The Alumni Association and Posting Watch Party Information

Hey all, I wanted to post about a (now concluded) issue I’ve had with the Alumni Association.

As some/all of you may know, orangeconnection.org is the website for the Alumni Association, and it is there that you can find out where area watch parties are, depending on what city you live in.

According to a few of the people I have had email exchanges with, in order to have watch party information posted, a city’s alumni group must be “official”. The website doesn’t give a concrete definition of what constitutes an “official alumni group”. The people I spoke with gave some vague indicators, like “repeatedly attended watch parties”. Well, how is that kept track of? What metrics are in place to determine if a club is “official”? I posed this question to their Director of Engagement, and she has yet to respond to me.

This is concerning to me because I feel like they would be ecstatic at the thought of posting this information whenever presented to them. They want more OSU alums to show out and represent, right?

This is being brought to the table because I live in Memphis, which used to have what I believe to be an “official” watch party. I am trying to get the club started up again, because there is seemingly many OSU alums here in Memphis/West Tennessee/East Arkansas/North Mississippi who are needing a place to get together to watch the games. If we are to ever have an official watch party again, how can that happen if the Alumni Association isn’t posting the information in the first place?

My primary question for anyone who cares is, have you ever dealt with them, and was it a positive experience? It has been really crappy for myself.

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I wanted to clarify one thing about my post, upon second reading…

By “concluded”, I simply mean I have given up and am not actively trying to get our watch party listed.

Post them in here instead!

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You know, I suggested that at the 247 site, to no avail.

I think that would be great for everyone! The only caveat I can think of is how open people are to sharing their personal information, in case people want to contact them about the location, that type of thing.

I’m in Lower Alabama and tried to go through the Alumni Association to get an official watch party or whatever it’s called organized down here. They required a survey be sent to all area alumni to gauge interest, etc., before we were able to be named an “official” watch party. The process was way to long in my opinion, and I never actually completed it. Now that I think about it, maybe I can try again and document that here.

I did go to an “official” watch party while working in Birmingham, AL a few years ago, held at an alumnus home. Felt very uncomfortable if I’m honest, was the only person jumping around and yelling at the tv! All old people! The Alumni Association does provide a pack of goodies/decorations though, posters, schedule cards, etc.

@arin My fiance and I are graduates that have moved to Tuscaloosa (unfortunately) for my fiance’s PhD program. We are looking for an alumni chapter close and saw that the Birmingham chapter appears to no longer be active. We would be interested in trying to attend events with alumni down here. Do you have any more information on firing a chapter up or any contacts from Birmingham that wouldn’t mind trying again?

RTR! I was only able to attend the one party, but probably wouldn’t have gone back if i could though! It was like being at Furr’s cafeteria about 4:30pm!

I’d recommend going the alumni/orange connection site and seeing if there’s anything going on. I’m down near Mobile too, come on down!

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It is still a little painful getting used to all this crimson and I still have RTR ringing in my ears a little, but it is getting better. That is unfortunate about the Birmingham chapter, though. And Orange Connection appears to have dropped them from the website all together. Oh well, it sounds like that may be a blessing in disguise. Maybe we’ll make it Mobile one weekend!

Last season, the watch party list was much bigger. There was one in Philadelphia, PA. Southern Virginia had one, if I remember correctly. Florida had at least one. Tennessee had Memphis and Nashville. And of course, the Birmingham one.

As Kyle Porter suggested, this could be an opportunity to maybe make an actual watch party arm of Pistols Firing. I wonder how that would be received. Could be a nice expansion project.

Edit: The Southeast Virginia one still exists! I stand corrected.

Yeah, I would definitely be interested in a PFB+ watch party if there were other folks in the Alabama area that wanted to figure out something even if it is for just one weekend. If anyone is interested, feel free to send me a direct message and we can start spitballing ideas.

I have a very good update to share:

The Alumni Association added more dates, including Memphis! I guess this happened yesterday/last night, but they appear there now.

Anchorage, AK has one, Philly has one, Cheyenne, WY has one (!!!).

Looks like Alabama still hasn’t been added, so you all might want to work on that.

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I’ve always had a great experience watching games when away from Oklahoma. The best experiences have actually been with the Portland group that are hosting this week. I’m in Medford so I didn’t make the event last night but I saw a game with them in 2011 and 2017…same lady running it (Gayle) and a fantastic time. I would assume if you contacted them that they’d let you run it.

I’ve attended the Chicago and Philadelphia watch parties (and Cincinnati, which isn’t listed anymore).

Chicago’s is a big group, and Philly’s was a decent size, and had good attendance. Though this was year’s ago.

When did you go to the one in Chicago? I’ve been meaning to go but never knew how big it was.

The answer to that question requires some additional context. :slight_smile:

Remember when we played Arizona on their field? I believe it was Lunt’s first game. Anyway, I was in Chicago to visit my friend, who is also an O-State alum, but he isn’t that big of a sports fan. He decided to go with me for the first half, anyway.

The bar that held OSU watch parties couldn’t get the game because it was on the Pac12 Network, so the contact person for Chicago OSU games contacted Arizona’s alumni group in Chicago, and they were totally cool with everyone going to their watch bar, which was close to Wrigleyville (I remember this because I was drunkenly walking through what could only be described as a giant frat party neighborhood). It was actually really fun, the Arizona people were really cool. Lots of harmless trash talking going on.

Keep in mind that the bar that watch parties are held at, now, is different from when I went. It’s some newer place. I looked at pictures of it, it looks really cool.

You should go…you NEED to go. It’s fun, it’s great to catch up with OSU alumni, and you might make some friends. I would recommend this especially for basketball season, because there aren’t as many watch parties during basketball season.

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I run unofficial happy hours for our alumni group all the time and what I tell others that want one in their city is this: pick a place you’d like sitting by yourself for a couple hours and put it out there.

If you’re alone, at least you’re at a place you enjoy and it’s not a waste of time. I’ve hosted some events at very uncomfortable places and boy does a couple hours feel like a shift at Wal-Mart. At first, you may be the only one there, but you do it enough on a consistent basis and people will start showing up regularly. Sharing in a thread on PFB+ or the free version, doesn’t matter, just share it. On the flip side, those wishing to partake have to actually start to partake or they’ll disappear and you’ll regret it.

The Alumni Association is great, but they aren’t the end all be all as much as they say they want to be.

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I’ve been to a couple in Dallas. There aren’t a ton of OSU alumni where I live. I live in Texarkana, only watch parties around here are Longhorn, Aggie, and Hawgs. If by some miracle there’s another Poke living around this booming metropolis, please feel free to reach out. I’d love to watch a game with actual OSU fans.