Game Watch Chair
Game Watch Chair
As Game Watch Chair, your role provides the primary spark for local engagement, creating spirited gathering spaces that bring alumni and fans together to keep the Buckeye spirit thriving.
Role Description
Game watches connect Buckeyes across the country and world by creating local, spirited gathering spaces. As the public face of the group during games, you help build community, strengthen traditions, and deliver a memorable Buckeye experience.
- Venue Management: Secure accessible locations and negotiate expectations with venue managers, ensuring a reserved Buckeye section.
- Event Experience: Ensure TVs and sound are set for the OSU game and maintain a welcoming, spirited atmosphere.
- Volunteer Leadership: Recruit and manage Game Watch Captains or point people for each location if necessary/applicable.
- Guest Welcome & Tracking: Staff a welcome table and collect attendee contact information/sign ins.
- Administration: Submit post-event forms and attendance reports via DocuSign.
- Financial Oversight: Have two volunteers count and record any collected funds.
- Strong, consistent attendance and engagement.
- Smooth logistics and clear game-day setup.
- Meaningful traditions that enhance the experience.
- Accurate, timely data and financial reporting.
- Communicators comfortable coordinating with venue staff.
- Delegators who lead volunteers effectively.
- Motivators who energize crowds.
- Organized planners who stay on top of details.
- Attend most game watches during football/basketball seasons.
- Pre-season: meet with venue management and identify locations.
- Game day: arrive before kickoff; stay afterward to finalize reports.
- Build relationships with alumni and local businesses.
- See your impact immediately through community spirit.
- Open to all alumni and non-alumni, just need to be a great Buckeye supporter!
Game Watch Chair Toolkit
Foundations & Strategic Vision
As the Game Watch Chair, you are the experience architect who ensures every game watch is consistent, runs smoothly, and builds lifelong loyalty back to Ohio State.
- Strategic Visioning: Look beyond a single game day to build a sustainable, annual game watch calendar. Ensure today’s activities build long-term community health by choosing locations that cater to your specific regional demographics.
- Synthesize, Don’t Just Track: Excel in your role by identifying attendance trends and reviewing attendee feedback early. Do not just watch names fill a sign-in sheet; use the post-game data provided by the Ohio State University Alumni Association (OSUAA) to see which locations or games drive the highest engagement and adjust your layout or venue choices proactively.
- Establish a “Single Source of Truth”: Maintain highly organized records of vendor agreements, contact sheets, and venue expectations. Clear operational playbooks allow future Game Watch Captains and volunteers to replicate successful game days without starting from scratch.
- Document the “Why”: When presenting game watch reports to the board, simplify the data. Clarify how strong attendance and successful fundraising opportunities (such as game day raffles or percentages of sales) directly fund local scholarships and support the club's financial health.
- Public Face & Crowd Motivator: Act as the ultimate ambassador during games. Strike up conversations with new faces, share the benefits of joining the local club, and remain comfortable leading cheers, playing OSU music, or coordinating with an MC to keep the energy high.
- Venue Management & Negotiation: Connect with owners and general managers to secure dedicated spaces. Confidently negotiate written expectations, food/beverage deals, audio/visual setups, and potential donation kickbacks for the club.
- Delegation & Captain Oversight: If your club operates across multiple locations, you will act as the coordinator who recruits and manages site-specific Game Watch Captains. You must anticipate logistical needs and empower your team to work independently at their respective venues.
The Operational Playbook: Setting Expectations & Day of Game Logistics
A successful game watch starts with an intentional, data-driven site selection process.
- Utilize Heat Maps: Request a local demographic heat map from OSUAA. Use this data to choose a central venue that is accessible to the highest concentration of Buckeyes in your area.
- Target Your Audience: Tailor your venues to the crowd you want to attract. Younger alumni often prefer lively spaces near public transit and city centers where celebrations are encouraged. Middle-aged and older alumni frequently seek family-friendly environments with accessible parking, easier highway access, and a slightly quieter or less raucous atmosphere.
- Accessibility Assessment: Always verify that a location features adequate parking, sits near major travel corridors, and is fully accessible to Buckeyes with varying physical abilities. Ask yourself: Is this location accessible to everyone, or just to me?
- Document for Game Watch Chair to Use: Game Watch Venue Criteria and Expectations
Before the season kicks off, meet directly with the bar or restaurant general manager to review operational baselines. Consider putting these items into a signed agreement to refer back to if issues arise.
- Dedicated Space: Confirm the venue will hold the entire bar/restaurant or a cordoned-off section explicitly for Ohio State fans. Ensure they are willing to open early or close late to accommodate game times.
- TVs & Sound: Mandate that all televisions in your designated section (or the whole bar) are tuned to the OSU game and that the game sound is turned on.
- Staffing & Environment: Ensure the venue schedules enough staff to handle large, energetic Buckeye crowds. Ask if employees are permitted to wear Buckeye or Scarlet and Gray gear and see if the kitchen can offer Ohio-themed food or drink specials.
- Document for Game Watch Chair to Use: Preseason Venue Agreement Template
- Early Arrival: The Game Watch Captain or assigned point person must arrive well before kickoff to check the A/V setup, coordinate with staff, and set up Ohio State decorations.
- The Welcome & Sign-In Table: Setup a visible, staffed welcome table at the front of the venue. If space is limited, position clear signage to help fans find the group. Use the OSUAA provided QR codes or physical attendance sheets to collect visitor contact information so your group can return the data to OSUAA for future engagement opportunities for your group.
- In-Game Traditions: Have volunteers move table-to-table during the pregame to welcome attendees. Ignite crowd energy with music or cheers during timeouts and halftime.
- Strict Money Management: If you host fundraising activities like raffles, silent auctions, or merchandise sales, two or more people must count and record all monies collected. This counting must take place on-site prior to leaving the facility. Provide formal cash management slips to the board to confirm accurate deposits
- Document for Game Watch Chair to Use: Game Day Cash Management Slip
Do not let the engagement stop when the game ends. Send a follow-up email to attendees sharing upcoming club events and highlighting potential leadership opportunities for those looking to get more involved.
Succession Planning & Passing the Playbook
The true strength of a Game Watch Chair’s legacy is measured by how seamlessly the next volunteer leader can step into the role without starting from scratch. Your files, relationship logs, and records should be transparent and organized so future chairs feel fully supported from day one.
Maintain a continuous onboarding folder for your successor. Incoming chairs should have immediate access to:
- A list of active venue manager names, direct email addresses, and phone numbers.
- Historical game-by-game attendance data and notes on which games drew the largest crowds.
- Standardized email templates, promotion blurb schedules (social media, club website, ads), and graphics used during the season.
- A copy of past signed venue agreements, historical food/beverage deals, and raffle cash tracking slips.
- Documents for Game Watch Chair to Use: Game Watch Chair Leadership Transition Guide
- Early Arrival: The Game Watch Captain or assigned point person must arrive well before kickoff to check the A/V setup, coordinate with staff, and set up Ohio State decorations.
- The Welcome & Sign-In Table: Setup a visible, staffed welcome table at the front of the venue. If space is limited, position clear signage to help fans find the group. Use the OSUAA provided QR codes or physical attendance sheets to collect visitor contact information so your group can return the data to OSUAA for future engagement opportunities for your group.
- Convert to Static Files: At the end of each season, convert your completed DocuSign attendance summaries, financial records, and venue notes into view-only static PDFs within a shared folder to prevent accidental data loss or formatting changes.
- Year-End Transition Workshop: Participate actively in board transition meetings. Sit down with your successor to hand over shared folder access, review venue dynamics from the past year, and walk them through the post-event reporting pipeline so they are positioned for instant success.
Game Watch Venue Criteria & Expectations Checklist
Before executing a contract or finalizing a location, the Game Watch Chair or designated Captain must audit the prospective venue using these baseline criteria to ensure a premium Buckeye experience.
The 1–5 Scoring Rubric & Rating Guide
Use these precise benchmarks to assign values to ensure consistency across multiple evaluators or committee members:
Item 1.1: Exclusivity & Cordoned Section
- 1 point: No reserved space; Buckeye fans must mingle randomly with the general public.
- 2 points: A shared room or dedicated block of tables is provided, but outside patrons will walk through or sit within the boundary.
- 3 points: Complete private room, full facility buyout, or an entirely separate, barricaded Buckeye floor/patio.
Item 1.2: Operational & Hours Flexibility
- 1 point: Strict, unyielding venue hours; completely unsuited for early 11:00 AM Central or late night West Coast kicks.
- 2 points: Open during standard hours but requires a minimum guaranteed crowd size or layout fee to stay open late/open early.
- 3 points: Fully flexible; management guarantees doors open 90 minutes before kickoff regardless of broadcast time, with no penalty fees.
Item 1.3: Enhanced Staffing Commitments
- 1 point: Standard skeleton shift; long wait times likely during high-volume periods.
- 2 points: Extra bartender scheduled on game days, but kitchen/service staff levels remain regular capacity.
- 3 points: Dedicated extra execution teams (express lines, section-specific servers, dedicated backup kitchen crew) explicitly booked for the Buckeye shift.
Item 2.1: Dedicated TVs
- 1 point: Only a small subset of secondary screens or corner monitors can be changed to the OSU game.
- 2 points: Major central screens will show the game, but peripheral TVs will show competing sporting events.
- 3 points: 100% of televisions within the Buckeye zone (or entire establishment) are fully locked onto the Ohio State feed.
Item 2.2: Venue Audio Secured
- 1 point: No game sound allowed; background house music or jukeboxes take precedence.
- 2 points: Audio is provided via a local table speaker box or limited to a single corner TV's internal speaker.
- 3 points: Complete audio override; live broadcast audio is piped seamlessly directly through the house main roof/wall speaker grid.
Item 3.1: Data-Driven Proximity (Heat Map Alignment)
- 1 point: Outside the main cluster of alumni density; requires a 45+ minute trek for most regional members.
- 2 points: Moderately central location; convenient for one suburb but far for another.
- 3 points: Bullseye placement; situated directly in the primary hot spot identified by the official OSUAA area demographic heat map.
Item 3.2: Universal Access (ADA Compliance)
- 1 point: Multi-level facility with only stairs; narrow corridors, steps required for restroom access.
- 2 points: Ramped entryway available, but seating layout is heavily cramped and restrooms lack automated access or clear clearances.
- 3 points: Fully accessible flat-surface entryways, designated wide-clearance ADA seating zones, and spacious, compliant restrooms.
Item 3.3: Demographic Target Alignment
- 1 point: Environment clashes with your target base (e.g., a club atmosphere for seniors, or a quiet, isolated dinner venue for young alumni).
- 2 points: Neutral atmosphere; can appeal to mixed crowds but lacks specific draws like close public transit options or expansive parking lots.
- 3 points: Tailored directly to your target segment (e.g., immediate subway access/walkable nightlife for young alumni, OR massive, free, paved, parking lots and appropriate sound levels for families and seniors).
Item 3.4: Financial Incentives & Scholarship Fund Donations
- 1 point: Venue refuses any scholarship donations or group menu discounts.
- 2 points: Offers minor food/beverage specials for patrons, but no revenue share or donations back to the local club.
- 3 points: Outstanding terms; locks in distinct game day bucket/food deals AND guarantees a 10%+ tracked sales donation back to the club’s local scholarship fund.