Anyone get the letter from Moos scolding fans

[whoisyaodaddy]

Two problems with Moos' letter:

1) It was mass mailed to all CAF members regardless if you donate this year or not. Personally, I am a CAF member 10 fold so I don't really need our AD imploring me to step up. The letter should have been directed at non-CAF members or members who had let their CAF membership lapse.

2) Second, in an attached op-ed, he uses MSU as a template for how WSU can be successful if we sell out the stadium. I disagree. The PAC 12 and Moos gave up the right to bitch about fan attendance when it agreed to the consistent and constant 7:30 games. This isn't going to fly in Pullman given its remote location. Facilities and coaching will make us better, not game sell outs.

I personally found the letter insulting and riddled with implied excuses. Don't get me wrong: I support Moos and Leach. I just think Moos' rationale for success is wrong.

 

[SCglory]

Totally agree....but doesn't his letter make you wonder if he really understands the challenges? I attended the SC game, but stayed fairly locally for other reasons. If a game ends at 10:30-11:00 pm, that kills it for anyone wanting to make a day trip of it and who don't want to stay overnight





This post was edited on 12/18 11:38 AM by SCglory

 

[Coug95man2]

Haven't gotten mine yet… But I'll put this out there early… I wait to see how many people GET a letter from Moos… THAT might be proof of Moos letter more than anything.

 

[chipdouglas]

I became a CAF member online a couple years back. The whole process was sloppy--I got a sketchy confirmation email, and it took several months to receive my lame tchotchkes in the mail. This year, they didn't even bother to send the "don't let your membership lapse" email. Somehow their CRM system has lost me; God knows if my money even went to football. For all I know it's going to 'Qaeda.

 

[Cougzz]

As with many marketers, the emphasis is on new sales and retention and follow-up are afterthoughts. They need a more effective way to leverage the base they have into adding more members...the "who do you know that needs to belong?" drill.

 

[Fab5Coug]

Originally posted by chipdouglas:
I became a CAF member online a couple years back. The whole process was sloppy--I got a sketchy confirmation email, and it took several months to receive my lame tchotchkes in the mail. This year, they didn't even bother to send the "don't let your membership lapse" email. Somehow their CRM system has lost me; God knows if my money even went to football. For all I know it's going to 'Qaeda.

I joined the CAF a couple years ago at a Night with Cougar Football. Got the wife a few glasses of wine, we had a great time, and she signed off on doing a pretty decent monthly donation (for us). For some reason, the membership didn't just automatically renew after one year and the payments stopped. A lot harder to have to "resell" the membership to the wife when she's dead sober.

How is it that WSU can't just set the thing to autodraft forever until you tell them to stop?

 

[95coug]

I was annoyed for the same reasons. Also seriously questioned how the comparison to MSU is appropriate, considering differences in demographics and culture.

 

[YakiCoug]

Wow. Cougar fans (some of them, anyway) are natural born whiners. If there's any "scolding" in this mailing it comes in the attached opinion piece written by BX's Greg Witter who emphasizes Mississippi State's rise to national prominence. The piece makes some very good points, btw. I don't blame Moos for including it, but his own letter is merely a repeat of past and well taken points about boosters' support of Cougar athletics. It's quite tame compared with the vitriol that spewed forth from Jim Walden's ranting mouth back in the day and which continued after his boy's firing.
I'll venture to say one key reason we're stuck at 6,000 CAF donors is because many are just fine with sucking on the teat of Pac-12 TV revenue, even as they b!tch about Leach's salary, as if their contributions cover any of it.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Originally posted by Fab5Coug:

Originally posted by chipdouglas:
I became a CAF member online a couple years back. The whole process was sloppy--I got a sketchy confirmation email, and it took several months to receive my lame tchotchkes in the mail. This year, they didn't even bother to send the "don't let your membership lapse" email. Somehow their CRM system has lost me; God knows if my money even went to football. For all I know it's going to 'Qaeda.

I joined the CAF a couple years ago at a Night with Cougar Football. Got the wife a few glasses of wine, we had a great time, and she signed off on doing a pretty decent monthly donation (for us). For some reason, the membership didn't just automatically renew after one year and the payments stopped. A lot harder to have to "resell" the membership to the wife when she's dead sober.

How is it that WSU can't just set the thing to autodraft forever until you tell them to stop?

1) Same situation as your first paragraph. I've found $$ to throw once a year at them, but they are getting a lot less now.

2) They really screwed the pooch on this. Apparently it works properly now, but so much for the folks like you or I. To be honest, I was insulted/ pissed when I get a call and email telling me that I'm no longer a CAF member 6 months after it had lapsed. I'm thinking to myself "this is bullsh!t, I'm a CAF and I know it!"

I ask my wife and she's like "yep, the payments just stopped coming out. I thought that was your doing." *smh*

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Just two points represent my $0.02.


1.) Pursuing renewals are simply a matter of competence. Clearly, based on your experience, the organization was not fully competent. Hard to see it any other way. Yes, rookies and those who don't know better always focus on initial sales rather than retaining the existing customer base, regardless of how stupid or ignorant that is…business consultants stay in business helping dummies who don't understand this really fundamental principle.

2.) Bill is absolutely right to scold the folks for us having only 6,000 athletic fund people. You may not realize it, but WSU has the highest % of alum contributors in the PAC. We also have one of the smaller average amounts contributed. Since the days of Hello, WSU we as a university have built a great alum contribution base…but the athletic dep't, which did a good job of piggybacking on that during the middle 2000's, has seemingly dropped the ball more recently. I used to get calls from players once per year, leaving me a voicemail to thank me for the money. That hasn't happened in years.

Fundraising is an art and requires a really good director. I tend to look at results and grade the leader accordingly. Kind of looks like Bill needs somebody new for this job.

 

[GoldenCoug]

On point number 2 I agree and have had conversations with Moos and sent letters with this message.

WSU should be treated differently when scheduling game times. Because of the remote location fans have to travel much farther and it is a particular problem when it comes to traveling home at night after a 7:30 start. No other school in the Pac 12 has the issue of poor roads to travel back on like WSU. On top of that you don't really have the option of staying in the Pullman area because there are simply not enough rooms. That means you either travel down to Lewiston to stay (not optimal) or you have to go up to Spokane. The roads at night are an issue because they are primarily two lane highways that are more dangerous at night .

For this reason (safety) I think WSU should be prioritized for as many afternoon games as possible. This does not seem like it should be a big issue unless like the Oregon game last year ESPN really wants to slot it for a primetime night game.

I don't think thus far that Moos has been able to get much traction on this issue but he should keep pounding away on it until we get a postitive resolution.

 

[Loyal Coug]

I got this letter too......

...I read it and was a bit puzzled, stuck it in my basket to read again. I was annoyed that Bill quoted Brand X - like they are ESPN or ABC or something.

On a similar note - any Alumni Association Life members get the letter a month or so ago asking us to renew our "lapsed" memberships?

 

[95coug]

Re: I got this letter too......


Nope. Never saw anything from the alumni association. I'm Platinum Life though, so maybe a different mailing pool.

Starting to wonder just how much I got scammed on the Platinum LIfe deal...so far I haven't seen any benefits that separate it from the "basic" Life.

 

[Loyal Coug]

Re: I got this letter too......

Originally posted by 95coug:

Nope. Never saw anything from the alumni association. I'm Platinum Life though, so maybe a different mailing pool.

Starting to wonder just how much I got scammed on the Platinum LIfe deal...so far I haven't seen any benefits that separate it from the "basic" Life.


Well I don't know that I would call it "scammed", but yes it's simply a way to get more money out of us Life members that otherwise wouldn't donate. They are about out of tiles, so that revenue stream is drying up.

 

[E Jones]

Re: I got this letter too......


I have been getting something almost quarterly about upgrading to platinum life, but nothing about my membership being lapsed.

 

[Cougsocal]

I don't live in Washington anymore, so I don't have a season ticket package. When I had season tickets, they were on the ball. Now, when asked I contribute. The problem is there are years when I have not been asked. You'd think that they would look at the points total list and mine it annually, they don't. Last night I tried to make a pledge payment on line, but couldn't because the system is only set up for one time payments. So the check is in the mail.

Let's face it, Bill Moos is a "football floats all ships" one idea guy, an effective administrator he is not. If Mike Leach can't right the football ship, the next AD is going to need a hose and a shovel to clean up the mess. Our non-operating expenses remain unjustifiable high (i.e. 41%) compared to other P-12 schools with similar budgets.

 

[405 Coug]

Re: I got this letter too......


Agreed, first of all the sign up process and renewal process needs improvement. Maybe they should make this a joint assignment between marketing students and computer science majors and come up with a drip program that keeps all Cougs in the loop.

As for game times, Moos has not control over that, "we deserve special treatment because of our remote location" the Pac 12 doesn't care about Pullman's remote location, it's all about ratings. Moos has been working with the Pac 12, but we sold our soul to the Devil when we agreed to the TV money, and it is what it is, the pac 12's objective is to generate as much TV revenue as possible so all teams in the conference benifit. Unfortunately the remote location isn't much of a factor when the Pac 12 makes these decisions. Keep in mind without the Pac 12 money, there is no money for a name coaching staff, no South Side suites and lodge boxes, and no FOB, since WSU doesn't seem to be able to raise the money from it's alumni base it's not like we had a choice in the matter.

As for the late games, this is how I deal with it. I plan on an over and back trip the same day whenever possible, but I will book a room in Spokane, Lewistion, or Moscow, that allows for a 48 hour cancelation policy. Once the game time is announced I make my decision on staying or not staying. WSU season ticket prices are still some the cheapest in the league, which they always will be because of the added travel expense of going to Pullman. It would be nice to go back to the 1 or 2pm start times, but WSU will be lucky to get one of those a year, it is what it is. Being a Coug fan has never been easy, and traveling to the games is getting to be tougher, deal with it.

 

[95coug]

Re: I got this letter too......

Originally posted by Loyal Coug:

Well I don't know that I would call it "scammed", but yes it's simply a way to get more money out of us Life members that otherwise wouldn't donate. They are about out of tiles, so that revenue stream is drying up.

Well, I pretty much feel scammed. When they started the platinum thing, they advertised that there'd be additional, special benefits and discounts only available to platinum life members. Now they've completely reversed course, and say that platinum life members SUPPORT the expanded benefits and discounts. So basically, I paid an extra $600 or $800 (I don't remember) to get my name on a piece of Lexan stuck on the wall. Not what was sold to me, and with the list of available discounts (which are mostly in Moscow-Pullman, and they don't seem to be expanding) I don't see that there's a benefit to the buyer.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Re: I got this letter too......

Originally posted by 405 Coug:

Agreed, first of all the sign up process and renewal process needs improvement. Maybe they should make this a joint assignment between marketing students and computer science majors and come up with a drip program that keeps all Cougs in the loop.

As for game times, Moos has not control over that, "we deserve special treatment because of our remote location" the Pac 12 doesn't care about Pullman's remote location, it's all about ratings. Moos has been working with the Pac 12, but we sold our soul to the Devil when we agreed to the TV money, and it is what it is, the pac 12's objective is to generate as much TV revenue as possible so all teams in the conference benifit. Unfortunately the remote location isn't much of a factor when the Pac 12 makes these decisions. Keep in mind without the Pac 12 money, there is no money for a name coaching staff, no South Side suites and lodge boxes, and no FOB, since WSU doesn't seem to be able to raise the money from it's alumni base it's not like we had a choice in the matter.

As for the late games, this is how I deal with it. I plan on an over and back trip the same day whenever possible, but I will book a room in Spokane, Lewistion, or Moscow, that allows for a 48 hour cancelation policy. Once the game time is announced I make my decision on staying or not staying. WSU season ticket prices are still some the cheapest in the league, which they always will be because of the added travel expense of going to Pullman. It would be nice to go back to the 1 or 2pm start times, but WSU will be lucky to get one of those a year, it is what it is. Being a Coug fan has never been easy, and traveling to the games is getting to be tougher, deal with it.

IT projects are almost always at the bottom of the barrel for most organizations. "Don't fix it or invest in it until it is catastrophically broken" seems to be the prevailing mantra.

Well, guess what? That system is broken; has been since wsucougars.com has been up. They put a band-aid on it by allowing you to "sign up online" instead of having to print and fax a form. That was done around 3 years ago- you know with technology that was already 10 years old.

Plain and simply - Bill Moos doesn't care about being able to use technology to acquire or maintain CAF membership. Until he's gone, I don't anticipate it being fixed. (BTW, they know that the CAF enrollment via internet is broken, and have said as much. To me. They don't care enough to fix it.)