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So, admins can feel free to move this thread where they would like, but here goes.... At today's board meeting of the UNT Alumni Association we heard from guest speakers John Nitardy and Rick Villarreal from athletics and Eileen Moran, Interim VP for University Advancement. Each shared a few bits of good news that I thought folks might like to hear. First...the overall athletic teams GOA for the spring semester was 3.1. Twelve teams have GPA's over 3.0. This is, of course, fantastic news. Second...to the new golf practice facility. The BOR approved the construction in yesterday's meeting. Among other things it will include a practice tee, a 3-hole practice course, hitting bays, stretching and recruitment room, trophy room, locker room area and best of all...access to the course 6 days a year for tournament play! This is BIG and will allow UNT to host tournaments and draw name teams. Third.... Rick V. Verified a $1,000,000 pledge to athletics from a new donor with $500,000 paid and in hand. Yes, acquired by RV. Forth... Upgrades announced for softball (upgrade concessions and rest room facilities and bricking in the outfield walls), for soccer (bricking in the back end zone wall) and upgrades to the volleyball facility. Fifth....Eileen mentioned that this year's faculty/staff matching fund-raising campaign almost doubled last year's giving rate...well close going from about $450,000 to $716,000 including the match for both years) and that the number of donors doubled as well. This all in a one-month campaign. Why is this so significant you ask? Well, for one reason it shows the commitment on the part of those who are employed at UNT to make it even better and it shows a significant rise in employee morale (my opinion but shared by others as well). Sixth.... And I don't really know how positive this is, but I know it is an improvement over prior years...we now have about 170,000 "identifiable" alumni in our data base at the University. In this case "identifiable" means that we have a current and verifiable email address and current contact info. Obviously, work continues on increasing this number. Seventh... And this is not so good news, but again a higher number than last year...the percentage giving rate among alumni (alumni members and/or donors to the University) stands at 7%. Yep...only 7%, but that is being seen as "opportunity" as it should be. Eight.... Our new VP of Advancement, UNT grad Dr. David Wolf starts this coming May 27th, five new Advancement staff employees have been hired recently and the budget for Alumni engagement is being proposed for a significant increase. Yes, still "proposed" at this time as the budget process is still on going. Ninth... The UNT Law School has made a significant and prominent hire...described as a coup for the law school who will be named shortly. AND... Tenth.... Your Alumni Association through an outside vendor has developed and is now sending out through email to members and other alums some 55,000 surveys in the hopes of learning what our alumni members...and other alums want from their Alumni Association in the way of programming, engagement, etc. the surveys are going out in rolling batches, so not everyone who is on the list will receive a survey at the same time. BUT PLEASE PLEASE if you get a survey...fill it out and return it. Be honest in your reply but be professional as well. the Association truly wants to hear from you. This is the first every client survey your Alumni Association has ever attempted. So, if you want to be heard and want to help, PLEASE fill it out and return the survey. OK, that's probably all the Good News some of you folks can take at any one time. But, we had such a positive and forward looking board meeting today that I just felt the need to share.