Campus groups have sustained energy and interest in working together.
Some advantages to being a formal campus group:
- Benefits from your school. Many schools give official student groups money, the ability to participate in recruitment fairs, and the ability to reserve space/equipment at no charge. These are all really helpful resources. Although you can probably do all of the above as an inspired individual, it will probably be easier to do as a chapter.
- Build sustained momentum around a cause. Chapters have a certain momentum: the group goes through the experience of putting on events together, which ultimately leads to a feeling that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It’s also really helpful to have other folks who express their commitment to putting on events, as you would find in a chapter.
Step 1: The first step to creating a chapter on campus is building a team of supporters – your “Steering Committee” – or a small group of students on campus who want to be co-founders of the chapter. The goal of creating a Steering Committee is to get a small group of students involved in the chapter’s success early on, that way you have a team to go through the entire organizing process with. The Steering Committee can have anywhere from two to five students involved in it – the key is to have at least one partner to work with from the beginning. The Steering Committee model is ideal because it creates an informal team while allowing everyone to figure out how much time they have to be involved and what roles they want to take on. Eventually, it will be more efficient to elect formal leaders of the chapters.
Step 2: Register on campus. Every school has a different process for registering a student organization, but we have templates for almost any requirements your school may have. The first step is finding out the requirements for your school, and how to set up an official student organization at your school. One way to do this is to go online to the student affairs page at your school and find out the requirements. If you cannot find this online, use this e-mail below to write to your Dean of Student Affairs.
Step 3: Hold a launch event. One of the best ways to launch the organization on campus is to hold an AIDemocracy event such as a mini-conference, videoconference, or documentary screening. To learn how to host one of these events, just check out the specific toolkits available under each program theme on the web-site at http://www.aidemocracy.org/programs.htm.
Step 4: Recruit members and hold your first meeting. Continue planning activities for the year. Now you’re on your way!
Equality, respect, democracy, and group health:
Members’ passion, energy, and dedication to the cause are key to the success of the campaign. These commendable and desirable characteristics can be undermined by structural hierarchies, personality conflicts, racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. As social justice activists and progressive young people, we cannot tolerate discrimination or be complacent with the state of our own organizations; we must make our groups dynamic, egalitarian, and above-all, healthy. Read more about this in the Membership Develop and Leadership Development sections.
Questions:
- Is there a group hierarchy? How are decisions made: voting (with some form of majority), consensus (all members in agreement), or some other way?
- Do some group members’ opinions carry more weight when making decisions? Why?
- Does everyone in the group feel comfortable speaking? Are all group members encouraged to speak, share, and weigh-in when making decisions?
- How are tasks delegated? Do a few people do all of the work? Why?
- If someone discriminates against another group member, how does the group respond?
Some general advice:
- Step up if you have not spoken; step back if you have dominated the conversation.
- Delegate tasks evenly and broadly and discourage micromanagement: groups can accomplish incredible amounts, but only if all group members have some level of ownership. Allow everyone to do both desirable tasks and less-enjoyable work.
- Have a different person facilitate each meeting. Each person can become more engaged and build leadership and communication skills, while ensuring that one person does not dominate the discussion.
- HAVE FUN! Meetings should be a space for food, jokes, and friendship as well as work. They’re also a chance to learn from other intelligent, passionate students. You are doing great work, and you should enjoy doing it together.
