UT Emails ... Make it STOP!

[Guest Lobo]

Great point, imagine how rough recruiting is gonna be for upperclassmen this year and probably next.  Do what you can, remember how hard it was for us.  Good news is that it ain't hard, it's easier and cheaper than ever to recruit.  And they're so much damn smarter than we were.  Let's remember why we're Longhorns.  

[Tailgate 3,022]

I lost complete respect for “Texas Exes” when I found out (right after I graduated in 91’) that anyone can join Texas Exes and put that little sticker on their car.

Was mind blown. Why not create a “Texas Fan” club? To have a Texas Exes sticker, license plate...whatever...on your car/home/whatever and not to be really a Texas Ex...is complete stupidity.

I wonder if Stanford runs “Stanford Exes” in the same business model.

[DaysOff 7,969]

Lobo doesn't even understand that. Really no different than aggys century club sticker. My wife is a life member and graduated from UTMB Galveston.

[Guest Lobo]

John Wayne is a Texas Exes Life Member.  As is my Wife.  They both have the same number of UT Credit Hours.  It's not really a concern though, 99.9% of the Life Members of Texas Exes who are not literal alumni of UT-Austin are spouses of alumni of UT-Austin.  Most of the remainder come from Units on campus that don't have an alumni base from which to draw.  Like the Blanton Museum of Art, Texas Performing Arts, Ransom Center, et. al.  Those places don't graduate alums who come back and buy memberships.  But they engage people who want to have deeper ties to UT-Austin because of those gateway institutions.  

Yeah, some joe-schmoe off the street can go into that building and buy a membership package.  But that happens literally maybe with 1 person per year.  That's it, everybody else has some blood or marital tie to a traditional Life Member who did a degree at UT-Austin.  

How do I not understand that, DaysOff?  Serious question.  Happy to engage with you in the nuances of Texas Exes memberships.  Like you, I think it's largely misunderstood.  What is also wildly understood not just on the front end of marketing, is where that money goes.  That $130mm endowment is massively impactful on scholarship at UT-Austin.  Beyond compare.  The Tower, the System, the Board of Regents.  They don't handle scholarships for folks like you and I, and hopefully our children..  It's run by Texas Exes form the endowment, to the OCIO, to the staff who administer and mentor the kids.  And a huge, huge chunk of that money comes from Life Memberships.  

Edited September 16, 2020 by Lobo

[Murfdogg21 4,423]

If they really wanted to raise money, they should put together some coed calendars or something along those lines. Make the ladies putting themselves through college have/show some skin in it. 

[StassneyHorn 6,627]

I worked for the Hooked on Texas call center exactly one day before I decided to walk out, go to Omaha, and watch Cameron Rupp hit a ball over a flag pole in centerfield at Rosenblatt. I also watched us hit 5 HR in a game and lose to LSU in game 1 so now I’m sad again. That job fucking sucks.

[AUS-97HORN 11,814]

Im now up to 10 fucking emails since 8p yest.  just got a "2 Hours left" email.

This is going to fucking backfire on them    I understand and agree with 1 headsup email,  then 1 day before and the day of....   but thats 3 over like 1 week. 

fucking 10 emails in one 24 hour period is absolutely terrible. 

[Hagbard Celine 10,909]

9 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Being the Jones’ comes at a cost.  I’ve never gotten one email from my poor ass school.  To be fair, they probably assume none of their alumni make any money.  

I know you IRL, I have your cell, and I'm going to call Norman in the morning and tell them you're rich. 

[Hagbard Celine 10,909]

9 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:

The emails that get me are the ones that started coming in March saying, in essence, "Hey, lots of folks are fixing to die.  If you die, don't you want to leave most of your estate to The University?"  I work at a shit plant, how much do you think I can leave you?  My wife and kids are kinda my priorities, and I never attended UT, so I have to pass on that.

That's the one that pissed me off and I started unsubbing every mail I received, it was like whack-a-mole.  It took a week to get them all killed off.  And they still cheat every once in a while.

I'm sure they are freaked out at the number of people who unsubbed for whatever reason, especially those who disagreed with the decision to play.

[Hagbard Celine 10,909]

6 hours ago, TornACL said:

That's even worse. I thought UT hired some contractor to help clean up the records.

This is just a data mining activity for a third party and doesn't have anything to do with UT whatsoever. 

Good, if UT is getting paid and the third party is incurring costs to keep sending these postcards out then I will gladly continue to wipe my ass with them.

hoaring out alumni for dataprofit is low class and is another reason i unsubbed from everything

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

4 hours ago, Lobo said:

John Wayne is a Texas Exes Life Member.  As is my Wife.  They both have the same number of UT Credit Hours.  It's not really a concern though, 99.9% of the Life Members of Texas Exes who are not literal alumni of UT-Austin are spouses of alumni of UT-Austin.  Most of the remainder come from Units on campus that don't have an alumni base from which to draw.  Like the Blanton Museum of Art, Texas Performing Arts, Ransom Center, et. al.  Those places don't graduate alums who come back and buy memberships.  But they engage people who want to have deeper ties to UT-Austin because of those gateway institutions.  

Yeah, some joe-schmoe off the street can go into that building and buy a membership package.  But that happens literally maybe with 1 person per year.  That's it, everybody else has some blood or marital tie to a traditional Life Member who did a degree at UT-Austin.  

How do I not understand that, DaysOff?  Serious question.  Happy to engage with you in the nuances of Texas Exes memberships.  Like you, I think it's largely misunderstood.  What is also wildly understood not just on the front end of marketing, is where that money goes.  That $130mm endowment is massively impactful on scholarship at UT-Austin.  Beyond compare.  The Tower, the System, the Board of Regents.  They don't handle scholarships for folks like you and I, and hopefully our children..  It's run by Texas Exes form the endowment, to the OCIO, to the staff who administer and mentor the kids.  And a huge, huge chunk of that money comes from Life Memberships.  

I'm a life member.  I have gotten close to zero personal value from it except for the license plate frame.  I'm glad that money goes/went to students and I don't have a problem at all with it being open sign up.  Still, I don't see why anyone that isn't a Texas Ex would want to sign up to be one.   There are other/better ways to get money to charity even if your only goal is to get money to current/future UT students.

But, I will say my charitable dollars have gone elsewhere for 10 to 15 years now, and with other (to me at least) more pressing needs taking my limited charity dollars, it is unlikely that I'll donate to UT again any time soon.  Yet I still get hammered with these emails.

[TKthunder2 4,997]

12 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

But, I will say my charitable dollars have gone elsewhere for 10 to 15 years now, and with other (to me at least) more pressing needs taking my limited charity dollars, it is unlikely that I'll donate to UT again any time soon.  Yet I still get hammered with these emails.

Odd you spend time on a UT message board and won’t donate again soon.  Not criticizing, I’ve just found this sentiment prevalent in some recent conversations.  I understand they can be annoying and 100% yes there are better places to spend your limited charitable donations right now (trust me we’re doing the same) I would still HIGHLY encourage you to at least contribute $100 a year if you can.  Things like the USN&WR rate universities on how many alumni donate and of course how much, so even at $100/year your donation still counts toward our overall alumni donation numbers and that means a lot especially at a time like this.  Just my 2 cents.

[CooterBrown 18,022]

Change your email with them to a burner account or just filter the sender straight to trash.

[FondrenRoad 4,378]

1 hour ago, TKthunder2 said:

Odd you spend time on a UT message board and won’t donate again soon.  Not criticizing, I’ve just found this sentiment prevalent in some recent conversations.  I understand they can be annoying and 100% yes there are better places to spend your limited charitable donations right now (trust me we’re doing the same) I would still HIGHLY encourage you to at least contribute $100 a year if you can.  Things like the USN&WR rate universities on how many alumni donate and of course how much, so even at $100/year your donation still counts toward our overall alumni donation numbers and that means a lot especially at a time like this.  Just my 2 cents.

I respect your opinion and understand it, but I don't think its all that odd.  I post on this board because I'm an alumni and a fan of UT sports.  But I also paid to attend UT and continued to pay for around 10 years after I attended.  Honestly, I'm really not interested in paying for scholarships through donations.  Private funds should pay for those.  I'm also not interested in paying for upgrades to infrastructure.  State funds should pay for those.  However, I could be interested in donations that lower overall tuition for everyone.  When that starts happening transparently, I may start donating.

But honestly, the above paragraph is a pre-covid assessment.

Right now, I'm lucky to still be doing well.  My charity money used to be split between a variety of things, but it was mostly legal aid.  All of it now currently goes to local food banks and homeless outreach.  If I had an extra $100 to give to UT right now, I'd instead give $100 more to them.  My relatively wealthy urban neighborhood has 3 church based food banks with lines that circle the block every day.  It isn't the time for an actually wealthy university to ask for money.  I don't really care if the climbing wall at Gregory is getting old.

 

Edited September 17, 2020 by FondrenRoad

[Ignatius 4,017]

What percentage of the athletic department’s gross revenue ends up going over to the general university?

Edited September 17, 2020 by Ignatius

[Guest Lobo]

For a number of years, it was roughly 10% (not gross and not net, it was a blended number based on kinda net of tickets/donations but gross of LHN in an f'd up algorithim that V&E came up with).  However, I'm sure it's going to be a wildly different number this time around (Read:  Lower).  

[TornACL 7,722]

UT *could" use an international airport, Mr. Fondren.

[ChiTownDoc 21,154]

8 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

I know you IRL, I have your cell, and I'm going to call Norman in the morning and tell them you're rich. 

🤐

Who knew of all things that would be what would shut me up...

[bernorange 8,363]

19 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

i mean, that's just a naked way to get you into a donation sales pitch, isn't it? ...

No, it's a naked way to get you into a sale pitch to buy the alumni directory.

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

19 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

i mean, that's just a naked way to get you into a donation sales pitch, isn't it? i get your postcards, addressed to me, at my new address, you've already fucking found me. yes, i also still get the alcalde, despite never updating my address with them. they are masters at finding you. i also get your calls, but i never answer them. if i want to cut a check, i'll cut a check, otherwise, leave me alone, yall.

They want tour info so they can sell you a $400 phone book called an “alumni directory”

It’s literally the same scam as “Hey, you’re one of Random Official-Sounding Organization’s Top 300 in Whatever.”  Then they call you to “make sure they have your personal details correct for the award.”  On that call they ask you to pay $500 for a plaque or book commemorating your lofty status. 

I had a case against a guy whose office was filled with those bogus certificates, plaques and awards, and I will say it seemed to impress clients. 
 

 

[Guest Lobo]

I used to (and still do an extent) think that those "directories" of who's-who alumni, or people under 40, or whatever profession were bullshit and that they'd eventually fall by the wayside.  But then you pick up a copy of Texas Monthly or Austin Monthly or whatever the douchey equivalent is in Houston or Dallas and you see that every other issue has 50 pages of "Best Area Doctors" or "Who's Who Attorneys in the Metroplex" or "Top Tier Real Estate Movers 'n Shakers" or whatever the fuck.  It's the same fucking people year after year in some "Special Advertising Section." '

And I think, "Surely this business model is dead" as I'm watching a friend stroke a check for $500 to be listed in one of these bullshit magazine listings.  But the reason I think they'll sustain themselves somehow is that half these lawyers, real estate professionals, physicians, et. al. keep ponying up for this crap is they list it on their firm's website or on their CV like it means something, "Dallas Area Top 50 Attorney."  I mean it's one thing to do it for a goof at a fundraiser.  But to list it alongside your actual credentials, or often in place of legitimate credentials.......it's fucking insanity.  

Anyway, glad the fundraising cycle is over..........until December.  

 

[bernorange 8,363]

At least the magazine lists have some advertising value (potentially driving new business).  They aren't a 100% vanity play.

[CooterBrown 18,022]

8 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I used to (and still do an extent) think that those "directories" of who's-who alumni, or people under 40, or whatever profession were bullshit and that they'd eventually fall by the wayside.  But then you pick up a copy of Texas Monthly or Austin Monthly or whatever the douchey equivalent is in Houston or Dallas and you see that every other issue has 50 pages of "Best Area Doctors" or "Who's Who Attorneys in the Metroplex" or "Top Tier Real Estate Movers 'n Shakers" or whatever the fuck.  It's the same fucking people year after year in some "Special Advertising Section." '

And I think, "Surely this business model is dead" as I'm watching a friend stroke a check for $500 to be listed in one of these bullshit magazine listings.  But the reason I think they'll sustain themselves somehow is that half these lawyers, real estate professionals, physicians, et. al. keep ponying up for this crap is they list it on their firm's website or on their CV like it means something, "Dallas Area Top 50 Attorney."  I mean it's one thing to do it for a goof at a fundraiser.  But to list it alongside your actual credentials, or often in place of legitimate credentials.......it's fucking insanity.  

Anyway, glad the fundraising cycle is over..........until December.  

 

It's a cheap way to buy a full page ad in a magazine.  If one moron picks their attorney from one of those ads, then it was well worth it. There are a lot of morons.

[Guest Lobo]

I prefer my lawyers to be like Krispy Kreme or South Austin's Mom.

If you're that good, you don't need no stinkin' ads.  Word of Mouth......or the Mouth Itself. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Lobo

[hayden_horn 11,365]

i got another fucking email today from the exes asking me to:

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jesus fucking christ make it stop

[SquishMitten 10,425]

I’m convinced that we now offer a degree in cold-calling and debt collection. They are really getting in the practice reps.

[SquishMitten 10,425]

It's a cheap way to buy a full page ad in a magazine.  If one moron picks their attorney from one of those ads, then it was well worth it. There are a lot of morons.

I prefer my colleagues respect over the business of one or two morons. Anytime I have to deal with someone who has a “Super Lawyer” “award” I know I’m almost certainly dealing with a jackass

 

* I realize some of them were forced into it by their firm. Sucks for them.