NOVA Hokie Club: Bud Foster Chalk Talk

BUD FOSTER CHALK TALK

Date: June 9, 2014
Time: Social with hor doeuvres and drinks goes from 6:00-7:00. Q&A runs from 7:00-8:30.
Where: USA Today building in Tysons Corner (free parking)
What: An event put on by the NOVA Hokie Club featuring Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster, Defensive Line Coach Charley Wiles, and Network Analyst Mike Burnop. The coaches and Mr. Burnop will speak to the attendees as well as take questions. There will also be a raffle and items up for auction. Raffle items include two tickets to VT games, Hokie gear, and a signed VT lunch pail. Silent auction items include two VT/Miami tickets and two VT/UVA tickets. There will also be items up for live auction. These details can also be found here.

I have recently increased my involvement with the Hokie Club in NOVA by becoming a rep for the NOVA area. We very much want to increase attendance at the events put on in the area as well as increase overall involvement with the Hokie Club. To encourage attendance, especially amongst the younger Hokies, we are implementing a few new things for this event.

• Prepay before June 1st, $10, $20 afterwards (includes non-alcoholic drinks and food)
• Under 18 FREE
• All current VT students FREE with a VT ID
• Under 30, $10
• First 100 attendees receive a free VT gift

Another thing we are trying to improve is the location of events. We are struggling to find the optimal location that is convenient for the majority of people. Our recruiting night with Coach Stinespring was in Arlington at the Draft House, the O&M Event with Coach Beamer and Coach Wolff was at Westwood Country Club in Vienna (right outside Tysons), and this event, as mentioned above, is in Tysons. To try and determine what works best for everyone, we have created a survey on our main web page here. Please take a few seconds to vote for your preferred location.

Im going to be throwing up a post for each of the events we have throughout the year to get the word out. In addition, I also encourage everyone in the NOVA area to sign up for our mailing list here. For those of you that do not live within the NOVA area, I encourage you to sign up for the mailing list for your local chapter of the Hokie Club. Each chapter can be found here. The various chapters also put on events similar to this throughout the year. You do NOT have to be a member of the Hokie Club to attend these events, although I encourage you to consider joining if within your means (I plan on writing a post later about the importance of the Hokie Club and how it is vital to Virginia Tech's success in athletics as well as cost efficient ways to join). The money raised at Chalk Talk will go towards funding the new indoor practice facility. Scott Davis, the Associate Director of Development for Intercollegiate Athletics, said at our O&M Event last month that there is still approximately $5 million left to raise for the facility so every penny counts! Once that thing is built we can determine where to put the clock that counts up from the last time LOLUVA managed to actually beat us.

Lastly, when we made it a point to shake things up to increase attendance for this event, the first thing that came to my mind was the TKP community. Everyone on here is passionate about our Hokies. Not only that, but there is a large amount of younger Hokies on here. We want to increase membership and activity in general but it is no secret the Hokie Club is struggling to reach out to and engage the younger generation of Hokies. Over the past year or so I've seen the occasional chatter in various posts on here about the Hokie Club. It is my hope that I can act as a voice in our NOVA Hokie Club meetings. I want to solicit ideas and advice on how to improve our numbers and outreach methods. As I mentioned, I plan on throwing out a subsequent post with more information about the Hokie Club. Some information you may know, some information you may not. I hope you will all use posts in that thread and this thread for your advice, ideas, etc!

I hope to see you all next month! It's a great opportunity to listen to our coaches speak as well as mingle and socialize with fellow Hokies!

One last thing... big thanks to Joe for allowing me to write this post! It is much appreciated!