Signing day done...

...with mixed results. We got most everybody that was committed. We did lose Peters and Santos but we gained a huge recruit in Patterson from the JUCO ranks. All-in-all, a solid class considering how poorly our season ended. I'm not sure how muh the rock paintings helped the recruiting cause. One thing we DID learn, though .... Recruits and their parent do pay attention to it. I even saw a quote from the Virginia Tech forum where a moderator mentioned the rock painting that was done for Korren Kirven the week before signing day. I encourage the rock painters to contact me again if/when they're ready to tackle another painting. Great work guys...

Weekend painting...

Check out the new artwork on our Twitter account (@paintthevolrock) and VolNation.com (http://www.volnation.com/forum/pub/153090-rock-15.html). Some dedicated Vol fans gave their all for our school Friday night. Bravo gents...

Mid week painting for Korren Kirven...

Great work guys....

The week of January 23 - 30....

Jake and crew have two paintings scheduled this week. The first is for a midweek visit by Korren Kirven and his parents. This is a really important recruit for UT. I'm glad we're getting the rock painted to show his family the kind of fans we have in TN. The second painting is for the BIG final recruiting weekend of the year. Numerous recruits will be in town to see our beautiful campus. Jake has a cool design planned for these guys. I just purchased enough supplies for both paintings. The total amount was $99.87. I'm looking for three donors to contribute $20 each. I'll carry the other $40. If you would like to contribute, please let me know in the comments of this posting. I'll get you to logon to the PayPal website and use your credit or debit card to make a payment to my e-mail account (mjsmith1967@yahoo.com). Again, I only need three people to donate.

Here's how we'll operate...

EDIT:  After talking with Jake on the VN forum, we decided he'd rather plan the painting on VN and use this site exclusively for donations.  Fine with me.  I don't care.  So ... here are the rules...

1. Jake or another volunteer will start a new post on VN asking for volunteers to paint the rock.  The link for the VN rock thread - http://www.volnation.com/forum/pub/153090-rock.html. 
2. I will solicit donors and steer people to this blog site.  I'll create a post here with the date of the painting.  I'll define a set amount required to fund each rock painting.  Jake estimates $30 -- we'll use that number for now.  If we find out it's higher or lower, I can adjust later.
3. Donors will contribute money for that particular rock painting via my PayPal account.  I'll keep PayPal information posted under my profile here.  Donors can send money using a debit/credit card or their PayPal account.
4. Jake or another volunteer will update the VN rock thread with status reports on gathering volunteers ... I'll update this blog site for donors.  As soon as we have enough donations for that event, I'll tell everybody to stop sending money.
5. Jake or another volunteer will give me a list of supplies required for the painting.  I will purchase the supplies and meet a volunteer to give them their stuff (time and place will be discussed).
6. The volunteers will take pictures of the completed rock and post them on this website and VolNation.com.
7. We land the next 5 star recruit!

Let's try it this way and see how it works.  Again, I'll fund the next one.  I'd like to get a better feel for how much it costs.

Plan B

Sherwin Williams seems to be unwilling (or unable) to setup an account that will work for us.  The only way they'll do it is to establish a credit account.  I'm not doing that.  What they said they COULD do is open a business account for us where people could call in with their donations and purchase gift cards.  The gift cards would then be mailed to me for distribution to the painters.  That's just too much work for me.  I'd have to track multiple gift card balances.  Yuk.

I tried to setup a PayPal account especially for this purpose but it requires connection to a bank account (and my bank account is already connected to my own PayPal account).  I called my credit union to see what it would take to setup another bank account that's not in my name.  They said I would need to establish a 'non-profit' business.  I'm not doing that either.  Too much pain in the ass.

So ... I'm considering other options.  One possibility is to use my PayPal account and distribute money to the painters as needed.  That's a really easy way to do it because you guys could go online and send it to my account very quickly (using a credit/debit card).  I don't mind doing that but that involves some trust on everybody's part.  If we did it this way, I could post a 'statement' on this site to let you know what's been donated and what we've purchased.

EDIT ... Actually, a variation of this last idea will work fine for us.  I'll solicit donations each time we need money for a painting.  That way, I don't keep a running balance of paint-related project money in my PayPal account.  I'll only ask for enough money to complete THAT project.  Perfect. 

Ok.  So we have a plan.  I'll donate money for the next painting on the schedule.

Now we just need enough volunteers to actually do the work.  :)

1/20/2012 weekend

This is another crucial weekend for the football team.  We need volunteers to paint the rock. 

Jake, are you available?  If so, what time?  Please comment on this blog and stir up support.  Surely there are some hardy, adventurous fans out there willing to help out. 

I don't have a fund/account established for the supplies ... yet ... but I would be happy to donate money to this particular painting.  Please let me know what you need and where I can meet you.  It would be REALLY nice if this could get done tonight.

Let me know what I can do...

Where do we start?

The sole purpose of this blog is to keep people informed about the schedule and progress of 'Paint the rock' events.  Hopefully, we can pool our time and resources to make a strong statement about our passion for UT athletics. 

I called the Sherwin Williams on Kingston Pike about starting a 'non-profit' account.  The idea is for donors to able to call a single source to make donations to the 'Paint the rock' fund.  Authorized users will be able to purchase supplies under this account for the purpose of painting the rock for special events.  Since somebody has to do it ... I will serve as the manager of this account.  I will authorize users, monitor the account balance, and be the contact person for the store.

We'll use this blog to plan painting 'events', coordinate paint pickup, and schedule volunteers.  Also, on the advise of another VN member, I created a Twitter account to issue status reports and pictures.  Follow me at @paintthevolrock.  I'm new to Twitter so I may need help from some of you 'Tweeters'.

More information to follow when I hear back from Sherwin WIlliams.  Until then...

Welcome aboard!



Disclaimer: We are in NO way affiliated with the University of Tennessee, the UT athletic department, or any employees of those organizations.