One of my more rewarding college experiences (outside of passing my first Dr. Strong test … seriously … it was euphoric!) was the creation and administration of The University of Texas at Tyler Game Club. Let’s rewind a little with our DeLorian-esque powers and look at how on earth I was able to make a club based around card, paper, and board games. I promise not to re-cast myself as somebody like Jude Law or Ewan McGregor in this flashback.
When I first arrived at the campus I had come from three other universities, one of them a BIG campus in a major Texas city, and the other a film school. These college experiences were good or having taught me the inner workings of a trade-style university, and a university where the campus was so big you’d never see all of it, but this one was different. The University of Texas at Tyler was small enough to give me more interaction with people on a social level, as opposed to simply hobnobbing about with people before class only to see them all rush off once the TA was done teaching class, the style of interaction I was used to from “the bigger university”.
After a few weeks I got to know similar people, people in and outside of the English Department. These folks like me grew up on 3/3.5 Dungeons and Dragons, a pen & paper based role-playing game series commonly known to people who NOTHING of what this is as “that game where people pretend to be wizards … and stuff.” The bigger university I had been at hosted a rather serviceable collection of geeks, nerds, and 80’s-Influenced “types” that I got along famously with. We had some experiences getting a gaming group together but, alas, it was not to be, much like the release of Mega Man Legends 3. (For those who know what this game means to nerds like me … it is still a sensitive subject …)
Now that I was here, I was determined to join a Game Club. I had friends at another university not-to-far away from Tyler who had been successful running their own Game Club, so I figured I’d try a similar approach, join a club, and see how I could be involved. There was just one problem …
… the University did not HAVE a club to join. [ dramatic use of italics and CAPS here is for effect ]
This dilemma was not foreseen by me at all. I pondered this dilemma over a semester, always hoping some of the friends I was making would have the awesome idea to make a Game Club. Lord knows I certainly mentioned it nonstop for a while, hoping each time “this is it, they’ll get the hint and make a club so I could join! It’ll be great!”
No such luck. At all. In my gameless misery I decided to approach the Student Life & Leadership where, upon getting some information directly about how/what is involved with creating a Club, I realized: this isn’t hard … in fact, its criminally easy!
The Process:
2. Get a copy of the Student Registration Form (it’s non-mysteriously listed under Registration)
3. Get your club a name and get 4 other people ( 5 including yourself ) to squiggle down your personal info and be officers. Give yourself cool sounding titles like “Minister of Propaganda” or “Cat Lord”, whatever works for your club.
4. Fill out a Facility Request Form (again, not-so hidden under the Facility Use heading section). If you don’t know WHERE you’d all like to meet, just list “the empty space in _______ common area” if you like. Anything really works.
5. Cook up a Constitution. Here is one example of an outline from JB University: http://www.jbu.edu/assets/life/resource/file/clubs/club_constitution.pdf
6. In your Constitution, include a section about this – Risk Management Policies. It’s an easy add to your Constitution. Copy-Paste this info into your Constitution and simply add how/you’re your club will do in the face of these situations. http://www2.uttyler.edu/sll/studentorganizations/documents/RiskManagementPolicyTemplate.pdf
7. Lastly, make sure you and your adventurous club-founding chums all attend an Orientation for Organizations that goes on at the start of each semester. You’ll need to get this done to make your registration 100% and everyone in your group at some point will need to go. However, once you’re done, you’re done!
That is it! I know, I know, it seems like it has more steps than that time you had to walk to the top of the Empire State Building after the guest elevator went out and your mom just wouldn't stop saying that you g- … wait, sorry. I was having a bad stair flashback. Anyway, it looks horrible but it’s easy once you start.
The biggest benefit of this is because you, ie: your club, will have access to funds that the campus sets aside for student organization usage! You get to put up flyers, place adds, and hold fundraisers. The options available are all positive ones so I'd say the chance to get on free money and add-space is a great thing.
WARNING: Aquisition of funds may not be as
dramatic as pictured above
I’ll have more to say about the working(s) of Game Club later on, but if these steps helped ME make a group, I know it can help you. Clubs are a great resource here on the university campus to meet people, experience what interests you in a safe environment, and be more active. It’s 100% worth it and I hope this outline helps.
For more info, call the Office of Student Life & Leadership at Ph: 903 565 5645. You can also email them at getconnected@uttyler.edu. One of the best people you can talk with is the acting Student Life Intern, one of the people who worked with me ( and my INSANE needs! ). The new interns number will be 903-565-5645 (same as their main number ). This person can be reached via the getconnected@uttyler.edu email.
English Major joke: The Aeneid is one of the first fan-fictions in history. Yea. Let that sink in.
1 comment:
That's something the hvz people failed to do, they didn't want to make a student group so they got slammed by a lot of red tape, still not sure why they didn't want to.
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