Join A Grassroots Movement for Change of AD and MBB Coach

[Pistol]

22 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

ive never been with an organization where a board of directors ONLY concerns themselves with showing up 4x a year to address concerns, ideas, and progress.   an effective BOD will be actively involved quite frequently and be instrumental in the development and well being of that particular organization.   so i guess i am going to throw that back at you, How do you think "a board of directors works?"  maybe you are thinking of giant corporations and organizations where i am thinking a billion dollar or less asset sized organization.  

In my world, corporate boards meet 4 times a year, maybe more if there are special circumstances. SLU - a multi-billion-dollar organization - states explicitly that they meet 4 times a year.

I'm not sure how many times I can say the same thing but this contract discussion was a single item in a quarterly meeting. It may have been voted on between things like whether or not to sell the hospital and which departments might need cuts.

As SLU sports fans, we want everyone in any position of power to care about the minutiae of the athletic department the way we do, but that's just not how it works. We need to keep it in perspective.

[Soderball]

28 minutes ago, Pistol said:

In my world, corporate boards meet 4 times a year, maybe more if there are special circumstances. SLU - a multi-billion-dollar organization - states explicitly that they meet 4 times a year.

I'm not sure how many times I can say the same thing but this contract discussion was a single item in a quarterly meeting. It may have been voted on between things like whether or not to sell the hospital and which departments might need cuts.

As SLU sports fans, we want everyone in any position of power to care about the minutiae of the athletic department the way we do, but that's just not how it works. We need to keep it in perspective.

The SIU BOT meets similarly. I don't think they discuss athletics at all unless the chancellors bring it up in their reports.

This is a matter the AD and president/chancellor deal with.

Like SLU, that is also a huge university system that deals with multiple campuses, tens of thousands of students, and hundreds of employees, medical schools, dental schools, you name it. Huge economic impact in their area and one of the largest employers.

Pistol is right on this one.

[slufan13]

If anything I happy that our BOT is willing to approve a contract paying the head coach 2.5M per year over 8+ years. It's up to the athletics boosters and the athletic director to pick the right guy though. They failed. 

[billikenfan05]

If only the Board of Trustees would have hired a few people to handle athletics department and university operations including but not limited to negotiating, signing and terminating contracts of employees like the Head Basketball Coach. I’m thinking we give these positions names: athletics conductor….noooo no that’s not it, athletics czar, nooo too political, athletics director, that works. 

[slufan13]

1 minute ago, billikenfan05 said:

If only the Board of Trustees would have hired a few people to handle athletics department and university operations including but not limited to negotiating, signing and terminating contracts of employees like the Head Basketball Coach. I’m thinking we give these positions names: athletics conductor….noooo no that’s not it, athletics czar, nooo too political, athletics director, that works. 

Right imagine if Trudy Busch Valentine was coming into BOT meetings slamming her fist saying the athletic department shouldn't do xyz or hire abc. These people defer to each other BOT member's area of expertise. And Chaifetz/May thought this was a good contract. It wasn't. I don't even mind the salary. I think that's a good thing. But they bid against themselves. It should have never even gotten to the BOT. May should have laughed when Ford's agent first brought up the idea. 

[DeSmetBilliken]

8 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

Right imagine if Trudy Busch Valentine was coming into BOT meetings slamming her fist saying the athletic department shouldn't do xyz or hire abc. 

This 100%. I admittedly don’t know what the voting standard to pass the BOT is (unanimous, 3/4, 2/3, majority), but do we really want (insert name of BOT member who isn’t involved in athletics here ) delaying personnel decisions for athletics by going all Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men, or like a city council member holding legislation hostage to get a carve-out for their district? Absolutely not. Just think about it…we have an agreement on a deal with a new coach, but then 3-4 board members slow up the process because someone told them that we should be hiring Bruce Weber or Tom Crean instead. Then the deal with the other coach falls through. That would be a bad deal.

[slu72]

On 2/3/2024 at 9:38 PM, slu92 said:

Opening up the job at least gives SLU you’d think a head start now. Bruce Weber and Tubby Smith, Larry Brown come on down! Don’t forget about Tim Floyd and Gene Keady as dark horse candidates….Chris Mays coaching wishlist starts and ends with an 80/90’s era retread. I’m just preparing myself mentally now. 

For a moment there I thought you were shilling for a retirement home. 

[billiken_roy]

38 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

Right imagine if Trudy Busch Valentine was coming into BOT meetings slamming her fist saying the athletic department shouldn't do xyz or hire abc. These people defer to each other BOT member's area of expertise. And Chaifetz/May thought this was a good contract. It wasn't. I don't even mind the salary. I think that's a good thing. But they bid against themselves. It should have never even gotten to the BOT. May should have laughed when Ford's agent first brought up the idea. 

You should be questioning why a registered nurse is on the BoT 

[billiken_roy]

20 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

This 100%. I admittedly don’t know what the voting standard to pass the BOT is (unanimous, 3/4, 2/3, majority), but do we really want (insert name of BOT member who isn’t involved in athletics here ) delaying personnel decisions for athletics by going all Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men, or like a city council member holding legislation hostage to get a carve-out for their district? Absolutely not. Just think about it…we have an agreement on a deal with a new coach, but then 3-4 board members slow up the process because someone told them that we should be hiring Bruce Weber or Tom Crean instead. Then the deal with the other coach falls through. That would be a bad deal.

A good organization would have the necessary information to the BoT that allows them to be prepared before the meeting happens.

[cgeldmacher]

The fact that there are 38 members of the BoT tells me its a joke and that the members have no real power other than to rubber stamp decisions.  Normal boards have, what, like 9 members?  38 is just ridiculous and highlights the idea that Pesty probably has no real oversight.

[billikenfan05]

10 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

A good organization would have the necessary information to the BoT that allows them to be prepared before the meeting happens.

This is a bit right? You’re not being serious at this point and trolling now, correct? You’re literally blaming “the organization” and Chris May’s in charge of the organization to which you’re referring. Chris May’s role is literally that, to present the necessary information to the BoT. 

[brianstl]

1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:

A good organization would have the necessary information to the BoT that allows them to be prepared before the meeting happens.

May, as a member of the Predent's cabinet (what SLU actually calls it), is responsible for supplying that information to the trustees for the athletic department.  It his his responsibility to not only have the materials concerning his department ready for them before meetings, but to make sure that information concerning important university matters inside his department can be communicated to trustees between meetings.

[billiken_roy]

9 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

This is a bit right? You’re not being serious at this point and trolling now, correct? You’re literally blaming “the organization” and Chris May’s in charge of the organization to which you’re referring. Chris May’s role is literally that, to present the necessary information to the BoT. 

You are taking my comment out of context.   Go back and read desmet's comment where he insinuates that the board comes to the meeting with no insight on topics to be decisioned.   This is why I am saying that the board should have had that information in hand before the meeting.   

You are something.  

[DeSmetBilliken]

16 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

A good organization would have the necessary information to the BoT that allows them to be prepared before the meeting happens.

Others have responded to this well, so I don’t need to repeat their comments. The bottom line is that Chris May and whoever else was involved in Ford’s last contract extension on SLU’s behalf made by all indications a bad deal. The fact that the BOT approved the deal does not absolve May from responsibility at all. If Chris May or anyone else at SLU is just willingly agreeing to questionable deals and figuring “I’ll just let the BOT decide if it’s good or not”, that’s ridiculous. 

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

 This is why I am saying that the board should have had that information in hand before the meeting.   

IT IS CHRIS MAY'S JOB TO DO THIS. 

Pot calling the kettle black if I've ever heard it. Keep getting those belly scratches from Chris May. Does he bite his nails or is he a manicure guy? 

[billiken_roy]

1 minute ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

Others have responded to this well, so I don’t need to repeat their comments. The bottom line is that Chris May and whoever else was involved in Ford’s last contract extension on SLU’s behalf made by all indications a bad deal. The fact that the BOT approved the deal does not absolve May from responsibility at all. If Chris May or anyone else at SLU is just willingly agreeing to questionable deals and figuring “I’ll just let the BOT decide if it’s good or not”, that’s ridiculous. 

If you go back to previous exchanges about the contract I said there should be blame for all.   I have only said that the BoT would have had final say and by rubber stamping the contract they share in the problem.   Never have I said he is exempt of all blame

[billiken_roy]

1 minute ago, billikenfan05 said:

IT IS CHRIS MAY'S JOB TO DO THIS. 

Pot calling the kettle black if I've ever heard it. Keep getting those belly scratches from Chris May. Does he bite his nails or is he a manicure guy? 

You obviously did not read previous replies.   Or else you apparently have reading comprehension issues.

[TheA_Bomb]

Guys, guys, we're all hardcore Billiken fans here.  There's a lot of blame to go around here.

Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.

Can't fire the board. So that leaves us another option.

Gotta get back to winning so we can discuss important things like Quad 1 wins, SoS, switching screens. Winning will cure all this need to get through the swamps of sadness first. Don't get down or else you'll get stuck.

[Lord Elrond]

3 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Guys, guys, we're all hardcore Billiken fans here.  There's a lot of blame to go around here.

Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.

Can't fire the board. So that leaves us another option.

Gotta get back to winning so we can discuss important things like Quad 1 wins, SoS, switching screens. Winning will cure all this need to get through the swamps of sadness first. Don't get down or else you'll get stuck.

We are 0-2 in Quad 1 games, 0-9 in Quad 2 games, 5-5 in Quad 3 games, but 4-1 in Quad 4 games.

Maybe next year we will have some more positive things to say, but right now….

[Pistol]

50 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

The fact that there are 38 members of the BoT tells me its a joke and that the members have no real power other than to rubber stamp decisions.  Normal boards have, what, like 9 members?  38 is just ridiculous and highlights the idea that Pesty probably has no real oversight.

Marquette currently has a lean board of 30 trustees and Butler is at 32 members. Xavier, Creighton, DePaul, and Wash U. all have over 40 members.

The size of SLU's board is not a reflection of a lack of institutional control, nor an indictment on the president's oversight. It's industry standard.

[3star_recruit]

Some of us MBMs have been waiting 30+ years for the AD to work in an advisory capacity to the Board.  All we've ever seen is the Board or the President running over the AD.  That's the culture at SLU.  We have no reason to believe that hiring another AD will change the culture.  A small group of boosters will determine who the next coach will be and whoever the AD is will rubber stamp the decision.  I'd love to be proven wrong.

[DeSmetBilliken]

18 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

If you go back to previous exchanges about the contract I said there should be blame for all.   I have only said that the BoT would have had final say and by rubber stamping the contract they share in the problem.   Never have I said he is exempt of all blame

I get what you’re trying to say, but I don’t think that it’s reasonable to expect the BOT members to have department director level knowledge of every subject they have to consider. I have no doubt that Chris May, or someone on his behalf, puts together a nice summary of the relevant athletics issues before meetings. That still doesn’t put them on anywhere close to the knowledge level of the department director . I may not be a Chris May fan, but with the exception of a couple of BOT members (Chaifetz in particular), May still is in a position to have way more context on athletics issues than almost the entire BOT. That’s why he’s the athletic director. 

If you’re so focused on removing some “blame” from May to make him look better, the BOT rubber-stamping the contract is worthy of less than 10% of the blame. Not enough to reduce responsibility by May in any meaningful amount.

[TheA_Bomb]

3 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Some of us MBMs have been waiting 30+ years for the AD to work in an advisory capacity to the Board.  All we've ever seen is the Board or the President running over the AD.  That's the culture at SLU.  We have no reason to believe that hiring another AD will change the culture.  A small group of boosters will determine who the next coach will be and whoever the AD is will rubber stamp the decision.  I'd love to be proven wrong.

This happens a lot of places. aTm is an example of how it goes wrong over and over and over again.  Texas right now has boosters that can buy Canada if they want to and really really care about football but AD CDC is able to corral those egos and get everyone aligned.  We need that here.  The right person can help. Not that they'll be CDC (in my opinion the best in the country) but they can at least understand how to run social media marketing, compliance and know not to spend $1.5mil more than the market value for a coach.

[HoosierPal]

Board of Trustee meetings are commonly open to the public.  I know this is true for other universities, but I am not verifying it for SLU.  I do know that students and alum have addressed the BOT in the past - it's in the minutes.  My advice for those upset with the BOT - their lack of fiduciary control, their apathy towards athletics, or whatever else you are not happy with - go to their next meeting and air your grievances.  Call Pestello's office (no don't text or email - pick up the phone) and see if you can get a 5 minute slot for your presentation.  List your issues and provide solutions for their consideration.

Expressing your opinion on an anonymous public message board might make you feel good for 30 seconds, but it has no impact in the world.  Do it in person.  I'm not positive, but I think the next meeting is in early May.  These BOT meetings can last more than one day, so be patient.

[Box and Won]

15 hours ago, TRN said:

Stu with the obligatory coaches support each other story.

 

The big difference here is that 1) Mooney is a superior coach and 2) when Richmond had the first of its two down seasons, Grand Golden, Nathan Cayo, and Jacob Gilyard were freshmen and Nick Sherod was a sophomore.  We don't have that kind of talent.