Club Meetings

I just had the first meeting for my club yesterday, and we ad nineteen people show, which is a lot for the club. I know many of them will discontinue, but maybe there will be some who are interested enough to stay, go to the events, and maybe even take a leadership position. It is my fear that there will not be anyone interested enough to want to take a leadership position, and the club will die. Who will take on the clubs mission?

There are over 10,000 students at my school, and there are only about 10-20 individuals who dedicate a lot of their time for social justice. There are probably about 100 (or less) that will go to an event or two. The 10-20 people who actually care work long hours to provide opportunities to other students to get involved in the community and world, but we never get the huge crowds that you see at basketball games or dances. I don't understand, because many of our events are very fun!

Organizing a new school year

I face the same problem many people like me face: the challenges of starting up a college school club after a summer of not doing anything club-related. It's the same thing, a rush to get the remaining officers together to mesh your schedules together to find time for meetings and events, then you have to get a few events planned before you can even have a meeting (otherwise the meeting is a complete flop and no one wants to stay in the club). Then you have to recruit members. That may be the hardest step, because most college students would rather party then volunteer at a soup kitchen. So we pass out flyers and send out facebook messages, all with the highest hopes. But then that first meeting comes, and you have a fair bit of people attend, and you think, "this isn't so bad." And then the second meeting comes, and few people come.

So what was the problem? What did you do wrong? Answer: nothing. Students have lost touch with the greater problems of the world. They don't care, some of them might think they do, but they will go volunteer once and be like "I made a difference!" and they will leave it at that.

Occasionally you will meet the people that really care, but there is a problem that you will often run into: there are more causes then people to represent those causes. I find I have many friends that are apathetic to my causes (Hunger and Homelessness), but they have causes that they care about more. So once again I find myself with very little help, just one dedicated, but very busy guy, and a few people to go to my events, but never help plan and organize. It's all a little overwhelming, but I know I am not alone in this.