Week 9

The Importance of Volunteers

This week our class was visited by a very special guest, Tim Otteman's mom, Suzi Tengen! We got to meet the person who inspired our professor to become the events master he is today and learn from her intensive events career. Mrs. Tengen focused her talk on being prepared and volunteer treatment. She also convinced us all to get fanny packs!

She emphasized choosing volunteers wisely and utilizing them to their full potential. While friends are lovely people, sometimes they don't make the best volunteers. It is no secret that the keystone of any event is amazing volunteers, so choosing the best is very important. After selecting the proper workforce, you have to use them! Nobody wants to spend their precious time sitting around uncomfortably twiddling their thumbs when they thought they would be experiencing an event. By making volunteers identifiable and training them to be helpful they can work wonders for your program. 

Mrs. Tengen's advice for being prepared was simple: have an event fanny pack and carry it everywhere. What should be in your event fanny pack? Her recommendations include a first aid kit, a sewing kit, an eyeglass repair kit, an emery board, pen and paper, hair ties, dental floss, lip balm, breath mints, and a little cash. Our class gave her some suggestions and together we created a comprehensive list to have on hand to turn little disasters into chances to impress. Watch out Macker fans, we're getting fanny packs! 

Thank you for following the progress our class makes week after week. Your support means a lot to all of us! We don't have class this Thursday, but some of the class is headed to Grand Rapids for a one day Gus Macker tournament on Saturday! If you want to hear more from us, be sure to follow us on social media!

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💛 Snapchat: CMUGusMacker

💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

Week 8

The Tournament Gets Some Direction

This week our class met Mike Fuller, the Macker National Staff Vice President of Sales and Operations. Mike started as a volunteer Gus Buster and after 25 years with the event continues to lay down the law as our Director of Operations this April. His goal was to begin the conversation on how to run our tournament smoothly while representing Gus Macker in a positive light.

He started this conversation by telling us two things we needed to internalize regarding the Gus Macker Basketball Festival. First, that it is a family oriented event and second, our goal is to make people want to come back year after year. Our tournament, April 29-30th, is the first full scale Michigan tournament of the season so we are under the microscope. If people don't have a good time at our tournament they might not go to another all summer. Under Mike's experienced supervision though, a great experience is guaranteed!

After long discussions on tournament logistics, we got to hear from Mike on what makes Gus Macker truly a special organization and event. He loves being part of the National Staff because he gets to work with positive people everyday. Gus Macker is 44 years of tournaments strong and they continue to maintain a great environment for fans of the sport. What's not to love?

Mike informed us that we have now inspired 2 other cities to start launch parties of their own! So far we have been the only tournament to host a launch party, but since Madison and Shelby's talk with 18 other host cities we've spread the launch party love. We're very excited to hear how they like this new edition to their event!

If you would like to hear more from our class and see what we're posting follow us on social media! If you would like to see our class live in action, you can register a team for our tournament April 29-30th by visiting https://macker.com/cities/mt-pleasant-mi by April 10th! If you simply cannot wait until the end of April, have no fear, we're coming to Grand Rapids April 1st for a one day indoor Macker Madness event. It will be hosted at MSA Woodland and the registration deadline is March 26th. You can find out more information by following this link: https://macker.com/local/grand-rapids-indoor.

💜 Facebook: CMU Gus Macker
💚 Instagram: cmugusmacker
💛 Snapchat: CMUGusMacker
💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

Thank you so much for reading and we hope to see you at our upcoming events!

Week 7

The After Party

The past few weeks have been very eventful for the Gus Macker family, but we finally had a breather this last class period and just in time for Spring Break!

This was the first class period after the Launch Party and we took a long time discussing what went well, what went wrong, and what we can do better next time. This is an important part of the event planning process and will allow this class to keep contributing to Central Michigan University in the future. We learned the results of our fundraising as well, and as a class we raised a total of $2,912.00. This ended up being $1,000 more than last year, beating the previous record for most money raised! Central Michigan Life also wrote a news article about the Launch Party which you can read by following this link! http://www.cm-life.com/article/2017/02/gus-macker-kick-off-at-okellys

I must include another shout out to two Teaching Assistants, Shelby and Madison, who got to speak about our class at the Gus Macker Conference. At this conference, 18 cities who host Gus Macker Basketball Festivals come together and discuss the pros and cons of the event. Our team members had the honor of sharing what we do as a class and blowing the other cities away with how much we accomplish as 30 college students! They received a standing ovation and our class couldn't be prouder!

That's all I have to report for this class period, but we do have more upcoming events and information for you! Registration for the tournament April 29-30 is now open, if you have an interested team be sure to check out https://macker.com/ and click on Mt. Pleasant to register for our tournament. We will also be coming to Grand Rapids, MI for a one day Gus Macker Event April 1st! 

As always you can follow us on social media to gain more information hot off the Finch Factory conveyor belt!

💜 Facebook: CMU Gus Macker
💚 Instagram: cmugusmacker
💛 Snapchat: CMUGusMacker
💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

Week 6

The Launch Party  

This week, instead of having class, we threw a party! I would like to start this post by giving a huge shout out to my classmate, Summer Sharrad, and the special events team that made this event possible. They did such an amazing job!

Our class took to O'Kelley's Sports Bar and Grill early in the day to decorate and prepare for our biggest fundraiser of the year. We had a huge crew blowing up balloons and sticking all of our hand-made decorations throughout the restaurant. The place really lived up to our hashtag candy is dandy! 

The evening began with a warm welcome from Tim Otteman, and then the microphone was handed over to a previous RPL 333SL student, David Wong, who hosted the auction. We had upbeat music, six drink specials including soda, a chicken tender bucket special, and a photo booth for guests to capture some memories with. The first seventy-five people who came and bought a wristband received a delicious Insomnia Cookie to sweeten the deal as well! All of the screens in the restaurant displayed photos from this class and past tournaments, a timer for the auction, and important dates and information all promoting the festival. The Macker Man himself even made an appearance to get everyone fired up! 

 

The three tiers of the silent auction helped us to go above and beyond our fundraising goal, and the exact numbers will be posted next week! Our entire class would like to thank all of the incredible businesses and people who donated to make this event possible! We had excellent prizes, intense bidding wars, and many happy participants who walked away with exactly what they wanted. People who came for the specials and the fun had a great time catching up with friends and celebrating our Macker spirit. Overall our class couldn't be happier with the outcome and our Launch Party was a big success!

Now, every good party has an after party, and our Launch Party was no exception... even if the after party was a few days later. This past Sunday was a special bonding time for our Macker family. We made it over to our professor Tim Otteman's house for a movie night. The featured flick was none other than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I couldn't make it myself due to work, but I will share some of the pictures I was sent to emphasize how amazing this class is. We have so many opportunities because of the Gus Macker Basketball Festival, and Tim Otteman and Brittany Milan truly make it a once in a lifetime academic experience for us. 

If you would like to continue following our adventures through the Finch Factory please follow us on social media!

💜 Facebook: CMU Gus Macker

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💛 SnapChat: CMUGusMacker

💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

Week 5

The Macker Team Becomes Macker Family

Week 5 was very busy for the Macker clan. We began class on Thursday discussing our animation plan for the Launch Party. After working out the details surrounding decorating, auction tiers, drink specials, and times we received enough sugar to make the next part of class even more interesting. We all filed out of the classroom to the rock wall just down the hall in Finch Fieldhouse for some good old fashioned team bonding. 

I have a lot of pictures and videos, and I think they all speak for themselves on the fun we had last Thursday, so I'll touch on this lightly and let you enjoy. On our first day team bonding we got to know each other and that was helpful. This time around we were supporting each other, cheering each other on, and celebrating accomplishments. No one lacked a climbing buddy or cheer squad. The energy in the room was really something special, and I sincerely hope it can be felt through the pictures. Our time team bonding has truly transformed us from class to team and from team to Macker family. 

Team bonding wasn't the only fun thing happening this week either. Last Saturday was a record breaking Polar Plunge for Special Olympics! Of course we were all over that event, we even had our logo on the back of the shirt this year. Fifteen of our classmates took the plunge into 42 degree water on one of the warmest days of February I think Michigan has ever seen. It was a blast and we all had a great time promoting what Gus Macker is all about!

If you are intrigued by how cool we are now that you've read this really long post, you can come hang out with us and be cool too! Our Launch Party is this Thursday starting at 7 p.m. As mentioned before we will have a tiered silent auction, drink specials, and a really cool photo booth. We look forward to seeing you there!

As always, you can also follow us on social media, and I highly recommend it for more behind the scenes sweetness!

💜 Facebook: CMU Gus Macker
💛 Snapchat: CMUGusMacker
💚 Instagram: cmugusmacker
💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

Thank you for all of your support! 👊👊👆

Week 4

Macker Outreach

Today in class we had two wonderful guest speakers, Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services professor and Gus Macker Hall of Fame member Lori Irwin and Central Michigan University's Assistant Basketball Coach Jeff Smith. They weren't there to talk about themselves or their accomplishments though. They told us about a coach who impacted the lives of many here at CMU. 

Coach Parfitt used to coach Central's basketball team and did it so well his players paid to have a gym on campus named in his honor. His competitive nature and genuine love for people are the two things most people point out when asked to describe him. His story is so powerful that Lori and Jeff had a goal to get through speaking without crying.  

Love is what Coach Parfitt stands for. His love for sports is unparalleled, he the second best tennis player in the country for his age bracket, and is still attending basketball games throughout the Mt. Pleasant community regularly. He also believes in expressing love. Showing affection to the people you care about should never be a hesitation in his mind. Taking the time to listen to others, making eye contact, and remembering names and details are ways to make everyone feel appreciated and Coach has mastered all these gestures.  

We're planning a Gus Macker Basketball Festival and hoping to impact thousands of sports fans who participate. We all can learn from Coach Parfitt's amazing legacy as we progress into new stages of the planning process. We're starting to reach out into the Mt. Pleasant community with events like the Polar Plunge this Saturday. We're jumping as a team to support Special Olympics! Our Launch Party is next Thursday as well and we're expecting a great turn out to help ring in the new Macker season. With our new service inspiration, both events are going to be a huge success!

If you would like to keep up with our class, follow us on social media!

💜 Facebook: CMU Gus Macker

💚 Instagram: cmugusmacker

💛 Snapchat: CMUGusMacker

💙 Twitter: CMUGusMacker

You're also invited to our Launch Party next Thursday, February 23rd! Doors open at 7 p.m, be there or be a spoiled egg!

Week 3

The Macker Class Becomes a Macker Team

While the professors are away, the students will play! This Thursday was team bonding day led by our amazing teaching assistants. It was an opportunity for us all to loosen up a bit and talk about who we are outside of the classroom to help us inside the classroom as we continue this adventure together. 

This class period we were introduced to the Spirit Stick. The Spirit Stick is completely Macked out, and it is our duty to sign it and take a selfie with another Finch Fanatic who isn't in this class. Then we pass it to a Finch Fanatic who is in RPL 333SL. This special, little honor is another way we can share the excitement throughout Finch Fieldhouse and beyond.

The first activity we did was a game called Snowball. We each took half a sheet of paper and wrote something most everyone probably knows about us, something a few people might know about us, and something no one knows about us. Then all of the papers were crinkled into balls and thrown in the middle of our circle. When everyone had collected a new paper ball, we took turns reading and guessing who the person was that authored the paper we picked up. 

The second activity we did was the Human Knot, except we did it in group of 3's and raced each other! Team 3 was the winner in that activity.

Our third activity was a game called All My Friends and I. We each put one paper "snowball" at our feet, except for the one person who was in the middle of our circle. That person would say, "All my friends and I like to...", and if you were someone who liked to do that activity or loved that thing, you had to run to a new spot in the circle. If you couldn't find a new spot, you had to go into the middle and say something you and your friends like. 

T.O (Tim Otteman) and Brittany provide an unparalleled passion for Gus Macker, but after class on Thursday, they're going to have to step up their game because we are all fired up and closer than ever as a team! 

If you would like to continue following our adventures you should follow us on social media!

💜Facebook: CMU Gus Macker
💚Instagram: cmugusmacker
💛Snapchat: CMUGusMacker
💙Twitter: CMUGusMacker

You are also cordially invited to our Launch Party, February 23rd at 7 p.m. There will be food and drink specials as well as a silent auction and tons of fun! We hope you can make it!