EvEry

from POSSE Magazine - Spring 2013

posse pokes

This time, I would like to highlight some of OSU athletics’ best assets — our employees. Our staff is the single most important asset we have in our quest to offer great customer service. Our employees work diligently to ensure you have the best experience possible when dealing with the athletic department, whether it’s gameday or an average weekday.

So, without further ado, I would like to introduce you to one of our many departments within OSU Athletics — the posse office and its staff

karyl hEnry Director of Premium ServiceS

Karyl directs and coordinates all our premium areas, such as club and suite levels, during football and basketball games. She’s in charge of our court-side concierge service during men’s basketball. She makes sure all of our fans are having a first-class experience from the time they enter our sports facilities until the time they leave. She also employs more than 70 part-time staff. Their main focus is to make sure you have the most enjoyable gameday experience possible.

When the Cowboys are on the move, Karyl is in charge of organizing the r oad r allies , as well as the annual cowboy c aravans , which are our traveling pep rallies that hop from city to city in Oklahoma and Texas.

If that’s not enough, in the last year, Karyl has taken on the responsibility of constantly updating the POSSE website content.

A lot of times, if you walk into the office and have a question about payments or something, Stephanie is the person you’re going to sit down and talk to. She’s the main liaison between the POSSE and the o SU Foundation . She manages the coordination of information. If you look at who’s processing the money from our donors, 90 percent of that is Stephanie. A lot of her time is spent interacting with donors, whether on the phone or face-to-face.

On home football gamedays, she’s in charge of our fan a ssistance areas and employs a staff of six or seven part-time employees. They handle everything from coordination of mobility seating to fan questions of any kind.

A 14-year veteran of the POSSE Ellen runs the day-to-day operations of the POSSE office. She oversees the donor database, everything from reconciliation with the o SU Foundation to ensuring each donor has the proper amount of donor points and assisting fellow staff members with all events planned through the POSSE. She takes an active role in the hiring and managing the student employees. If you come into the POSSE office, Ellen can help you with anything you need done. She can answer questions about donations and OSU athletics.

c lay doesn’t directly report to the POSSE , but he is integral for the experience of the fans. Many of our marketing collaterals are created and designed by Clay — including the POSSE brochure, fundraising literature, team posters, pocket schedules, gameday ads, E-news or a host of other projects. Over the course of 15 years in our athletic department, he’s had a hand in helping make sure our message and brand are consistent across all methods of printed communications. He also writes feature stories and is assistant editor of POSSE magazine, and serves as a Sports Marketing lecturer in the Spears School of Business.

Mary ’s in charge of the O- c lub , which is a social organization for former OSU letter winners/ student-athletes. She handles all the membership drives, billing, processing of benefits, merchandise sales, and is in charge of gameday events for O-Club. She’s also responsible for taking student-athletes to c amp c owboy every summer where they talk about tickets and do a Q&A with incoming freshmen.

Mary also manages the annual POSSE auction and Dinner. She runs the auction top to bottom, from meeting with various committee members who are out soliciting donations for the auction, to compiling the program and coordinating everything for that night’s big event.

And that’s the staff. If you see one of us at a ballgame on campus, on the road or in the community, please introduce yourself and say, “hello” or “go Pokes!” Now if you need anything from the POSSE , you’ll recognize a familiar face.

Mary lEwiS

As always, if you know someone who would like purchase season tickets or join the POSSE , please call us at 877-all -4-OSu (877255-4678) or visit www.okstate.com . Annual contributions to Athletics totaling $150 or more qualify for membership in the POSSE and includes an annual subscription to the award winning POSSE magazine, the POSSE star decal for your automobile and an educational tax deduction.

We are very appreciative of your consideration and support of osu athletics!

Jesse Martin associate aD / e xternal affairs oklahoma state athletics