From StudentOrganization

So you want to start a club? Carnegie Mellon in Qatar is a safe and supportive environment for you to pursue any particular interest you have in common with other students. The Office of Student Activities serves as a resource and as support for you in your endeavor. Below are some general guidelines as well as some specific to the Carnegie Mellon in Qatar community. Take a look!

Steps for Carnegie Mellon in Qatar

1. Do some thinking about what exactly it is that you're interested and most passionate about
2. Ask others about clubs that already exist for your particular passion
3. If there are no clubs currently for your interest, start asking around the student body to find others who share your interest
4. Once you have a "critical mass" (about 3 or 4 students) who are interested in the same idea, come talk to either Dave or Darbi in the Office of Student activities. They'll give you an intro to what you need to do to get started.
5. At the same time, it might be a good idea to identify a permanent Faculty or Staff Advisor for your club (this can be anybody in student affairs or anybody on the teaching faculty at CMUQ).
6. Start working on your StudentOrg Recognition Application which will need to include a constitution and a budget.
7. Turn in your application to [Student Majlis] by the deadline for fall recognition and funding (if you would like to receive funds for your organization)
8. Once Student Majlis has announced club budgets for the year, start recruiting more members and planning your first event!

General Steps to Starting a Club

NOTE: Taken from about.com's article on "How to Start a Club"

If you share a strong interest in a hobby or subject with several friends or fellow students, you may want to consider forming a club. By forming an official organization, you can receive recognition from the public and school officials, and serve as advocates of other students.

Forming a club can also give you great experience that you can use in the future. By starting a club and acting as a club officer, you will gain valuable experience that you can add to your college applications.

Sometimes, a teacher will start the first meeting and encourage students to follow through with organization. You may want a teacher to serve as advisor. If you are starting a club at school, you may need a teacher or coach to gain permission for using school facilities.

The most important requirements for starting a successful club are interest and commitment. Once you know you have a team willing to commit to a regular meeting time and a cause, you can manage the rest with ease. Next you will need clear organization. Structure will keep the club together in slow times (like during a few heavy months of heavy homework and testing) or in the event of a disagreement.

Steps to Forming a Club

1. Appointment of a temporary chairman or president. At first you will need to assign a temporary leader who will preside over the drive to form the club. This may or may not be the person who serves as permanent chairman or president.
2. Election of temporary officers. The members should discuss which office appointments are necessary for your club. Decide whether you want a president or chairman; whether you want a vice president; whether you need a treasurer; and whether you need someone to keep the minutes of each meeting.
3. Preparation of constitution, mission statement, or rules. Decide upon a committee to write a constitution or rule booklet.
4. Register club. You may need to register with your school if you plan to hold meetings there.
5. Adoption of constitution or rules. Once a constitution is written to everyone's satisfaction, you will vote to adopt the constitution.

Election of permanent officers. At this time you can decide if your club has enough officer positions, or if you need to add some positions.

Club Positions

Some of the positions you should considered are:

• President: Leads meetings
• Vice president: Plans events
• Secretary: Records and reads minutes
• Treasurer: Handles funds
• Historian: Keeps a picture book and notes
• Publicity Officer: Makes and distributes flyers, posters
• Web master: Maintains web site

General Order of a Meeting

You can use these steps as a guideline for your meetings. Your specific style can be less formal, or even more formal, according to your goals and tastes.

• Call to order by the president or chairman
• Reading and approval of the minutes from the previous meeting
• Discussion of old business
• Discussion of new business
• Program
• Adjournment