There is this one guy in Panama City Beach, Florida - who goes by the nickname Jamnolfin on Warchant.com - who wanted to help Florida State win. He couldn't increase his Seminole Booster annual contribution, so he decided to invest some time asking his fellow message board posters to join Seminole Boosters and help fund FSU athletics.

The results have been staggering.

There is this other guy - a financial analyst in Tampa -- who was inspired by the first guys results and started asking his friends too.

And a third guy in Atlanta, Georgia - a member of the Seminole Boosters Inner Council -- who like the second guy was inspired by the first guy's success and formulated a simple plan to recruit five new boosters from his list of Seminole friends… and wound up with surprising results.

I use the brown-paper-bag word "guys" because the three men view themselves as "ordinary Joes" just trying to do what they can to help the Seminoles beat the Gators one year sooner. In reality they are neither ordinary, nor just guys, as the men are blessed with wives who are equally committed to the Seminole cause.

Jamnolfin has what posters call "thread cred". In other words, James and Connie Warren are trusted people within the Warchant.com message board world. And well they should be. The two volunteers spent countless hours trying to help people understand FSU's basic financial need - how donations fund the athletics program -- and helping them with ticket and parking questions.

"I think the fact that I was one of them instead of a Seminole Booster fundraiser gave me their trust," Warren said. "My small campaign to draw in new boosters took off and I found I had a knack at it and here we are.

"I've been a season ticket holder for 23 years so I kind of knew the ropes. I met (Seminole Booster Vice President) Tom Carlson and he told me some of the hard facts and I said I could probably get a few new boosters. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could get as many as I did."

Warren said the questions fans asked were generally pretty basic. They just don't realize that total revenue from tickets, bowls, television, etc. is not enough to cover the cost of athletics. Warren said he had to explain that there is a $10-12 million annual shortfall that Seminole Boosters covers with membership donations.

"They just wanted to know exactly where their money goes," Warren said. "There's a lot of people that don't know that housing, scholarships, facilities are all paid for by Seminole Boosters."

Warren said there are a number of other misconceptions:

"Some think the annual price for Boosters is due all at once. That lower level Boosters don't really make a difference. That the school only cares about upper level Boosters and the thinking that if I can't attend games what's the point of donating?"

"Fans just want to get involved and a lot of them just didn't realize exactly what the boosters do and how easy it is to contribute and that's where I could help."

Your loyalty to FSU is not a t-shirt hanging in your closet, its your devotion, love and willingness to make sure we succeed, on and off the field, in and out of the classroom. When you join Seminole Boosters, donate to capitol campaigns, or help endow scholarships you are not a fan of FSU, you are FSU! It's contagious amongst the people that have a deep love for this university.

One by one people responded to Jamie. Some didn't realize that the athletics department does not make enough money to fund itself and that it depends on Seminole Booster members for more than $10 million in annual funds. They also didn't know that scholarships are not free and that the annual cost, over $9 million, is paid for by memberships. They thought the athletics department was rolling in money or was funded by the university or by state dollars. They just didn't know that by state law athletic facilities can only be built with private dollars and not state dollars.

Jamie fielded lots of questions from fans about tickets and parking and how they can be improved with Booster membership. If he or Connie received a question they weren't sure how to answer, Jamie would forward them to the Booster office staff for help.

The bottom line is that Jamie and Connie Warren have helped hundreds and hundreds of people - more than 500 in all -- become Seminole Booster members and season ticket holders. The impact of their effort is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars already and the new boosters members keep rolling in.

So do new volunteers, inspired by their results.

"I have been telling all my friends how much FSU needs us and it's time for everyone to be a Booster at whatever level they can give," said Rob Flohr, a Warren disciple in Tampa. "I have even told them that if they are not Boosters, for as little as $60/year, I won't be able to share tickets with them. It's time for all Seminoles to "Get with the Program".

Flohr said his friends just needed little nudge.

"FSU is not "top of mind" for most like it is for crazy people like me, so I am doing the nudging."

People give to people for causes they believe in so it makes perfectly good sense that the most powerful marketing tool is a committed volunteer.

Bryan and Cortney Williams heard the story about the Warrens and decided they would give it a try, too. What they created was a blue-print any volunteer can follow.

They started with their address book and selected 52 friends with FSU ties. Next, they sent an e-mail with information about the Booster mission to their friends and asked them if they would join at some level. Eight of their friends responded that they were already Boosters and another 14 said they would join that day.

They had already surpassed their goal of five new members but were inspired to make phone calls to see what the others were thinking. They found themselves answering the same questions the Warrens were receiving about FSU true financial needs and the benefits of membership.

Suddenly they had doubled their goal and realized that the remainder of their friends who had not responded were probably operating under the misconception that FSU simply did not need their support. By the time they had finished calling their list, 35 of the 44 non-booster friends had pledged.

Each of us "guys" has a social network filled with Seminole fans who may be operating under the same misconceptions. If you would be willing to reach out to your networks, the Seminole Booster office will be happy to assist you. Contact Derril Bleakley (dbleakley@fsu.edu) or Mary Bailey (mbailey@admin.fsu.edu) at (850) 644-3484.

Talk about it on the

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