Starting a new student organization can be exciting, daunting, frustrating, fulfilling, but, if there is one thing most people can agree on… starting a new club takes a lot of hard work!
If you have an idea for a club that doesn’t exist on your campus and believes it would enhance the college experience of your peers, you should absolutely create it.
But, before you jump all in, ask yourself these 3 questions:
1. Is my student organization original? Could my club be easily incorporated within an existing club?
- Colleges don’t like handling duplicate clubs and sometimes even forbid it.
- You’ll find your club competing against organizations too similar to your own for members, funding, and college resources.
- If your club idea is close enough to another organization, it can be easier to approach the existing club with your ideas. Most existing clubs already have access to a large member base, good funding, and resources provided by the university. Things that will take a few years for a new organization to gain access to.
2. Do you have the time and energy to start a new club?
- Just like baking a cake from scratch takes more time and energy than buying a store-bought cake, the same could be said for starting a new student organization from scratch.
- While existing organizations already have well-written and practiced rules, history, structure, and activities set in place, you’ll be starting from nothing. Hence, you’ll be spending quite of bit of time on some of the most basic things to get your club up in running. Although, this level of creativity may be highly enjoyable for some people!
3. Is there a need for my student organization. Do I have at least a handful of guaranteed interested people (5 – 10 members) to join?
- Just like you wouldn’t start a business or create a new product without guaranteed interested customers, the same would be applied to creating a new student organization.
- Testing enthusiasm can be as simple as asking classmates and peers for honest feedback of your new student club idea.
- If you find interested parties ask them if they would want a leadership role or collect their email (or other contact information) if they’re interested in simply being a member.
- Once you have a guaranteed list of possible members and leaders, you’ll have the motivation to get your student organization up and running!
1. Assemble your Team!
Creating a good team to consolidate the work of registering, marketing, event planning, and decision-making increases the student organization likelihood of having a successful first semester.
You probably don’t plan on running your student organization all by yourself, so why should you have to start it by yourself. Get others as passionate about your idea as you are!
All student organization needs at least a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Some colleges even require that you have students dedicated to these positions before your club can become official.
Having a team that can help flesh out your club idea and its activities, marketing, and registration will be remarkably easier than being a lone wolf on the subject.
2. Find the Perfect Advisor or Advisors!
Another common requirement of universities is acquiring a faculty advisor. Advisors can be extremely beneficial to student organizations as they can help with finding campus resources and funding for your group.
Advisors are also important with creating continuity with your student organization. While you’ll have a finite amount of time with your club, your advisor will be with the student organization for years after you’ve graduated. A good advisor will be an important mentor to future leaders and can be a beneficial source of organizational history and advice.
Tips on finding a good advisor:
- Your potential advisor should be employed at your university for the long foreseeable future. (so, no short-term professors!)
- Their position, ideology, or interest should align with the mission of your student organization.
- You should present your potential advisor with an estimated amount of time your group believes their advisor should work with them on a consistent basis. This way the potential advisor will understand the commitment they are signing up for.
- Example: Our organization’s advisor will need to be available for at least one meeting a month along with supervising our once-per-a-semester group trips to conventions.
3. Register With Your Student Organization Center!
Most colleges and universities make it easy to register a new organization online, but if you ever have any questions or have missed a deadline, visit your student organization center to get their help!
In order to get support and recognition from your university, you need to follow their rules. Although it may seem easier to go rouge and run unofficially, your organization will miss out on a lot of great resources provided by your college.
University student organization center can offer funding, which can be great supplemental income for your student club. My own university provided additional funds that matched up to 20 percent of my organization’s income.
Your student organization center can also offer advice, office space, free website hosting, campus marketing, and so much more.
A simple google search with the keywords being your the name of your university and “new student organization requirements” can tell you everything you need to register. If that not enough, you can normally meet with a knowledgable person during your student organization’s center business hours.
Although all colleges are unique, so common requirements that must be met include:
- Student organization’s name and concept
- Summary of how the organization supports your University’s educational mission or enhances the lives of its students.
- Brief on what makes this organization different from other organizations on campus.
- List of Leaders or founders
- List of interested potential members
- Constitution and Bylaws
- Mission, Vision, and Values
- A plan that ensures the sustainability of your student organization (should cover a time period of 3-years )
- Plan to obtain financial support and resources (space, storage, etc.) for your activity
- A budget
- List of resources the university needs to provide
It’s also important to read up on your university’s policies and guidelines and deadlines. While some student organization centers may be more forgiving than others, it’s always easier to get things done right the first time.
What do you think?
Are you considering starting your own student organization? If so, has this article given you some insight on how to create a new student organization? Comment down below with your feedback and student club ideas!
Finding Your Student Organization’s Why! A quick look into Mission, Vision, and Values.
