I was disappointed by my dorm's* turnout for Bonfire 2003. Most of the people here seem to agree with our efforts but didn't want to participate themselves.

Any suggestions on how to recruit people for next fall?

* Clarification: Clements, not Lechner

Edit: Oh well, I'll let Lechner take over the thread.

[This message has been edited by leknerd2004 (edited 10/8/2006 7:11p).]

First of all, assure them that the Honors Office and University can't do anything to punish them for participating.

Secondly, appeal to the history of the dorm. Do a little research and find out what Bonfire participation was like prior to '99, and encourage them uphold and continue that.

There were two nerds who had great success in Bonfire. Matt McKenna was a red pot and Dave Reisner (or was it Reasoner? Riesner? Whatever.) was climber for Bonfires '92 - '93. Dave even had sense enough to move to Walton during his Jr. and Sr. years. I can't remember if Matt moved to Walton, too. I want to say he did.

It is kind of tangential, but at least one nerd moved out of Lechner and became a crew chief in another dorm. David Arnold also was smart enough to move to Walton and became my son for Bonfire '93.

Nerd participation was never great, but I remember there being a good number of girls who went out as well. My only point there is that participation was definitely co-ed. Also, Clements cut with them. I think someone from Clements just contacted my wife about restarting the old Bonfire Chair line, so there may be some interest there, as well.

I assume the Lechner Hall Bonfire Nerds shirts are still floating around. If not, I have one and can try to get an image of it to you . . . somehow.

Good luck to you.

Kip

Yea, I'd be happy to hook you up with a pic of a Bonfire Nerds shirt.

The klimber was Reasoner. His younger brother Steve was c/o '99 and was a crew chief for Bonfire '96.

Matt McKenna was the first yellow from Lechner and he was a red. I'm pretty sure that he live in the dorm, at least his JRP semester. The Honors Office was more accomodating in those days for Bonfire leadership.

From what I recall being told, Lechner even earned perimeter poles in '91, '92, and '93. Even in the late 90's, we'd still pull 20+ for most cuts, and upwards of 80 or so on first cut.

The secret is to get the girls out there, because if women are out there, the guys will follow.

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I think someone from Clements just contacted my wife about restarting the old Bonfire Chair line

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Was that "someone" Mike Winn '05?

I remember the Lechner yellow line...

'91 McKenna
'92 Lilley
'93 Matzer (Cubby '96 here on TexAgs is his twin brother)
'94 Dan Dobson
'95 Seamas Dore (currently a MD)
'96 Patrick Matragrano (got his MBA and works for Ford)
'97 Ben Martinez (does super secret sonar research for the Navy in CA)
'98 David Sutcliffe
'99 Steve Christopherson

Crew chiefs were the "nice guy" and the "ass|-|ole" line. I only recall those that were there around my time.


[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 3/2/2004 4:08p).]

Keegan99, Dave was called "Doc." There was also a "Nurse." Was that Steve? I think Nurse lived in Puryear. Nurse was Doc's brother, but I was thinking that there were 3 Reasoners. I also don't think he liked being called Nurse.

The crew chiefs from my year were Jeff "Princess" Goldfarb and "Jobu." I don't remember Jobu's real name. Both were great guys. Then again, everyone I know from Lechner was pretty cool. Well, except that Seamus guy. He's a jerk.

Leknerd2004, I have no idea who it was. An old crew chief friend from Appelt called looking for her contact info for a friend of his. Her hard drive crashed and she lost all of his info. I think she got him everything he needed, though.

Nurse was the other brother, not Steve.

From what I remember being told, Doc could have demonstrated the entire Boy Scout knot-tying handbook from memory. He was that good as a klimber.

I never met Goldfarb, but some chiefs way down his line mentioned that he got married and took his wife's last name. Strange.

[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 3/2/2004 5:02p).]

Neil, that was Nurse's name.

Doc is one of the smartest people . . . ever. He use to do top-secret stuff for Raytheon. I'm not sure what he is up to these days. I never asked for the knot tying demonstration. Maybe I will next time I see him.

As for Jeff, well . . . I have nothing to say. I guess he really was a princess.

Clements was never involved in jack. There's no "history" to resurrect there.

Wells was move involved.

They usually had three or four people that came out on a regular basis.

The chair in '97 had friends on the Dunn Crew and wanted to cut with them, so that hurt things. More Clements people cut as old nerds with Lechner that year than went out with the chair and Dunn.

hehe "friends"

I personally knew two guys from Clement's out there, I remember them I had to push for one of them.

Hey, you didn't have to push. It's not my fault that underclassmen wanted to talk about "dead trees" all the time.

Uh oh, you've offended my wife. Now I gots ta throw down.

Back in '94 my wife pulled 8 or so from Clements. Not huge numbers, but certainly more than Wells. Hell, my wife was so red-ass that when Bonfire "leaned" in '94 one of the reds (Justin Lyon) put her in charge of an f* crew (of BQs, the poor guys). He called her "practically a crew chief." She still smiles when she thinks about that.

Her granddad and mom were worthless and her daughter tried hard but wasn't very effective. Anyway, it isn't much of a history, but these days we should take what we can get.

"Jobu" is Jolyean (sp?) Frannea. We were only forced to spell his last name correctly.

I am in his line. I was a Lechner crew chief for Bonfire '98.

leknerd - I also have a couple Bonfire Nerds shirts you could look at. But basically, what Kip95 and Keegan said about the other guys is the same as what I have heard.

If you want any other knowledge, post your email address and I can tell you what I know.

Gig'em, and good luck with Bonfire '04.

When I lived in Lechner for the 02-03 year, the RAs (and most SAs) were too worried about sucking up to the honors office. When I asked my RA about Bonfire, I was told no one was allowed to talk about it on campus. And when we were starting UP(now SB) 3 different SAs told me I couldn't have info posted on my door. Unless someone Bonfire friendly gets into leadership, chances are there won't be too many nerds anytime soon.

My how things change. Back when I was a SA, the SAs didn't give a damn about what the honors office wanted. We just wanted the dorm to be a fun place for the fish.

quote:

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Was that "someone" Mike Winn '05?

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saw him tonight by Neeley before taps - no, it wasn't him.

Though he would like to get pictures of Clements pots - for future reference... so if anyone has pictures and if anyone knows how to get in contact w/ him, ya'll should hook it up.

Send an IM to "nerd2004" and I'll give you our e-mail addresses.

[This message has been edited by eenerd09 (edited 10/21/2006 12:41a).]

If I'm not mistaken, the Pots were bright orange with black writing I believe.

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If I'm not mistaken, the Pots were bright orange with black writing I believe.

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You are correct. But they weren't painted until Centerpole was raised.

before that fish pots were unpainted with a bright orange stripe down the middle, might have had a orange rim too, guess it depends on what year you looked at.

Lechner even earned a Perimeter pole in 94, but we stole it. It was fun beating the hell out of the Nerds, but then again we were total thugs back then. McKenna was pissed when we ripped the Nerds off the pole, but there was nothing that he could do about it.

They even tried to retake it (twice) but luckily we busted a few heads that day. I rewarded the efforts of everyone that day by renting a generator and having the first public showing of porn out on the bonfire fields. There were like 120+ people watching "water woman" that day around the pole.

We even built bleachers so everyone could watch the film on my roomates 15" TV. The best part was when the writer for the Eagle came around our tent city, he stayed and watched ten minutes of the flick and promised not to write anything about what he transpired. The cup of keg beer I gave him helped too.

[This message has been edited by Puryear_PB (edited 2/21/2006 4:05a).]

Can I get a look at old Nerd Bonfire shirts from anyone that has some, I have a Lekner XI cut shirt from my brother, but would be interested in seeing some more.

eenerd,
the Lechner "L" is a axe and machete, they should still rock that, but some people never notice it.
The lekner K and R are backwards, b/c they are easier to carve into logs and distinctive.
Plus I think I talked to you on facebook, but our dorm and grode yells are on the group I made.


Also, can anyone confirm that chief pots have inverted colors, or is that something else? (Couldn't help but notice Keegan's pot) Plus, can we try to piece together the Chief lines? Were there ever any more Browns or Reds? (I realize Lechner is still not even two decades old, but still)

[This message has been edited by DoctorSnoball (edited 2/21/2006 7:40a).]

IIRC, SAs Aaron and Bull were supposed to be Chiefs our year.

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Howdy!!! I'm a future SA for Lechner XVIII, and am very interested in restoring nerd participation in bonfire. I'd also like to know what Lechner pots looked like. If any of you have information about Lechner's participation in Bonfire (photos, stories, or just general good bull), please email me at eenerd09@gmail.com

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I've sent this to old Lechner pots.

quote:

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Also, can anyone confirm that chief pots have inverted colors, or is that something else?

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Chiefs were all orange. The yellow had a ridge down the center that was orange.

I'll try to dig up some pictures.

quote:

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Plus, can we try to piece together the Chief lines? Were there ever any more Browns or Reds? (I realize Lechner is still not even two decades old, but still)

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The only red was McKenna, who was also the b@st@rd (first) yellowpot for the dorm in '91.

Doc Reasoner was a chief in 1990 and later a climber pot (three grey-colored pots that were later consolidated into one redpot line).

I think that was the only upper-level leadership from Lechner.

The yellowpot line was as follows:

91 McKenna
92 Lilly
93 Matzer
94 Dobson
95 Dore
96 Matragrano
97 Martinez
98 Sutcliffe
99 Christopherson

One partial chief line:

90 Reasoner
...
96 Negusse
97 Laborde
98 Green

Another partial chief line:

95 [pot was not worn]
96 Reasoner (Doc's younger brother)
97 Meisner
98 Lyles


[This message has been edited by Keegan99 (edited 2/22/2006 12:06a).]

...and I just realized that pretty much everything I just posted was already posted earlier on this thread.

I'm a dumbass.

You're not a dumbass. You're just using redundancy to increase the reliability of your posts.

RIIIIIIIGHT...

____________________________________________________________
Proudest member of the Fightin Texas Aggie class of 08 Beat the h*** outa tu A-A-A-A-A!!!!. May bonfire forever burn in our hearts.....and may the Twelfth Man ever burn it in memory and in hope for the future.

Band.studentbonfire.org

I'm Lechner XV, and friends with a few of the XV's who were SA's for XVI last year (04-05). Sounds like the hall director gave them a big ass chewing before the year started, and didn't want anyone talking about student bonfire to the incoming fish. I know that in XV (03-04) we never heard anything about bonfire opportunities.