THINK LACROSSE IS MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER…

 By Pierre Filion   pierrefilion@bell.net 

Hey before we get into the issue of THINK LACROSSE’s relevance let’s take time to share with everyone that this is our second anniversary. Yes, we have been at it since April 2023 and have published a post every Monday of every week. To start the week on the right foot!

Our initial intent was to create a platform for the game and to allow and publish analysis or viewpoints form interested readers or contributors.

Our mission statement was clear and we have tried to remain focused on it:

• Promote the game’s most valuable actors (players, coaches, builders)
• Circulate ideas and critical analyses on the challenges to the game
• Support emerging leaderships within the games’ associations and communities.

As we did last year, we can report that we have been efficient and successful with the first two elements of our mission statement but, again, we have failed to live up to our own expectations with the third element of our statement. Clearly, we are at fault for the second year in a row and will need to revise our work and to develop a better link with provincial and local lacrosse associations if we are to support emerging leaderships across the country.

For our second year we had established three goals:

• Produce high quality of content
• Increase the number of readers and followers
• Increase the number of partners and contributors.

HIGH QUALITY OF CONTENT

This is very subjective and our evaluation will also be.

Basically, we produce two types of articles or posts; one deals with the great ones in our game; those who have graced the game with talent and efficiency. Last year we wrote about 21 ‘’great ones’’; this year it was about 16 of them. But every time we received comments from readers who were amazed with the performances of the great actors of our game. Many did not know of the greatness of the great ones and were happy to read ‘’that stuff’’ within THINK LACROSSE. A general line of comment was…’’I didn’t know that’’ indicating that the research done by THINK LACROSSE lead readers to discover great contributors but also to appreciate their performances with credible and verifiable statistics. 

The other line of our posts and articles dealt with critical analysis related to the situation of the game and to events happening within the game. Last year we produced 24 articles pertaining to the situation of the game; we produced 24 again this past year. Critical analysis is seen by some as being negative as if we had an axe to grind and were always putting people down. Others, on the contrary, see critical analysis as a perspective leading to the betterment of the game. Our posts carry facts and truth and we always look forward to comments or opinions from our readers. If we are at fault we will apologize and correct the facts as we see THINK LACROSSE as a platform for the game and a tool for the game to improve and develop itself. Are we producing high quality articles? This obviously remains to be debated but as we have not received comments telling us that what we were producing was garbage we can, with humility and humor, say that we are reaching our goal somehow!!

INCREASE THE NUMBER OF READERS AND FOLLOWERS

We have realized that we are not Talyor Swift nor the Montreal Canadiens and our numbers need to take into account that we are new to this ‘’business’’ and have no particular talent for self-promotion. Yet our numbers, as limited as they might be, are increasing. We send 243 emails every Monday informing our readers of the article to read on our website. 200 of those readers open the post and read the article. That, in itself is a huge percentage to be taken into account. Other data tell us that 1718 persons, every month, go to our Facebook page and read our posts. That is quite significant. We also know that our posts are relayed on other Facebook pages but are not in a position to know the number of readers who read our posts.

What we do know is that our numbers are increasing and that we were in need of assistance to help us navigate within the world of social media. We now have a new administrator (Kim Cayer Roy) whose specialty, in her professional life, is within social media. This should have a significant impact on the number of readers and on the outlets to be developed. We are optimistic but do not fall in the category of people who appreciate quality of content with the number of readers of followers. This having been said we will be better coached and informed of the ‘’reality’’ of social media and should be able to report higher numbers next year. 

INCREASE THE NUMBER OF PARTNERS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Last year 17.3% of our posts were produced by outside contributors while 82.6% were produced by Rad Jospeh and Pierre Filion; this year we did increase the number of contributing authors; 22% of the posts were from ‘’outside’’ partners while 77% were from the THINK LACROSSE team. This is significant and will increase even if we know that lacrosse is mostly an ‘’oral ‘’ sport we talk about and where there are few ‘’writers’’ who care to take the time to express, in writing, their opinion or viewpoints. We see THINK LACROSSE as a platform to circulate ideas and opinions for the betterment of the game and are always grateful to receive texts from outside writers ‘’who have something to say’’. We will keep inviting ‘’outside writers’’ to express themselves and share their perspective on the state of the game and on elements which are relevant to it.

IS THINK LACROSSE RELEVANT?

We ask ourselves this question quite often as our intent is to create a platform favoring the circulation of ideas and the emergence of credible debates. 

We believe that our contribution to the game is valuable and will become more and more important as the game is becoming more visible. 

However, the National Association is becoming less democratic, highly centralized and powerfully authoritarian. The provinces will ‘’pay the bill’’, suffer political invasions, realize they have no functional narrative and end up losing a large part of their influence. They will fall in line as ‘’consumers’’ far more than as ‘’members’’”.

At this time the situation seems problematic because the provinces have no tools to put their best foot forward and very little intent to work together to face the federal authoritarian regime at Lacrosse Canada.

The national context in which the game evolves requires that some still care to express their viewpoints, explain their perspective and share their insights. 

THINK LACROSSE wishes and cares to do just that and that is why it is relevant and positive. In fact, it is more relevant than it ever was.