Tonight we are here in Tampa Florida.
It’s a beautiful location, 
the Marriott overlooking the bay, 
a great place to draw together 
alumni here from central Florida 
so we’re very pleased to be here
 in the winter and drawing people 
out to come together in a beautiful 
location to talk about JMU.
We heard tonight a very clear message 
that people want to give and are willing
 to give when they feel connected 
to a cause, to a particular need, 
not just a generic call for giving. 
The fact of the matter is that we 
have thousands of different funds 
with all the different schools, 
the different departments across campus,
 a lot of different, very specific needs 
that you can give to and support, 
but what we need to do is connect 
those with people who share that
passion, who share that interest.  
There are so many different ways 
we can connect with people and 
that’s what we need to continue to explore.
 We heard tonight from people who 
said look if I knew there was a particular 
need in that corner of the university 
that I can relate to, that I care about, 
I would take out my checkbook or 
I’d give online that day if I heard 
about that specific need.  
We got to think about how we make
 those connections, not just to try to do
 everything in a cookie-cutter way, 
but to reach people where they are, 
where their passions are and 
educate people about the many 
needs and the different priorities 
that we have at the university. 
So that’s certainly a theme that we
 will continue to explore, 
with advancement, as we go forward.
