Tuesday, May 04, 2010

A Reponse to Snuffy

Snuffy from Wilmington Island, GA writes:  What would make you more inclined to donate to (Benedictine Military School)? Give me some constructive criticism that I can pass along to our Advancement Office.

Snuffy, I realize you cannot be all things to all people, and that the same goes for BC.  We aren't living in a perfect world and I am only one person, so my demands will seem unreasonable and may not be shared by many.  But I would be far more likely to donate (and we are talking in the thousands, not hundreds) if the donation-seekers were to spell out clearly-written and clearly-definable goals for the school so that we have something to get behind, become invested in, and feel good about when things go right.  So here would be my list of goals:

1.  Move back to 5A/play Savannah schools in sports.  I realize this has already happened but I felt like listing it because it was a major accomplishment that cost nothing, will yield plenty of dividends during the next few seasons, and can give us some momentum toward the accomplishment of the next few agenda items...  

2.  Pledge that next year's tuition increase will not rise above inflation (3-4%).  Make whatever cuts are necessary to ensure this happens.  Easier said than done, right?  I don't know.  Any other reputable business lays off people when revenue drops.  I'm just not sure that has happened at ol' Seawright Drive.  I certainly want Snuffy to keep his job though, so let's ensure he stays or gets promoted.  Just make sure we don't have teachers sitting around teaching classes of 5-10 kids in them because that is unjustified.

3.  Pledge to reduce the gap between what it costs to educate a BC student and what the average BC student/family pays for in tuition by 20% by next year.  Or just give the alumni the assurance that something is being done to restrain/reduce this ever-widening gap.  Capital campaigns and scholarships for the truly needy are certainly justified but donations should not be used to subsidize the broad swath of middle class kids that attend the school.  Reduce the price tag across the board and make all but the bottom 15% of income-earning parents of students pay it.

4.  Communicate unequivocally and emphatically that the JROTC program is never going away.  Father Frank does this in his talks at alumni meetings, so it just needs to be written down and enunciated to the alumni base at large, some of whom may have fears that it's not staying given there was a motion some years back to do away with it.  Just to be clear, if they ever did away with military I would never donate another nickel to BC.  Just sayin'.

5.  Bring the donkey back at the football games next season.  Why not?  

6.  Update everyone on how successful the administration has been in achieving the above agenda items one year from now.  Simple enough.

I know you're probably thinking, "Pat, we're already doing some or most of these things."  Great, then communicate it to us!  And I don't mean you personally, because it's not your responsibility - you are the admissions guy and are already doing a bang-up job.  But just have the administration give me/us/whoever else agrees with me a few agenda items we can get behind so that we can feel truly pumped up about and invested in an outcome that can be measured.  Talk about them in the Banner, the Cadence, the Guidon, and all those other little spontaneous, randomly-created .pdf's that Pam girl sends out when she feels like it.  

I never donate money at church because I usually have no idea where that money is going or for what purpose.  And I don't feel a shred of guilt because of it either.  But I will always buy Warren Buffet's stock because he has a clear vision and every quarter he lays out 4-5 challenging but acheivable goals for where his company is going and where he wants it to be 3-5 years from now.  BC should be no different!!

C/LTC Holland, '01

32 comments:

Ryan said...

Pretty reasonable.

HANK said...

I will give thousands of dollars if BC bans sweat shirts from the campus, especially-those known as "hoodies."

Bring back the v-neck sweaters. The hoodies and sweat shirts look like crap, which could correlate in the students acting like crap. Better yet, I would like to see the sports coat brought back for non military days.

Weazle said...

I'm still not sure who HANK is, but based on the last statement, it must be a 80+ year old.

Barstool69 said...

gotta disagree with you on AAAAA. We're #2 in the Director's Cup and for the first time in my life, I've seen BC flags hanging up on houses in Ardsley park. I think it's obvious which classification drives more interest/donations.

Snuffy said...

Pat, that is exactly what I was looking for.

Stevo, I agree that the hooded sweatshirts have to go, but I don't think v-neck sweaters is the answer.

PBung, Hank is Leonard.

Schiv, the reason that this is the first time you have seen a BC house flag, is because the PTO Cadet Shop just started selling them this year.

However, I believe the particular house in Ardsley Park to which you refer is on the corner of Abercorn and and 45th. That particular alumnus had his own flag made a few years ago.

Barstool69 said...

fair enough, but excitement and interest have been up since our teams have been ranked in the top 10 and won some playoff games.

Weazle said...

Snuffy and Hank could meet in the middle with V-neck hoodies???

HANK said...

While we're at it, let's get rid of those computer gadgets at BC.

I never did trust robots.

David Cuntfunkel said...

I couldn't agree more with Pat. Let's face it, BC doesn't have the same image among parents and alumni it did 10, 20 years ago. It seems like increased tuition and annual donations are put toward growing debt.

Reality is BC needs to trim the fat, get a little smarter with spending and alumni relations. Has an outside party evaluated the current budget or is it still in house?

The school cannot rely on alumni donations to solve the deficit. Things have changed, many alumni who would normally give more and have the means to aren't. Why has the overall feel of BC and the management changed since the 90s? We need to identify the issues and esablish specific goals and targets to achieve.

I love BC but just don't believe the ones in charge can handle the obstacle that is slowly growing every year. BC's answer to everything is another way to donate money.

BCSAV said...

BC is still the best place for a kid to get an education in the state of Georgia. The financial problems are not good at all and need to be fixed. But as long as JROTC stays put, athletics have a year like this one, the alumni turn out like they did at AASU, and Mr. T, Chief Carl, and Coach Curley are walking the halls, you know BC is still what it needs to be. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Barstool69 said...

Not disagreeing with all of your suggestions, but academically, it's a better school than it was 10-20 years ago.

Barstool69 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JJBA said...

Probably not A because proportionately A will decrease in its maximum number of students just as AAAAA will increase. AAAAA will get so big that a lot of the non-Atlanta 4A and 5A schools will drop to 3A and 4A. Theres also a good chance that the GHSA will do away with 5A and go back to 4 classifications due to the disparity of number of schools within each classification. Theres no telling what Savannah schools will do in the future but eventually there is a good chance they will drop in classification just as some of the south GA 5A schools will. How this effects BC is to be determined but in 10 years it is very unlikely BC will be in the highest classification, whatever that may be.

Snuffy said...

Rob, welcome to BMBS.

The budget is controlled by a Board of Directors. The Chairman of the Board is Bill Schmitt, who retired as a Senior VP of American Greetings Corp. and the President of the American Greetings division. He is Catholic, but not an alumnus, and he is completing his first year as Board Chairman.

"...many alumni who would normally give more and have the means to aren't." - That may be true, however, more alumni who have not been active supporters in the past have become involved, and those that are consistent supporters have been more generous. Last year's Annual Fund of approx. $300k was the highest ever. This year we already have over $370k in pledges.

Now, I know your response is going to be, "then why is tuition still going up and why is the school still in debt?" My point is things are changing, but change does not happen overnight. It took us about 15 years to fall this far. It is going to take time to climb back up. Increased enrollment and increased annual giving are two pretty good indicators that things are heading in the right direction.

"Why has the overall feel of BC and the management changed since the 90s?" - The 90s ended 10 years ago. The BC today is not the same BC from the 90s. Nor was the BC from the 90s that I attended the same BC from the 80s. Schools have to adapt or else they become extinct, like the dinosaurs. BC has been slow to adapt to the changing competitive environment. But, as I said above, good things are happening.

All that said, BC does need to do a better job of communicating the progress it is making.

And Schiv, you are correct in that the academics have improved. You are also correct that we will not be able to have the same level of overall athletic success in 5A that we currently have in 2A. However, I will give you this comparison. Stanford University is always in the running for the Sears Directors Cup, given to the top collegiate athletic program in the country, because they dominate all the minor sports. However, most people would not consider Stanford an athletic powerhouse, like Texas. If BC is not relevant in football, the entire athletics program's image suffers.

Barstool69 said...

I agree that football relevance is concern #1. Without a doubt. But your definition of "relevance" seems to be beating pretty bad SAV public schools, NEVER winning a region title and losing in the first round of the playoffs every year (I appreciate the notable exceptions and will eat crow when we beat Camden and win region - but that may be quite some time).

Your suggestion is that BC is solving its football relevancy issue by moving to a weaker region. This is a bad approach. BC should solve the problem by improving the program from top to bottom, not throwing in the towel. Every other BC sports program that is ranked in the top 10 would appreciate it.

If the move to AAAAA is to face weaker football competition at the expense of the other programs, then I say shame on the decision makers. I also don't buy the "traditional rival" argument. There's a heck of a lot more excitement around a program that's making a playoff run (see basketball) than football playing Johnson, Groves, Windsor, etc.

My 2 cents: Stay in AA. Improve the football program.

Patrick said...

There's no question that if your favorite sports are fencing and roller-bobsledding, then AA is the place to be. Some of us like to dream a little bigger than that, though.

Barstool69 said...

So for football, your big dream is to play inferior competition in AAAAA because BC can't hack it in AA? I don't get it, Pat.

You prefer the loftier title of AAAAA. I prefer the loftier competition AND an actual shot to reward the players in the postseason.

The funny thing is that if the SAV schools were properly classified, NOBODY would be clamoring for a return to AAAAA. It'd be whichever class the SAV schools were in, even if (gasp!) it weren't the "highest classification".

Frank said...

PATRICK - appreciate you and SNUFFY spurring some discussion on this. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the publications you mentioned. They are very valuable tools in relaying info to interest parties.

SNUFFY - The school claims that the increase in tutition is due to the fact that the current number doesn't cover "the cost to educate a student." The statement is flawed in several senses and quite frankly it is kind of insulting based on its relative nature. The cost to educate a student is relative. If you wanted to bring in college professors, the number would be higher. If you wanted to bring in Bill Gates, the number would be even higher. The point is that you can spend whatever you want to "educate" a person. But a line has to be drawn somewhere. Also, BC is not solely about academics. It is just as much about athletics, JROTC, and tradition. The BC brand is one whose goal is to produce well rounded young men who are prepared for the real world, not Rhodes Scholars. Obvioulsy the two are not mutually exclusive, but ultimately the mission of BC is to prepare young men for life, which includes facets outside of the classroom.

HANK, I'm sure the hoodies comment is somewhat tongue in cheek, but in my opinion this senior class was VERY impressive in the things they were able to accomplish.

BARSTOOL, don't you see the irony in your comment? YOu are arguing against weaker competition of AAAAA in lieu of weaker competition in AA. We can compete in AAAAA. We have. We beat Camden in their house in 2000 with bunch of no name blue collar products of the Savannah parochial school system to win Region AAAAA. And guess what, I would argue that that football team got more notariety in Savannah than the current (and impressive I might add) tennis team. I didn't know anything about the tennis team until I saw a post on OIA. Beating Jenkins every Friday night in Memorial Stadium is going to get you more exposure regionally than beating Pierce County for the rowing championship every couple of years. I've never even heard of the director's cup until you mentioned it here. If I had my way, I'd start a Savannah region (all public school plus BC, Sav Christian, Calvary, SDS, no Glynn, no Brunswick, no Camden). That'd give you 3 instant rivals (plus Sav High).


At any rate, that fact the we are discussing this just proves that BC is on the right track because there are people out there who give a shit. But I pose this question: what have you personally done to improve the situation? Have you supported the Cadets at sporting events? Have you reached out to the administration with your concerns? On a basic level, have you gotten involved with the alum assc? I was asked to be on the Alum Board effective last summer, and let me tell you the numbers are downright pathetic. When I came on, we had 160 members out of 3200 living alumni. We have no voice because we have no members. Tim has done a hell of a job strengthening our organization over the last year, but we are nowhere near where we need to be. It is imperative that we aggregate our voice. I would encourage all of you to join and reach out to your classmates to join. I am spearheading the social events committee and we are working towards starting a quarterly meet and greet where we'll encourage members to express their concerns and we'll also update the progress and agenda of the assc. It'll also be a great opportunity to swap war stories with guys you haven't seen in ages and recall that time in LET III when the guy sitting next to you farted and Chief Karl went berserk (true story). It should be a successful event and I encourage you all to keep an eye out for a "spontaneous, randomly-created .pdf's that Pam girl sends out when she feels like it."

Barstool69 said...

Frank -

Competition is better in our AA region in nearly every sport than in the AAAAA region we are about to join (basketball the obvious exception).

But I think we're all talking past each other until we answer this question: Why do you want to be in AAAAA or AA?

I presume you want to be in AAAAA to be able to say we play the best. Our AA region is better in football top to bottom than 3-AAAAA. Or do you want to be in AAAAA because we supposedly get better press - again I say if you have a good team, the press will be there (basketball)

I want to be in AA because 1) it's better quality football top to bottom and 2) there's an actual chance of making noise on the state level. Finally, I see the move to AAAAA as "throwing in the towel" and admitting we can't compete in our AA football region.

Obviously, football got more notoriety than tennis. Let's make a better comparison. I would say this year's basketball team got as much notoriety as the 2000 football team.

Although I don't wholeheartedly agree that beating cellar dweller SAV schools gets you more press than beating Pierce, I can say that making playoff runs gets you the most (something that is seemingly never done in AAAAA).

The 2000 team isn't a good benchmark to measure the level our football program is at. That was a freak of a team. The question is, when we have that once every 10 year team like we had in 2000, do you want to win region, or do you want to win state?

I appreciate this convo as well. It makes sitting at a computer in the library trying to study for 12 hours a lot more bearable.

Frank said...

Let me first say that I don't necessarily care what class we are in. What I care about is the reputation of BC regionally. If you start the Savannah region (with SCPS, SCDS, Calvary) I could care less if it's A or AAAAA. With that established, the common BC supporter does not know Pierce Co from a hole in the ground. What they do know is a memory of when some punk from Jenkins tried to take a swipe at him on the bottom of a pile in a football game in 1992. David Kouncil said it best at a recent ceremony inducting him and others into the Coach Harry Deal Wall of Fame (I'm paraphrasing here): "It is difficult for alumni to associate with the teams we currently play because we don't know who they are or what they represent." I must confess to not knowing the quality of competition in Region AA versus Region AAAAA across the board. But my point is that you are going to get half as many people go to a BC Football road game at Pierce Co than a road game at Memorial Stadium. People show up at Memorial. And at Church on Sunday, they talk about the BC win they watched in person Friday night and the awesome run John Williams had in the 3rd quarter. And then the Board of Directors counts they money they are saving from travel.

I don't know what year you were BARSTOOL, but a good example of this is two seperate games from the 2000 season. Early in the season, BC destroyed Beach High School. Not only did they get the full front page of the paper on Saturday morning, but they also got a full page preview on Friday morning. Later in the season, BC beat Camden on the road on a field goal in the last minute in what was probably one of the greatest BC wins of the decade. There was a two sentence article in the savannah paper the next morning. I think you are underestimating the intrigue of the city matchups, at least from the SMN perspective (and thus, their readers).

Ryan said...

I'm with Frank on his reasoning here.

Frank said...

I'll also add that I suspect you are basing your thought process on Savannah Christian's run in the state playoffs this past season and the publicity they received. But you have to wonder if that wasn't a once in a lifetime deal for them. It had never happened before, and Chumley is likely to move on at some point (why we didn't get him I'll never understand and I think that would have fixed a lot of problems had we gotten him). But do you remember how much sustained regional buzz there was around the BC football prgram from 1993 to 2003? And how many playoff games did we win? 3 (95-96)? But BC was the place to go in Savannah. And then we moved to AA. Coincidence?

BCSAV said...

Obviously everyone has their own preference in what they want for BC. More press, local success, local rivalries, better opportunity to compete on a state level, winning region championships.

The day the Savannah public schools decide to play in their designated classification, the chance of all those things happening at the same time greatly increases.

BCSAV said...

Chumley left BC the year before Brackett resigned. At that point he felt that he could not leave SCPS after just one year as head coach in waiting.

Frank said...

Puhhh-lease. Unless you heard that directly from the cherry-flavored Skoal dip stained lips of Donald Chumley himself, I ain't buying it.

Barstool69 said...

Good teams get press and interest. Nobody knew who the hell any of those teams were that BC basketball played, but they got the gym packed with more people than I've ever heard of.

You've got a point on travel expenses and away games (since they aren't at Memorial). Although I will say the same people that go to random AA away games go to Wayne County, etc. away games.

BC started sucking (sorry to my classmates) in football before we dropped to AAA. Then we started sucking in AA so we're moving to AAAAA. Back and forth.

I don't think it's right to correlate attendance with regional football buzz.

All in all, I think we just value different things. But I really do think interest and press in football would be great if we were challenging for region and winning playoff games.

I think you were right on your earlier assessment of the typical BC alumni. Long on complaints - short on donations and involvement.

Frank said...

I think these are all valid points and I hope that you will all show up to discuss and debate them when we kick off the quarterly meet and greet.

Weazle said...

All this talk about well-rounded students being produced, and no mention of spiritual growth or public service!? I went to a Catholic high school, and that is all we ever heard about...probably not as important as JROTC or tradition though.

Frank said...

Your Holyness,

While I did not explicitly mention spiritual growth or public service, I thought I had my made point clear in saying, "...which includes facets outside of the classroom."

Kind of like adding "etc." to the end of a list. Or like saying "including but not limited to these things." Is that clearer? Or should I have included a paragraph about how I was better off in life after writing THAT paper in Father Jeffrey's freshman religion class?

But what is a nice, respectful, thoughtful discussion without a serious dose of snark? Nice catch there, Ace.

Weazle said...

I misread. I thought you said other faucets.

Snuffy said...

Ya'll need to chill out. It's just a high school.

Pl0we said...

BC = best school ever