2200 days of Brad Edwards

[tblack33]

This seems like at least the fourth iteration of an Insiders type thing. Some of the benefits sound similar to various aspects of the original Insiders as well as later iterations. The Insiders was somewhat unofficial in nature. There was a minimum to go to the dinner and then donations were highly encouraged. The required amount was not near the additional $2,500, but I'd be willing to bet it raised a lot more money and this money all went to the benefit of basketball program, not to the general Patriot Club pool for all sports. It was run by volunteers headed by Brion of Brion's Grille and Coach L obviously participated and the Patriot Club/AD seemed to pretend it didn't exist at some level. There was obviously some sort of friction within the AD and/or PC about it, but Coach L put his weight behind it, so it happened. At one point, Brion handed control over to the Patriot Club (I can't remember why, might have been forced and/or when Hewitt came).

In the second iteration (the first iteration run by the Patriot Club who succeeded in ruining what it had been almost immediately) they would hold a dinner event with the coach and the team that was nice enough, just a lot more stuffy than the Insiders had been and it ceased to be much of a fundraiser, which was the main purpose of the original Insiders.

Sort of a third iteration was a very similar program to this latest one that included some one on one time with the coach at a sporting event. It was not advertised very widely and it was tailored for Hewitt to be a little more low key with fewer people per Hewitt's. I got the impression that Hewitt was sort of shy and did not like to speak to large groups of people. This was instituted, I think, like the first or second year of Hewitt's tenure. It would have been the year after Vaughn Gray initially disappeared from the court as I remember I got to ask him personally about the Vaughn Gray situation just before the start of the next season.

I am glad to see in this fourth iteration that they are really focusing on trying to raise funds for the program.

From reading your posts on here about the situation I understand why you don’t, but damn if I don’t wish you could go to these events for just that reason, to ask some damn basketball related questions to Paulsen. I highly doubt anyone at these events is asking anything remotely like that to Paulsen. Would love some insight from someone with that sort of access.

 

[mkaufman1]

From reading your posts on here about the situation I understand why you don’t, but damn if I don’t wish you could go to these events for just that reason, to ask some damn basketball related questions to Paulsen. I highly doubt anyone at these events is asking anything remotely like that to Paulsen. Would love some insight from someone with that sort of access.

not sure what questions you have but by George usually does a good job asking anything basketball related that we wonder about

 

[mkaufman1]

This seems like at least the fourth iteration of an Insiders type thing. Some of the benefits sound similar to various aspects of the original Insiders as well as later iterations. The Insiders was somewhat unofficial in nature. There was a minimum to go to the dinner and then donations were highly encouraged. The required amount was not near the additional $2,500, but I'd be willing to bet it raised a lot more money and this money all went to the benefit of basketball program, not to the general Patriot Club pool for all sports. It was run by volunteers headed by Brion of Brion's Grille and Coach L obviously participated and the Patriot Club/AD seemed to pretend it didn't exist at some level. There was obviously some sort of friction within the AD and/or PC about it, but Coach L put his weight behind it, so it happened. At one point, Brion handed control over to the Patriot Club (I can't remember why, might have been forced and/or when Hewitt came).

In the second iteration (the first iteration run by the Patriot Club who succeeded in ruining what it had been almost immediately) they would hold a dinner event with the coach and the team that was nice enough, just a lot more stuffy than the Insiders had been and it ceased to be much of a fundraiser, which was the main purpose of the original Insiders.

Sort of a third iteration was a very similar program to this latest one that included some one on one time with the coach at a sporting event. It was not advertised very widely and it was tailored for Hewitt to be a little more low key with fewer people per Hewitt's. I got the impression that Hewitt was sort of shy and did not like to speak to large groups of people. This was instituted, I think, like the first or second year of Hewitt's tenure. It would have been the year after Vaughn Gray initially disappeared from the court as I remember I got to ask him personally about the Vaughn Gray situation just before the start of the next season.

I am glad to see in this fourth iteration that they are really focusing on trying to raise funds for the program.

thanks. Oddly enough I actually spoke to @gmutom about the insiders tonight and he essentially highlighted what you mentioned.

 

[gmubrian]

thanks. Oddly enough I actually spoke to @gmutom about the insiders tonight and he essentially highlighted what you mentioned.

That reminded me about one thing Tom and I did together related to insiders, indirectly, that I don’t think he or I has ever mentioned on here. Since all the guilty parties that killed it are now (finally) gone from Mason I don’t think Tom will have a problem with me bringing it up.

We had an idea on how to connect fans to the program that couldn’t make it to insiders events (not local) or maybe the cost was too high, or want even more over and above being an Insider. It was to create an insiders website. It would require a modest subscription of say 10 bucks a month to have access. It would have regular content from the coaches, provide some benefits like swag.

There was interest and we even had a couple meetings with Mason about it. We had purchased the domain masoninsiders.com (I think I finally dropped it about a year or two ago when I was cleaning up a bunch of domains I wasn’t using). Tom and I even offered to run the site. The only sticking point was they had a problem with us even recovering our costs from it even though all profits were going to benefit the PC. So we offered to turn the domain over to them to run and we would help out on a voluntary basis. They couldn’t have us seen as somehow making money on it and they didn’t want to put their own resources to it. At that point it went nowhere, and died.

Tom, let me know if I got any of that wrong. It has been quite a while now...

 

[mkaufman1]

That reminded me about one thing Tom and I did together related to insiders, indirectly, that I don’t think he or I has ever mentioned on here. Since all the guilty parties that killed it are now (finally) gone from Mason I don’t think Tom will have a problem with me bringing it up.

We had an idea on how to connect fans to the program that couldn’t make it to insiders events (not local) or maybe the cost was too high, or want even more over and above being an Insider. It was to create an insiders website. It would require a modest subscription of say 10 bucks a month to have access. It would have regular content from the coaches, provide some benefits like swag.

There was interest and we even had a couple meetings with Mason about it. We had purchased the domain masoninsiders.com (I think I finally dropped it about a year or two ago when I was cleaning up a bunch of domains I wasn’t using). Tom and I even offered to run the site. The only sticking point was they had a problem with us even recovering our costs from it even though all profits were going to benefit the PC. So we offered to turn the domain over to them to run and we would help out on a voluntary basis. They couldn’t have us seen as somehow making money on it and they didn’t want to put their own resources to it. At that point it went nowhere, and died.

Tom, let me know if I got any of that wrong. It has been quite a while now...

ha, yeah Tom actually told me a bit of this story. First I heard of it was tonight. Doubt it would go anywhere now as well. If it takes an act of Congress for cheer sheets I’m sure it would be the same results for something like this.

I know some of us have asked about a coaches show. Hasn’t really gone anywhere either,

 

[Falco]

Honestly Brad sucks. He is literally stealing tax dollars to pay his friend to do nothing.

 

[gmutom]

Tom, let me know if I got any of that wrong. It has been quite a while now...

No, you pretty much nailed it. I still remember the lunch meeting we had at Brion's with "someone" from the Patriot Club when we presented our entire idea. We showed them a logo we had designed, the website comps, the names of the respective donor levels and, most importantly, how the PC could raise more money around and for men's basketball. The highest donors would get more exclusivity and contact with the staff/players, while the lowest donors (like students) would get an email from a coach on game day, recruiting news and something like Mason Insiders t-shirt. It would have been open to all fans, but the PC ultimately decided they didn't want to to outsource it even if we did it as volunteers.

 

[tblack33]

No, you pretty much nailed it. I still remember the lunch meeting we had at Brion's with "someone" from the Patriot Club when we presented our entire idea. We showed them a logo we had designed, the website comps, the names of the respective donor levels and, most importantly, how the PC could raise more money around and for men's basketball. The highest donors would get more exclusivity and contact with the staff/players, while the lowest donors (like students) would get an email from a coach on game day, recruiting news and something like Mason Insiders t-shirt. It would have been open to all fans, but the PC ultimately decided they didn't want to to outsource it even if we did it as volunteers.

Thats a shame. That’s something I’d donate towards today even in the sad state of the program, it sounded like a good idea with good intentions.

 

[JPgmuswim]

I would have liked it, in today’s age it would be nice to have a Mason insider App with all that info, coaches/players could upload videos or pictures. Could also include game day info, stat sheets. There could be a QR code at EBA to track attendance and enter for giveaways. And a more important feature. A donate button that can be clicked at anytime.

 

[gmubrian]

No, you pretty much nailed it. I still remember the lunch meeting we had at Brion's with "someone" from the Patriot Club when we presented our entire idea. We showed them a logo we had designed, the website comps, the names of the respective donor levels and, most importantly, how the PC could raise more money around and for men's basketball. The highest donors would get more exclusivity and contact with the staff/players, while the lowest donors (like students) would get an email from a coach on game day, recruiting news and something like Mason Insiders t-shirt. It would have been open to all fans, but the PC ultimately decided they didn't want to to outsource it even if we did it as volunteers.

I had forgotten that we had put all that together. That makes it even sadder that it went nowhere.

 

[mkaufman1]

Bummer that it didnt pan out.

That said, its a different era now, so at least theres some more content then back in the day. Doesn't excuse it though because they really could have been unique and at the forefront.

 

[gmubrian]

From reading your posts on here about the situation I understand why you don’t, but damn if I don’t wish you could go to these events for just that reason, to ask some damn basketball related questions to Paulsen. I highly doubt anyone at these events is asking anything remotely like that to Paulsen. Would love some insight from someone with that sort of access.

So I have been gone 8 months, I have nearly caught up on the main threads and now we have put our program on pause and now I am getting bored... Well, to keep us entertained during this lull, I'll tell anther story since your post reminded me of one of the Insiders events with Hewitt.

Some background first: I had gotten a reputation for asking questions at these events, some of them a little pointed. Coach L was the master of responding. Sometimes it would be coach speak, but frequently he would put you in your place with some pretty good facts or logic. Fast forward to the Hewitt days and if I remember the timing right, I had been a loyal team guy and supported Hewitt (and TOC's selection of him) for his first 2.5 years. Oddly enough, it was after a win that I actually came to the final realization that he was not the guy. I believe it was the Hawaii game. We won, but we lucked/backed into it.

There was an insiders event soon after this, I think just before the conference slate started. I had been preparing for what questions I would ask. One that was on the top of my list was along the lines of "If you don't win more than 4 games in conference, will you promise to resign?". I ultimately decided to take a different route. It came time during the dinner for the Q&A with the coach. They asked if anyone had any questions. I didn't raise my hand. A couple people who know that I was a question box at these events soft of called on me saying, "Brian, don't you have a question?". I just sat there silently and shook my head no, signifying I didn't have any interest in anything the coach had to say. There was a very awkward silence for Hewitt at this point. This actually worked a lot better than asking my actual question. If I had asked the question, I would have just been looked like an a-hole (which I admittedly am, but I didn't need to look like one at that moment). I had many people come up to me after that to point out how remaining silent had really sent a message. Now, it obviously didn't change anything, but at least I got my point across and I had taken the high road for once. ;-)

 

[GSII]

Can't wait for you to attend and not ask a question once again. The time has come.

 

[JPgmuswim]

Can't wait for you to attend and not ask a question once again. The time has come.

Since it’s been a while maybe it would be better for Brian to just ask when he’s resigning for not producing.

 

[Bricker]

That reminded me about one thing Tom and I did together related to insiders, indirectly, that I don’t think he or I has ever mentioned on here. Since all the guilty parties that killed it are now (finally) gone from Mason I don’t think Tom will have a problem with me bringing it up.

We had an idea on how to connect fans to the program that couldn’t make it to insiders events (not local) or maybe the cost was too high, or want even more over and above being an Insider. It was to create an insiders website. It would require a modest subscription of say 10 bucks a month to have access. It would have regular content from the coaches, provide some benefits like swag.

There was interest and we even had a couple meetings with Mason about it. We had purchased the domain masoninsiders.com (I think I finally dropped it about a year or two ago when I was cleaning up a bunch of domains I wasn’t using). Tom and I even offered to run the site. The only sticking point was they had a problem with us even recovering our costs from it even though all profits were going to benefit the PC. So we offered to turn the domain over to them to run and we would help out on a voluntary basis. They couldn’t have us seen as somehow making money on it and they didn’t want to put their own resources to it. At that point it went nowhere, and died.

Tom, let me know if I got any of that wrong. It has been quite a while now...

If anyone had told me the first half of this story, then asked "what happened?" I would have easily predicted the response. This is the classic Mason brush-off.

 

[mkaufman1]

If anyone had told me the first half of this story, then asked "what happened?" I would have easily predicted the response. This is the classic Mason brush-off.

it’s sad but it’s ultimately university culture. I tried hard to build a regional alumni chapter with events and pride. It was unique different and there was a lot of participation with folks attending events. But it got frustrating logistically and so I let it die.

Obviously nobody cared one way or another because I haven’t heard a peep about having a regional event even virtually or a “how are you guys”.

 

[sleeperpick]

it’s sad but it’s ultimately university culture. I tried hard to build a regional alumni chapter with events and pride. It was unique different and there was a lot of participation with folks attending events. But it got frustrating logistically and so I let it die.

Obviously nobody cared one way or another because I haven’t heard a peep about having a regional event even virtually or a “how are you guys”.

the University pays a ton of people a lot of money to do seemingly nothing... like that in most corporations but at least most corporations fake it. Mason doesn't even do that

 

[Bricker]

the University pays a ton of people a lot of money to do seemingly nothing... like that in most corporations but at least most corporations fake it. Mason doesn't even do that

Glad to see this hasn't changed

This was my experience during the previous century/early 00s. If I had to oversimplify it, I would say that the University simply outgrew many of the people who worked there, especially in decision-making and higher management roles. Slower pace/academic calendar and de-facto tenure doesn't lend itself to risk-taking in the first place. But with GMU, you had people who had worked there since it was a small, regional college and didn't see any reason to do things differently.

 

[sleeperpick]

Glad to see this hasn't changed

This was my experience during the previous century/early 00s. If I had to oversimplify it, I would say that the University simply outgrew many of the people who worked there, especially in decision-making and higher management roles. Slower pace/academic calendar and de-facto tenure doesn't lend itself to risk-taking in the first place. But with GMU, you had people who had worked there since it was a small, regional college and didn't see any reason to do things differently.

it probably did change a lot for the better since early 00s but it is still ridiculously bad IMO

 

[mkaufman1]

I should probably clarify my experience:

When I first started the group, the folks we worked with were great and actually two steps ahead of any and all thinking we had. There was some changeover and that quickly went away. Just the personality of who is in charge and priorities I guess. Its fine because our side kinda got bored of it too. More on the alumni association side of things.

Needless to say it's not athletics people. They actually do say hello or we text occasionally.I just think the old guard sorta hamstrings the new guard. They are actually really interested in what we do and super supportive but defer to a degree since its alumni focused activities which is understandable. Hopefully after the pandemic and we can attend games again, we'll carry on as usual.