We've all had some wonderful App-tastic times watching our basketball teams improve on and off the court and our football team sign what promises to be a very fine class of recruits.

All of these pieces - scholarships, coaches, facilities, team travel - take dollars which the Yosef Club provides.

Every year, the Yosef Club Advisory Board spends the bulk of a weekend brainstorming on ways to make Yosef better and on raising those dollars that our 450+ student athletes depend upon. In just a few minutes I'll be headed up the mountain to help call and write alumni about funding Yosef for 2015. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this effort for my adopted alma mater.

To those of you who have already renewed your Yosef Club membership for 2015, thanks! You are the heart and soul of Appalachian State Athletics.

To those of you who have never been part of the Yosef Club or who haven't participated recently, please consider a donation for 2015. Any amount is great. Remember that potential corporate sponsors will be interested in how many Appalachian fans their corporate sponsor dollars will reach. When our alumni participation rate increases, our attractiveness to corporate sponsors increases. Alumni participation rates are calculated on numbers of alumni contributing rather than on the amount contributed, so small contributions really do count.

If you can give more, please do. If you can give something, please do. If there is truly not a dime in your life for Yosef, bless you - I, like many here, have been there, too, and wish you much joy in the face of hard times.

Thanks to all of you who make the Appalachian Family and Yosef what they are!

Thanks to everyone who responded to calls and emails. In two hours today we raised $158,200! Keep those dollars for our student athletes coming.

Thank you Daphne for your hard work and dedication. I truly appreciate how hard you work for our school. I will be making my donation this week. I am looking to "Rise Up" if possible but I need to look at the numbers a little more.

DaphneUrquhart wrote:Thanks to everyone who responded to calls and emails. In two hours today we raised $158,200! Keep those dollars for our student athletes coming.

Great job to all who participated.

Great to see you again and make the world smaller with who you know that I work with!

#AppWins!

You guys raising all that money probably explains why my Yosef ranking continues to drop and the total number is up to 8001.

Keep up the good work. And I don't mind seeing my ranking drop, that means more people are donating more money.

Did not realize that membership had grown by that many people. Great job of getting new members.

The 8000 number is all people who have ever given. We only have about 2300 current members. Our goal this year is 3000 current members. That doesn't sound like much when you consider we have 114,000+ living alumni/ae.

Other goals you've heard me speak of many times:
1) grow the membership base with younger alumni and friends - $50 - $250 donors are crucial to the long term health of any non-profit organization - Yosef is no exception
2) develop stronger "brand" loyalty
3) make sure the game day experience is fun, exciting, worth repeating in all sports
4) increase / improve spring tour events and participation
5) make giving easy - if we figure this one out, I'm retiring

Every year we spend hours with the Yosef staff discussing ways to improve. Some things require money; some don't.

At the end if the day, folks are always more likely to make donations when asked to do so by someone they know. Each of you is the real key to a stronger Yosef Club. Be sure to attend the spring tour event closest to you. Be sure to take a friend ... or two or three.

Thanks to all of you ... current and future members ... for making Yosef strong.