By Laura Ulrich

Laura Ulrich is a contributing writer for Athletic Management. She can be reached at: laura@MomentumMedia.com.

When Sandy Hatfield Clubb took the reins of the athletic department at Drake University in 2006, she also took on a daunting challenge: Turn around a men's basketball program that had not managed a winning season in 19 years.

Her first step as athletic director was not, however, to hire a new coach, construct an upscale locker room, or micromanage the team. Rather, it was to build relationships in the Des Moines community.

"Tom Davis was our coach, and I felt strongly that he was the right person for our program," says Hatfield Clubb. "But that's not all it takes to rebuild a winning legacy. We needed community support, and it wasn't there. There weren't bad feelings, but there was apathy. For us to turn around men's basketball and re-energize our department as a whole, I knew a crucial part of my job would be building goodwill in the community."

It wasn't something she tackled sitting down. "I went out and shook hands with everybody I could find," says Hatfield Clubb. "I told as many people as I could, 'We're excited about what's going on at Drake, and you're welcome at the Knapp Center.' We expanded our initiatives in the community and opened our doors wider."

Fast forward to 2009: Men's basketball games are seated to capacity following a 2007-08 season of history-making success, including a trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament, which hadn't happened since 1971. Fundraising is surpassing its goals, and Hatfield Clubb hears regularly from local fans who tell her they're proud and excited to call Drake their neighbor.

At every level, community relations is a growing part of an athletic director's job. But what does it really entail? These days, it's more than sending your athletes out to do a service project.

Building a partnership with the community means understanding where your athletic department fits into the landscape, knowing residents' perceptions of the program, and finding effective ways to communicate your mission and vision. It also means listening to community members' ideas and following up on them.

A CONSISTENT MESSAGE
For Drake, fostering a relationship with the Des Moines community started with having a message. The core of Hatfield Clubb's strategy is to be very clear on what Drake athletics is all about, and then to consistently draw the public's focus to that identity.

"I call it the 'Drake Way,'" she says. "It encompasses a focus on character, academics, service, integrity, and excellence. Every interaction we have with the community needs to communicate that identity."

Public speaking has provided one avenue to spread the message. "I never say no to a request to talk to a community group," says Hatfield Clubb. "I've spoken to Kiwanis, Rotary, CEO groups, and breakfast clubs. Wherever I go, I talk about the Drake Way."

Hatfield Clubb has also joined many community organizations herself. She's a member of a local breakfast club and Rotary Club, and she sits on the boards of directors for the local United Way, the Iowa Sports Foundation, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Character Counts in Iowa. Each group was chosen carefully.

"It's not about going out and joining every group I can," she says. "I choose organizations that will show the community what we stand for. Our program is character-driven, and being part of Character Counts and the United Way communicates that.

"The other organizations are located in either Des Moines or central Iowa, and my involvement with them illustrates our commitment to the local community," she continues. "By being visible in the right places, I'm communicating our message without saying a word."

These strategic alliances then extend beyond Hatfield Clubb's personal involvement. "For example, this fall we had two men's basketball tournaments with title sponsors," she says. "Both of the sponsors are also major sponsors of Character Counts in Iowa, and that's a big part of why we chose them. During the tournaments, we incorporated elements of Character Counts by doing challenges in local schools and recognizing 250 kids for character-related accomplishments during the games."

Focusing on Drake's identity has helped Hatfield Clubb with one of her biggest community relations challenges--the proximity of the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. "We didn't want to try to compete with them," she says. "Instead, we wanted to distinguish ourselves from them. I emphasize this point very strongly: Drake is not a Big Ten or Big 12 institution. We're a Missouri Valley institution, and we're proud of that. We fit a different niche, and my job is to help the community see that it's a special and unique niche."

The approach is working. "We have avid fans who are Iowa or Iowa State grads or even season ticket holders," Hatfield Clubb says. "They realize that they can support us, too. Emphasizing who we are has helped make that happen."

Another key to Drake's community relations plan has been clear and proactive communication. That was especially necessary this past July, when the athletic department instituted a new priority seating plan for men's basketball that included an increase in ticket prices and a mandatory contribution to retain certain seats.

"Good external relationships are not about telling people what they want to hear. They're created by making good decisions and communicating them well," says Hatfield Clubb. "With the new seating plan, that meant clearly telling our constituents, 'We have a 7,200-seat business model, and that's not going to change. Therefore, this is what we need to do to move the program forward.'

"Along with being very clear, it was important to be gracious and genuine," she continues. "I talked one-on-one with every season ticket holder who expressed concerns about the change."

One letter from a fan was especially meaningful. "It said, 'I've been a longtime season ticket holder. I can't afford to do that anymore in this seat, so I'm not going to renew. But I understand what you're doing and I support the direction in which you're taking the program,'" relays Hatfield Clubb. "To me, that meant we had done our job communicating. We lost very few season ticket holders in the transition."

In the end, Hatfield Clubb's community relations strategy is personal--it's about connecting with one individual at a time, communicating, and selling a vision. "Personal relationships are the cornerstone of community relations," she says. "People need to know us and understand us. So whether it's me talking with someone on the phone or writing a thoughtful response to an e-mail, or one of our student-athletes sitting and reading with a child, the ultimate goal is to have a community that knows what we stand for and supports us because of who we are."

HELP WITH HIRING
At Mansfield (Ohio) High School, Athletic Director Dick Windbigler also puts community relations at the top of his priority list. He believes that giving parents and fans a voice in his department leads to more support, and ultimately a more successful program.

That's why, when both his football and boys' basketball coaches resigned last year, he asked the community to help choose their replacements. Both programs have a history of success and are closely watched by parents. Windbigler felt that by giving community members a voice in the coach selection process, their support would remain strong during the transition.

For each hire, Windbigler's first step was to create a hiring committee with broad school and community representation. Along with the school's human resources director, the principal, and Windbigler, the two committees included booster club members, parents, coaches from both his own and nearby high schools, and alumni.

"At the same time, we wanted to keep the number manageable so we capped it at eight people per committee," Windbigler says. "I worked with the human resources director to get a cross section of our school and community and also paid attention to gender breakdown."

In their initial meetings, the committees discussed what criteria were most important for the new coaches, and then went through resumes, choosing who to interview. After initial interviews, they narrowed the pool further. Finally, in both hires, they held a community forum to introduce the final two candidates.

"We used the local newspaper and television to advertise the forums," Windbigler says. "We worked really hard to get the word out, because we wanted people to feel they were part of the decision making process."

At the forum for the basketball hire, committee members introduced each candidate, who was then given 25 minutes to sell himself to the community. For the football forum, the hiring committee asked each candidate a set of predetermined questions as audience members listened.

Windbigler did not allow questions from the audience during the forums, which caused some negative feedback. "We were concerned about opening the floor, because people can sometimes come in with an agenda and be combative," he says. "Some community members were disappointed, and in retrospect, I think we could have allowed people to submit questions in writing before the forum. We could have screened the questions and chosen fair, balanced, reasonable ones. It's something we're considering for the future."

Following each forum, Windbigler placed suggestion boxes at the back of the room. "We made it clear it wasn't a vote," he says. "But we told attendees we valued their input and would weigh it in the decision."

Immediately after each forum, the committees went into closed-door sessions and conducted final deliberations, considering the notes in the suggestion box. They had extensive discussions and every member was given ample opportunity to speak. Each coach was then selected by a vote of the entire committee. One vote was unanimous and the other had just one dissenter, who walked away still feeling his voice had been heard.

Was the process ultimately effective at earning community buy-in for the selections? "Absolutely," says Windbigler. "I can say that because of the attitude in the stands this year. Our football team went 2-8, and normally we would have gotten complaints and questions about the new coach's ability. Instead, people are talking about how he is building for the future, and they're prepared to stick behind him and give the program the time it needs. I believe that's what we accomplished by making the community such a big part of the hiring process."

Windbigler is also confident that choice-by-community can turn out the best hire. "You do have to choose the committee members carefully. They must be people who are level-headed and have the right priorities," he explains. "And the initial stages of the process are very important, because you narrow it down to candidates who are qualified and who you are comfortable with. By the time the vote happens, that up-front work means you have two great candidates to choose from.

"I'd be happy to see the practice expand to other sports," he continues. "The reason we're here is to serve the community, and it makes sense to give them a voice in our most important decisions."

SHARING FACILITIES
A seemingly simple way to reach out to your community is to share athletic facilities with them. But, as any veteran athletic administrator knows, the idea can be fraught with headaches. Who is ultimately in charge of the facility? Who pays for its maintenance? Who controls the scheduling of it?

For John Cochrane, Athletic Director at Cornell College, those roadblocks are all movable. And the results are worth the extra work in order to introduce a win-win idea to your community.

When Cochrane took over as Athletic Director in June 2008, he already occupied a seat on the school board of Cornell's next-door neighbor, Mount Vernon (Iowa) High School, which was preparing to renovate its softball field. Cornell's softball program was less than satisfied with its own home field, so Cochrane brought up the idea of a partnership.

"We realized that if Cornell committed some funds to the high school project, the high school could take its facility to the next level, and we would also have a better place to play," Cochrane says.

The community embraced the idea, and the facility was completed in November. The collaboration went so well that Cornell and Mount Vernon are in the process of expanding on the sharing concept. First, Cornell will resurface its football field and refurbish its stadium, and it has invited Mount Vernon to use the updated facility for football and track and field. Next, the schools will break ground on a new outdoor complex, using land that sits between the two campuses.

The new complex will house both schools' soccer and baseball teams, provide the two cross country teams with a trail, and include a number of additional practice fields. The $4.5 million cost will be shared about equally, according to Cochrane. Scheduling will be eased by Iowa's unusual high school seasons: Soccer is played in the spring and baseball and softball compete during the summer months.

How are Cornell and Mount Vernon answering the many questions on sharing facilities? Cochrane says it's been easier than one might think. "The devil is in the details," he says. "We've found it's the small pieces that require planning and negotiation."

The first subject they tackled was how to recognize both schools' identities on the fields. "We had to decide whether the scoreboard was going to be Cornell purple or Mount Vernon maroon," Cochrane says. "We resolved that by having removable panels. At the end of the college season, we'll take down the Cornell panels and put up the Mount Vernon panels.

"We felt it was really important to make the facility feel like home for two different teams," he continues. "We didn't want either team to feel like it is borrowing another school's facility to play their home games."

Second was how donors would be recognized. "For our softball field, we have both Cornell and Mount Vernon donors, and we talked about how to reflect which are which," Cochrane says. "But after a lot of discussion, we ultimately realized their affiliation didn't matter as much as we initially thought. We put a plaque on the back of the home dugout listing all the donors together, and they were fine with that."

The two schools also had to agree on a philosophy for corporate sponsorships. "We discovered that both schools had a desire to keep facilities clean of advertising," Cochrane says. "That question may have been easy, but it was important to discuss early-on."

Maintenance is another critical issue. "Once we get these facilities built, who is primarily responsible for maintaining them?" Cochrane says. "The college has a larger maintenance staff, so should we contribute more of the maintenance work in exchange for the high school contributing more in some other way? We're just starting to work these details out."

While discussing and agreeing on the little pieces can take time, Cochrane says there is no question as to the benefits of facility partnerships. "Community service is a fundamental part of our mission, and sharing facilities with the high school has built wonderful bridges between our department and the community," he says. "It has also fostered community interest in our programs and boosted attendance at our events."

Getting started with facility sharing simply requires initiating discussion. "Start by approaching the school board," Cochrane says. "Explain your ideas and see if there is interest. It's definitely worth exploring. You get multi-million dollar facilities at half the price, and you create strong relationships in the process."

ALL THE POSITIVES
When an athletic director's phone rings, all too often there's a complaint on the line. It's easy to wonder, "Why doesn't anyone notice the good that goes on around here?" It may be because the community isn't aware of all the great things you are doing.

At Fruitport (Mich.) High School, Athletic Director Ken Erny has responded to that problem by making sure the positive news about his department is broadcast loud and clear to the community's movers and shakers. He does this by producing an end-of-year report, which relays his department's most telling facts and figures to parents, school officials, and the community.

The annual report begins with a section called "Celebrations" that lists conference and district championships. "Accolades" encompasses individual honors, including academic and senior awards. A section titled "Significant Accomplishments" details some lesser-known achievements, such as sportsmanship awards, certificates in advanced training earned by coaches, a great record by a j.v. team, monies raised by the booster club, how many coaches were hired, and events the department hosted. The report has also included the year's tally of student-athletes, officials hired, and bus trips scheduled.

Two aspects of the report--data on student-athletes' grade point averages and recognition of multi-sport athletes--play a special role. "These sections reflect our deeper mission and core values," Erny says. "We have a lot of students making contributions in more than one sport, and our athletes consistently earn higher grades than non-athletes. Without this report, the community might never know those facts."

Erny says that compiling the document has not been time consuming. The secret is keeping it on his radar all year long. "I start a file at the beginning of the year called 'Year End Report,'" he says. "Anytime something comes across my desk that might be worth including, I put it in there. That way it doesn't become a big data-gathering project at the end."

Once the report is complete, Erny presents it to the board of education and to his coaches. He also e-mails it to parents, community supporters, alumni, and other constituents, and posts it online.

For an athletic director doing this type of project for the first time, Erny suggests starting small. "Include the basics, like participation numbers and major achievements, and expand it over time," he says. "Keep it concise and make sure the main message is getting through--that there are a lot of positive things going on the community should be proud of."

Erny sees evidence that the report is working at Fruitport, starting with the community's recent support for adding an athletic trainer position. "I was asking for a significant expenditure, and I was surprised how quickly the request was approved," he says. "I believe that was partly because of the support we've generated with our report."

He's also seen it generate a buzz in the community. "Every year, our school competes for an all-sport award within our conference," Erny says. "Before we started listing this in the year-end report, most people didn't even know there was an all-sport award. Now I have people asking me, 'How are we doing in the all-sport standings?' It's made us into more of an athletic department family.

"I also think of the report as preventative medicine," he continues. "In these tight budget times, it ensures that athletics is not seen as the easy cut. Every year, our constituents get a report that says, 'For the 1.5 percent of the budget spent on athletics, the value you're getting is tremendous.'"

To view Fruitport's most recent reports, go to:
fruitportschools.net/highschool/athletics.

A GOOD CAUSE
A longstanding strategy for developing community relations is having student-athletes assist a needy organization. To make these projects real community builders, the key is to choose the right cause: one that strikes a chord and enables student-athletes on all teams to work as one group.

Brandon Parker, Athletic Director at Tonganoxie (Kan.) High School, brought these elements together this past fall through "Sportin' for Leukemia." The cause was chosen by student-athletes themselves--several individuals in the community are currently battling the disease, so raising money for leukemia had real meaning for them.

Then, each team decided how it could help. During a two-week period, volleyball players sought pledges for each dig they made during a home game and soccer players gathered pledges for each shot on goal. The cross country team secured donations for each runner who finished in the top 25 during its league meet, and football players asked for pledges for each offensive yard gained during a particular home game. Teams wore special shirts, headbands, or wristbands to bring call attention to the project.

To raise additional money, athletes sold wristbands that served as admission to the football game and to a dance held afterward. They also designed and sold T-shirts, which were sponsored by local businesses, combining the athletic department logo with a "Sportin' for Leukemia" logo.

"We set a fundraising goal of $5,000 for the two-week period, and I was worried that number was unrealistic," Parker says. "We raised $8,000, and donations are still coming in."

Parker believes one of the biggest factors in the project's success was its local connection. "Leukemia is something people here feel really close to and understand, since it's affected several local residents," he says. "That helped the community buy in. And because the cause was meaningful to them, our athletes cared deeply about the results."

Allowing the athletes to take as much ownership of the project as possible was also important. "I needed to provide guidance without taking over, and striking that balance was actually the most challenging part of this," Parker says. "At times it seemed like they were great at generating a lot of ideas, but then things would dissolve into chaos. I tried to remember that they were steering the ship and I was just there to keep them on course. It was worth the extra effort, because they were so motivated by being given responsibility."

Parker also talks about working to get the right publicity. "When kids are asking people for money, those people need to know it's legitimate," he says. "We worked with our local newspaper and also placed fliers ahead of time in high-traffic places around town, like the local bank."

The project has had ripple effects throughout the community, starting with the athletes themselves. "These kids understand now that athletics is about more than the scoreboard," Parker says. "They can see that as athletes, they have a vehicle for influencing people's lives."

As for parents and fans, the project had exactly the effect Parker was hoping it would. "It allowed people to see what our program is all about, which isn't wins and losses," he says. "Now the attitude is, 'We may have won or we may have lost on game night, but wasn't that a fantastic project the kids did?' When people are saying that, we know we've won no matter what."

Sidebar: FROM SCRATCH
For most athletic directors, community relations involves building on tradition and furthering existing relationships with committed supporters. But what do you do if only a few weeks ago, your institution didn't have an athletic department?

That's the challenge Aaron Denton, Athletic Director at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C., took on this past fall. More than 20 years ago, Sandhills students voted to dismantle the school's athletic department in the face of a funding crisis. In 2008, the college brought it back and charged Denton with building bridges to a community that had gotten used to thinking of Sandhills without athletics.

For Denton, the quickest way to make inroads proved to be assembling an athletics advisory committee. "The group is wonderful for facilitating communication," he says. "It works as a conduit for information between the college and the community and is helping provide input on many decisions."

From the ranks at Sandhills, Denton included faculty, staff, and trustees, some of whom were involved with the college's earlier athletic program. On the community side, he looked to local high schools, asking the principals of each of the four area schools to serve. Denton also signed up the sports editor of the local newspaper.

The initial goal was a committee of 12 to 15 people, but the list quickly grew to 25. "I think that's a positive thing," Denton says. "There are so many people who are enthusiastic about being involved, and the truth is, many of the members are so busy that they won't be at every meeting. They'll serve as special consultants in various areas who we can turn to when we need them."

Denton sees one of the committee's most important jobs to be helping identify potential community service projects. "Our student-athletes can do anything from mentoring youth to physical labor, but I feel strongly that the needs are best identified by the community itself," he says. "Based on feedback from our high school principals, we're starting with some free youth basketball and volleyball clinics, and we've made connections with elementary schools where our athletes can be mentors. My charge to the committee is to continue finding unique opportunities where we can help out."

Click here to read an AthleticManagement.com blog entry containing more advice from athletic directors on fostering community relations.