Preparing for the Semester Ahead

This week we have a guest post from the USC Objectivist club leader Sarah Jenevein on her experiences this semester:

With the semester underway, you may find your club losing momentum.  You, your officers, or your members may be having trouble making the time to do readings or even to come to meetings at all.  You can help avoid the slump in the middle of next semester by putting in more effort at the beginning.  If you do the work up front you will find that running the club is much easier for the rest of the semester.  In the first three weeks of the semester you should:

1. Schedule ahead.  Determine which day of the week and what time you will meet, and reserve a room for the entire semester.  Then you can tell people at the beginning of the semester when they need to block off their time.  This lets them plan ahead and hopefully add an Objectivist club to their already-busy schedules.
2. Go all out for the club fair!  Set up an eye-catching booth at your school's activities fair.  Get some people to help you if you can.  Paint a sign, or get one printed, with "Objectivist Club" and "Ayn Rand" in big letters.  Order pamphlets from the Ayn Rand Institute to hand out, and have other things to give away, such as The Undercurrent, bookmarks, pens, or copies of Atlas Shrugged.  Email everyone who signed up for your mailing list within a couple days to remind them about the club. Check out OCN's page of advice on getting the most out of this event.
3. Make information accessible.  Put your schedule and events on a Facebook group page or on your club's website.  This lets people find out about your club even if they miss you at the activities fair.

Last year, I tried to do things on a weekly basis, often reserving rooms the week before and not picking meeting topics until the day before the meeting. All of this last-minute scrambling made my job much more stressful and made it more difficult for members to fit the club into their schedules.

This year, instead, I put effort into the club at the beginning of the semester to schedule meetings, speaking events, and social events well ahead of time. As a result, we have had much higher attendance and retention of club members, and I have been able to devote more time to making meetings into fulfilling intellectual experiences.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed, or even considering giving up, don't despair! Next semester you will have another opportunity to grow your club. If you get a running start early on, you can use that momentum to sail smoothly through the rest of the year.

Sarah Jenevein is a junior at the University of Southern California and the current president of the USC Objectivist Club.