1000 New Duke Club Members and Not One From North Dakota

The JMU Duke Club kicked off an ambitious membership campaign in 2011 called Duke Dog Pride. Our friends down in the ‘burg just informed us that they’ve added over 1,000 new members so far this year. That’s quite an accomplishment considering that the previous high for new members in a calendar year was 769. The goal is to recruit 2,011 new members in 2011 though, so before you read any further, go sign up for the Duke Club if you’re not a member already. We’ll wait. Now that you’ve joined, check out the campaign stats below.

New Members – 1,014

Funds Generated from New Memberships – $297,925

New Donors Without Football Season Tickets (showing it’s not just a Bridgeforth bump)- 443

New Donors From Outside Virginia and DC – 214

I thought that last number was particularly interesting. Another goal of the campaign is to “Paint the 50 States Purple” by recruiting new members in every state in the Union. As this chart of existing members shows, the Duke Club does pretty well in the Mid-Atlantic. That’s expected, but some states still show no love for the Dukes. We’re looking at you North Dakota. I’m just going to come right out and say it, this stinginess is what we’d expect from the people of South Dakota. But you, the proud people of such fine cities as Bismarck, Devils Lake, and West Fargo? I’m a little shocked and disappointed by your lack of support.

So here’s the deal. I’m making it my personal goal to find someone in North Dakota to join the Duke Club. Seriously. And since I don’t know anyone in North Dakota, and I have no plans to visit there anytime in the next few years (read: ever), I’m going to need some help. Lots of help. Contact your North Dakotan friends on Facebook, email them, Tweet them, or send them a telegraph (I assume they still rely on that technology in the Dakotas). And since I’m not rich, I’ll just offer up my 2 tickets to the JMU vs Maine game on October, 8 to the first person that can successfully recruit a new Duke Club member from the great state of North Dakota. Just email the membership details to jmusportsblog@gmail.com and let me know where to send the tickets. And if you live someplace too far away to use the tickets, like say, North Dakota, we’ll send you a t-shirt, let you write a guest post about why North Dakota is better than South Dakota, or come up with something to make it worth your while. In the meantime, just join the Duke Club people.