(09-22-2022 08:52 AM)Texasowl Wrote:  Why wasnt the MOB at the last volleyball game? Will the pep band members be paid?

(09-21-2022 10:51 PM)Grungy Wrote:  

(09-21-2022 10:43 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  I hope they play at volleyball games..

We think we heard that the new pep band is also covering volleyball.

I don't recall the BOB ever playing at volleyball games, but perhaps they did so at big matches (e.g., UT, Baylor). And, yes,. the article made it clear that members of the new pep band would be paid.

(09-22-2022 08:55 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(09-22-2022 08:52 AM)Texasowl Wrote:  Why wasnt the MOB at the last volleyball game? Will the pep band members be paid?

(09-21-2022 10:51 PM)Grungy Wrote:  

(09-21-2022 10:43 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  I hope they play at volleyball games..

We think we heard that the new pep band is also covering volleyball.

I don't recall the BOB ever playing at volleyball games, but perhaps they did so at big matches (e.g., UT, Baylor). And, yes,. the article made it clear that members of the new pep band would be paid.

The VOB hasn't played at many volleyball games, but there have been some.
The calendar is usually rather full.
Perhaps the women's basketball schedule took them out of town, and we needed another women's sport to play at to maintain Title IX compliance.
The last one I played at, the opposing coach recalled an obscure rule that said the band had to be somewhere other than where the BOB usually sets up, and we wound up on the second level on the southwest corner.
I don't recall if it was a C-USA rule or a general one. Most likely a C-USA rule.

Flutes and clarinets!
That's surprising - they aren't dollars-for-decibels.

So Rice is willing to pay $1,200 a night for its 'pep band,' but won't spend a dime in helping The MOB at all? I don't think so. I hope no one tries out. They're trying to phase out the MOB. It's bull. If anything, MOB members should be paid $60 a football game to sit in that sweltering heat in direct sunlight. It's hell, but if they weren't there, the gameday environment would be dead. Rice should at least be equitable about it. The MOB is getting the shaft.

I wonder how many members are they looking for? I think Rice had an actual marching band through the 60s. Why can't we now?

20

(09-23-2022 03:15 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  I wonder how many members are they looking for? I think Rice had an actual marching band through the 60s. Why can't we now?

25-30 is what was said.
Rice's marching band in the '60s was fielding from around 60 to about 110 (what I've seen so far in the counts in the Campaniles, as I work my way forward in time).

We've been asking that same second question for years.
No one wants to spend even the minimal time commitment that The MOB asks for. We don't require people to show up - we can't. What would be the consequence if they were absent? We already don't pay them. We already don't offer credit for being in the band.
We also had inadequate facilities for an entire four-year group, and then we had COVID.

Someone in the MOB (preferably, the entire MOB) must most hastily enquire, (in the manner for which they are so famously known):

“Ya down with O.P.B?”


Do it!!!!! If not this weekend then next home game vs UAB

There will be a VOB at the Baylor game next week.

This will be the good-old pre-audition version, not the new Owl Pep Band.

Because it isn't a C-USA game, we get to be in our usual spot in the middle of the student section (where the BCOD used to be).
[C-USA rules state that the band cannot be that close to the opposing team's bench, so the VOB goes to the SE corner of the second level of the stands.]

Here is a link to a “Statement in Condemnation of the Owl Pep Band” put forward by the MOB undergrads.

It’s a Google Form.

I am passing it along - that is all.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQ...w/viewform

This strikes me as a stupid business decision. If you want a paid band, then you can pay the existing MOB/BOB members, say $60/game for football and $50/game for other sports. The risk I see is further alienating a student body that doesn't seem to care much for athletics to begin with by getting rid of the one element of athletics that many like..

Rice has never really pushed student involvement in and support of athletics, except possibly for basketball in the Scott Thompson years. The Jungle Gym was probably the best basketball atmosphere ever at Rice, and that was a combination of students and BOB.

Many years ago, a former Rice AD answered my question about promoting student involvement by saying, "Why do we care about the students? They get in free. We don't make any money off them." I'll tell you why you care. You care about student support because you care about alumni support--and they do pay for tickets and make donations. A huge portion of those students become young professionals living and working and starting families in the Houston area. That's your season ticket base. As students become apathetic about athletics, then a few years later your season ticket numbers dwindle to nothing.If Rice graduates were as supportive of athletics as aTm graduates are of Aggie sports teams, then the economics of Rice athletics would be vastly different and better. Rice will, of course, almost certainly never get to that point, but there is plenty of room for improvement short of that level. Replacing the BOB doesn't help get you there; embracing and supporting the MOB/BOB just might.

Couldn't agree more, numbers....

Its not as if you suddenly become a Rice athletics fan when you graduate.... get a job, get married and have kids.... sometimes moving away. You become a fan when you're a student. I'm not saying it NEVER happens, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

(10-06-2022 06:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Many years ago, a former Rice AD answered my question about promoting student involvement by saying, "Why do we care about the students? They get in free. We don't make any money off them."

I tend to argue that Rice admins aren't dumb and that the decisions we hate are most often based on an agenda we don't like rather than ignorance or ineptitude. But this is a remarkably stupid thing to say/think. Was this an actual Athletic Director or an assistant/associate/vice/3rd string type?

(10-06-2022 11:26 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  

(10-06-2022 06:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Many years ago, a former Rice AD answered my question about promoting student involvement by saying, "Why do we care about the students? They get in free. We don't make any money off them."

I tend to argue that Rice admins aren't dumb and that the decisions we hate are most often based on an agenda we don't like rather than ignorance or ineptitude. But this is a remarkably stupid thing to say/think. Was this an actual Athletic Director or an assistant/associate/vice/3rd string type?

My guess is it was Tanner's decision.

(10-06-2022 06:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  This strikes me as a stupid business decision. If you want a paid band, then you can pay the existing MOB/BOB members, say $60/game for football and $50/game for other sports. The risk I see is further alienating a student body that doesn't seem to care much for athletics to begin with by getting rid of the one element of athletics that many like..

Are there students at Rice who attend athletic events solely on the basis of the MOB/BOB? I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case 30 years ago. I'd be shocked if the few students who these days find themselves at HRS on a fall Saturday night are there to watch the MOB. I don't know... I certainly could be wrong.

(10-06-2022 03:26 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(10-06-2022 06:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  This strikes me as a stupid business decision. If you want a paid band, then you can pay the existing MOB/BOB members, say $60/game for football and $50/game for other sports. The risk I see is further alienating a student body that doesn't seem to care much for athletics to begin with by getting rid of the one element of athletics that many like..

Are there students at Rice who attend athletic events solely on the basis of the MOB/BOB? I'm pretty sure that wasn't the case 30 years ago. I'd be shocked if the few students who these days find themselves at HRS on a fall Saturday night are there to watch the MOB. I don't know... I certainly could be wrong.

I don't know that there are. But getting rid of the BOB would seem likely to strike many students as an anti-student move by the athletic department.

Sorry I may have missed something...have not read everything here and links. What is this? A pep band that is a subset of the MOB is not acceptable for some reason?

(10-06-2022 06:06 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Many years ago, a former Rice AD answered my question about promoting student involvement by saying, "Why do we care about the students? They get in free. We don't make any money off them."

Well then, that AD was an idiot.

(10-06-2022 10:10 PM)DFW Owl Wrote:  Sorry I may have missed something...have not read everything here and links. What is this? A pep band that is a subset of the MOB is not acceptable for some reason?

Rick Mello told Chuck, the band director, that he was going to be implementing a new Owl Pep Band, in place of the Basketball Owl Band.
The OPB would be led by a student from the Shepherd School, have a new repertoire, and have an instrument distribution that was closer to what is found in other pep bands - much brass, with a trap-set for percussion.
The musicians would be paid $50/game to perform.

This was in response to an alleged survey, that may have asked about improvements to the game-day experience.
Rick also talked to "experts" - and hinted that these were other people who dealt with pep bands.
We have neither seen the survey nor the results.
Who received the survey?
How was it worded?
What was the return rate?

Lost in the transition would be the BOB's other percussion players, the student directors of the BOB, the non-traditional instruments (strings and such), and the Old-Farts and community members.

Chuck has been trying to gain funding for the musicians for years.
He made a counter-proposal, that would utilize the funding, keep our student leaders, the non-standard instruments, and the Old-Farts.

The next he heard was that the student selected from the Shepherd School (Roy Park, clarinet performance Ph.D candidate) would be meeting with the existing band to discuss the OPB, basically blowing off the counter-proposal. Rick had a conflict for the day chosen and could not attend - he was leading an event at the same time.
The new OPB would also be using the existing band hall for rehearsals, they would be using band instruments not already signed out to someone, and they would be wearing uniforms provided by Adidas.

The students in the existing BOB/MOB took exception to all of this, when they found out what was happening.

After the initial meeting with the band members, there was some compromise.
The flutes and clarinets were allowed to audition, as well as the Old-Farts and community members.
Still missing was the percussion, the student leadership, and the odd instruments.

Rick then met with the concerned band members, along with Roy Park.
Roy had to leave for a concert part-way into that meeting.
Rick took (heated) questions for almost three hours.

One of the issues that the Athletic Department has with the existing band is the size, and also how it shrinks during class breaks and the winter break.
Rick was not aware that students are not allowed to stay on campus over the winter break.
Housing arrangements would have to be made if the OPB was to play games during that time.

He specifically cited the Alabama Pep band as something that we would aspire to, as we make the move to the AAC.

It was pointed out that Alabama has seven times as many undergrads as Rice, their main band is 400 members, they have three thirty-person pep bands to spread the load in terms of service hours, they have a music school that teaches band (Shepherd is a conservatory), and they offer credit for being in band.
Rice has none of those things.
Our peer institutions in terms of undergraduate population and the size of the bands are the Ivies, even though all but Dartmouth is actually larger than Rice in undergraduate population.

Auditions for the OPB are slated for the weekend of 10/14-10/16.

As cited above in the thread, there has been a Thresher article, an OpEd in the Thresher written by three MOBsters, and the form asking signatories to condemn this move by the ADept.

Gnote: hopefully that came out something like the myriad other times that I've now typed it, so that I simulate internal consistency.

Bottom line: give the existing BOB the resources promised to this new OPB, and it would have improved instrumentation, could buy new arrangements for fresh music, keep the student leadership, and not toss out any of our friends.

Now we wait - to see if anyone auditions.

What about this?

We do both!! We have a BATTLE OF THE BASKETBALL BANDS!!

Two bands enter, one band leaves.