representative from Chicago, the largest closest city and where the most NIU alums probably work and the #1 target market you are trying to penetrate.
Not a single rep from Rockford area.
Not a single rep from West (Sterling to Quad Cities, and don't get me started with that. QC is the most Neglected potential market by the idiots at NIU Marketing).
Not even 1 rep from out of the Northern Illinois region. Maybe this wouldn't be prudent, but I hope they at least considered bringing someone from Peoria/Bloomington area and or southern Wisconsin area (maybe this could have been Rockford area rep).
I would be interested in seeing the reps ages.
I have a hard time believing that the panel is "diverse" as is claimed. The only "young" reps are probably current students. Wouldn't surprise me if they missed the mark and failed to get a rep who represents the recent grad in his/her early 20s.
Who cares where they're from? This is not like electing the house or senate. It's a group of people who want to try and improve the experience. It will have nothing to do with the organizational structure of a major university either. It's people who care and want to share their ideas and thoughts. Chill people.
"Who cares where they're from?"
Is that a real question? The question implies that it doesn't matter when it does. The reason why it matters is PERSPECTIVE.
Having a bunch of locals who are just there to vie for a position within the nepotism that exists in the NIU Athletics hiring process serve no purpose to further the alleged reason for having the Advisory Board in the first place.
Supposedly, this is set up to help NIU understand how it can better address fan needs an INCREASE participation/attendance/engagement by the current fanbase and GROW that fanbase.
By not having the Board representative of the fanbases that its (supposedly) interested in growing, how is it helping you to better engage with that fanbase?
How are you going to learn about, and therefore address, the obstacles that are keeping NIU from growing the Chicago/Rockford/QC fanbases if that demographic is COMPLETELY ABSENT from your Advisory Board?
For lack of a better analogy, this is no different than a bunch of people from the suburbs trying to solve the problems of inner city schools and crime. Were asking people to think of what the issues are in certain areas and how they would address them vs asking the people who actually live there and getting their input. That doesn't make sense...
And finally, this is a message board, we can all have a different opinion, that's totally fine. It doesn't seem like anyone is getting out of hand on this thread and needs to chill out or anything. We'll see how this "Advisory Board" works out, hopefully it does help