President Authement Approved the Athletic Network Concept

May 2, 2002 President Authement Approved the Athletic Network Concept

5/02/05

So you may keep things in perspective, three years ago (after months of planning – primarily John, Liz, and myself – and countless others who acted as sounding boards and devil’s advocates)…Liz Landry and I met with Dr. Authement and obtained his approval and support to launch the Athletic Network.

The mission was to identify, contact, and communicate with current/former athletes and their support groups.

Armed only with the approved AN concept and enthusiastic support from former athletes and others, I committed to Dr. Authement that we would do our best…that we would learn as we went because no website of this type existed.

With Dr. Authement’s support we began the process of building the AN into what it is today. Although at the time, we had no office, no supplies, no technology equipment, no host, no sponsors, no AN Captains…and I had made a serious committment to Dr. Authement while beginning the second year of my retirement from the university.

Liz Landry allowed us to be housed in the Advancement area and the entire Alumni Complex offered their cooperation in words and actions.

Three years later, thousands of profiles and hundreds of pictures are posted; approximately one thousand news stories have been posted each year;over 20 newsletters are sent per month; thousands of athletes have been identified by sport and year…and it only took slightly over 10,000 emails – no count on phone calls, letters, personal contacts, etc., and that was only from our office. The count for volunteers would increase those numbers greatly.

Although we can’t name all who have helped in the success of the AN, you know who you are (and we can’t forget you) and we thank you…all of the over 300 volunteers who continue to contribute to the success. You truly care for the university and its family members.

So how did we do last month…the final month in our three year life?
What a difference a month makes…and what a difference a year makes.
Move over Feb., 2005, previous record-setting month, April, 2005 has been recorded….replacing you as the biggest month ever.

Here are the comparisons for Feb vs. April, then for April 04 vs April 05:
Avg. Daily Hits – 31,303 to 33,362 …increase of over 2,000 per day –
April, 04 4,037 (8 times over)
Avg. Page Views – 20,981 to 24,455 … increase of almost 3,500 per day – April 04 1,193(20 times over)
No. of Unique Visitors – 6,789 to 7,362 …increase of over 550 over last month –
April 04 2,503 (3 X over)
Busiest Day – 2/8 47,206 to 4/19 57,258 …increase of over 10,050 over 2/8/05 –
April 20 2,927 (19 X over)

So you can see, your support of the AN has produced some very significant numbers in the traffic report. As good as these numbers are at this time, however, they pale when compared to the value placed on it by a person who becomes reconnected with a teammate through the AN.
This is the primary function of the AN website – to serve as a data base 24/7 for all who want to communicate with friends, teammates, and others who were part of their UL experience – it is about people…whether reliving ole memories or creating new ones…the AN exists for you.