Bates Winter 2015 STARTING AT THE BEGINNING: HOW TO START OR REIMAGINE A STUDENT ORG

 Get together with someone you don’t know or haven’t paired with previously  You will have 3 minutes to learn as much about your partner as possible. Here’s the catch:  Person #1: Can only ask questions  Person #2: Cannot say anything and must act out responses silently  Person #1 and #2 will switch for 3 minutes  You will have 2 minutes to silently compile your notes  Each person will present on their partner to the group RE-INTRODUCTIONS

1.Identifying your WHYS 2.Finding Primary Interest and Stakeholders 3.Archiving and Record-Keeping 4.Clarifying your core purpose – Crafting a Mission Statement 5.Defining an intentional name 6.Identifying structure and creating accountability – Drafting your Constitution 7.Seeking secondary interest and advisors 8.Becoming Official – Organizational Review Board PRE-OFFICIAL STEPS:

 WHY? Do you think this is important? Who does it serve? What purpose does it serve on campus?  WHY? Is this personally important to you?  WHY? Should this be important for other people?  WHY? Does this matter? Take two minutes to reflect on these. IDENTIFYING YOUR WHYS

 Who’s already interested?  Who’s already set to get involved or willing to assist?  Goal: to find people who are equally or almost as passionate about your student group goal as possible  If you already have members: who’s invested and able to help?  To Find: Enter similar spaces, call for interested students FINDING PRIMARY INTEREST AND STAKEHOLDERS

 WHY? To pass along key information to future leadership and to make it easier to pass information to the college archives  Options for doing this:  Binder  Electronically – Google Drive ARCHIVING AND RECORD-KEEPING

 Goals of a mission statement:  To clarify your purpose and desired outcome  Sometimes to identify the population you are targeting  Clear and Concise  WHAT DO WE DO?  HOW DO WE DO IT?  WHOM DO WE DO IT FOR?  WHAT VALUE ARE WE BRINGING? CLARIFYING YOUR CORE PURPOSE: CRAFTING A MISSION STATEMENT

 How can you make sure you are being inclusive and intentional in your groups’ name?  What might your groups’ name symbolize to others? DEFINING AN INTENTIONAL NAME

 How can you do this?  Expectations in your club – community guidelines/ norms  Constitution IDENTIFYING STRUCTURE AND CREATING ACCOUNTABILITY

 Preamble  Talk about the purpose of your club  Article I: Name  Explain your name  Article II: Purpose  Tell us the purpose of your club, why it is going to be on the Bates campus and what events you plan on doing  Article III: Membership  How do people become members? Who is the club open to?  Article IV: Officers  What’s the leadership of this club going to look like? (i.e. President, Treasurer…)  Article V: Finances  How and why are funds necessary for this club?  Article VI: Amendments  How will you deal with making amendments to this constitution? Do you need a 2/3 vote? ORGANIZATIONAL REVIEW BOARD CONSTITUTION FORMAT:

 Rights and responsibilities of members  Officer positions, terms of office, election times and procedures, responsibilities of officers  Number of members you need to have an official vote (quorum requirements) THINGS TO CONSIDER

 Reach out to student body to figure out who might be interested in joining your group – s, personal solicitation, creative ways to get people interested  Would your club benefit from having an advisor and someone in a slightly different position of power? A professor? Staff member?  You can seek out advisors by sending them an , requesting to meet in person and then meeting with them. Key information to provide them with includes:  Group name, purpose and structure  Why an advisor will be useful to you  Responsibilities or ideas about how an advisor can do to help the club  What kind of time and energy commitment this will require from an advisor SEEKING SECONDARY INTEREST AND ADVISORS

 Organizational Review Board  Part of the Bates College Student Government that approves clubs to be formally recognized by the college as a student organizations  Why become official?  Business account in Accounting at Bates  Ability to blueslip and reserve spaces at Bates  Ability to sponsor events  Ability to receive funding from the Bates Student Govt. in budget allocations and co-sponsorships BECOMING OFFICIAL

 What they look at:  Submit a list of prospective members (7+) and a constitution the Saturday before the next ORB meeting ( chairperson)  What they care about:  Compliance with Bates College handbook and policies (i.e. non- discrimination)  Clearly articulated purpose, objectives and goals  Demonstrated non-duplications with previously recognized groups in terms of mission/ purpose and similarity  Feasibility of the org’s funding  Local autonomy (no obligation to parent org., national chapter or charter)  Demonstrated sustainability, benefit to members/ campus. Community  You can appeal their decision within 10 days of the ORB ruling THE ORB

1.Creating shared meaning and community guidelines 2.Symbols and Branding 3.Setting up social media 4.Training new leadership - Knowing your resources 5.Identifying and mentoring new leadership POST-OFFICIAL STEPS: