Thinking about starting a club

Hi all, I was interested in starting a small Amateur Radio Club at my college campus (University of Connecticut). I was wondering if anyone had any input or tips on the best way to recruit fellow classmates into the hobby. If anything I would like to increase awareness for the hobby as well. I just ordered a bunch of free pamphlets from the ARRL website and am going to put in the application for a campus club soon. This would be an informal, unfunded club. I'm also trying to work with the campus radio station for possible support, as I'm actually in training for a non-commercial broadcasting license there. Thanks all, I'm new to the hobby myself and I love it, and I find it almost disturbing absolutely no one knows about the hobby at my campus!

Here's a link of Amateur Radio and UConn I was able to find.. not much but an interesting read:

http://www.uconn.edu/history/yesteryear/archives/studentlife/1938_hurricane1.php

 

First off, If they have an electronics dept I would schedule an appointment with the department dean and see if maybe you could get a little unofficial support from the college. Maybe a corner in a lab, currently unused room.......

 

Good idea, I haven't considered that. I only say unfunded because I'm not sure how much support I would actually get from the Student Government and other funding bodies, and I'm probably expecting to bring up my own rig and use that, who knows. It's too early for me to tell what the potential could be.

As a side note, I mentioned the idea to the program director for the radio station and she was concerned my club might take away fan base from the radio station!

 

1) Put up flyers in highly-trafficked quads, lobbies, buildings, etc.

2) Get cute chicks to join.

3) Offer free pizza.

 

Create it and they will come..... (could not resist. Then again, maybe that movie is a bit old for you. LOL)

I just started a club about a year ago locally here. Even though there is other clubs in the area, ours is really taking off now. This is attributed to it standing apart in goals and concentrations. That is always a good thing if you can take anything from that. Being a "college" club may not be enough. Find a niche. Get a web site to get yourself out there for information. Nobody checks out ANYTHING without doing a google search first. Last, we got our largest boost by starting a weekly net on a local VHF repeater. Just ask a local trustee to do so, and host a net. Hams find hams on repeaters. Running a net will give your club some credibility and show prospects that your serious. Just a few ideas.

Tom
http://www.no0bz.com

 

**deleted, somehow had a repeat**