Tech Club

CybDude

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Aug 8, 2002
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I am interested in establishing a Tech Club at my high school this coming year and was looking for any helpful hints or tips the members of ATOT could give me. For example, if you have been involved in a club, what did you like/dislike about it? Thanks in advance.

-CybDude
 

CybDude

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Aug 8, 2002
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Originally posted by: joshsquall
What are you gonna do? Get together and program?

I felt that the goal of the club would be to provide an organized forum for discussion of issues related to technological advancements which could cover programming but I would assume to stay more on things like video games and computer hardware. I also had planed to have guest speakers from the area to talk about advancements in technology in their fields of work.
 

LordThing

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Jun 8, 2001
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It might be neat. Get together and maybe do LAN parties. That's probably your best bet to have some fun and not Nerd Out.

See if the school will sponser them with some pizza/drinks :)
 

CybDude

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Aug 8, 2002
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Originally posted by: LordThing
It might be neat. Get together and maybe do LAN parties. That's probably your best bet to have some fun and not Nerd Out.

See if the school will sponser them with some pizza/drinks :)

Good Idea.
 

tk149

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Apr 3, 2002
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You need a treasurer if you're gonna pay for anything. Maybe you can get some school funding too.

How often are you going to meet? Once a week?

You have to have at least one person who can bring up topics of interest every meeting, otherwise you'll just have a bunch of geeks hanging out wishing there were more girls around.

Is it going to be computer oriented? Robot building? NASA watch? Hacking pr0n sites?

How about a monthly newsletter or something?
 

CybDude

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Aug 8, 2002
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Originally posted by: tk149
You need a treasurer if you're gonna pay for anything. Maybe you can get some school funding too.

How often are you going to meet? Once a week?

You have to have at least one person who can bring up topics of interest every meeting, otherwise you'll just have a bunch of geeks hanging out wishing there were more girls around.

Is it going to be computer oriented? Robot building? NASA watch? Hacking pr0n sites?

How about a monthly newsletter or something?

More good ideas. In response to your questions, I was planning to meet once a week during lunch (which is the typical for clubs at my school) with occasional board meetings. I think keeping an orderly discussion would be one of the top priorities and for this reason, each meeting would have a specific subject for discussion establish prior to the date. This topic would most likely be decided by the club at the end of its last meeting. The discussion would then be moderated by the members of the board. It will most likely be computer oriented. I like the idea of a newsletter (I actually am in the process of implementing such for the political action committee which I am the treasurer of). I also think it is important to have activities (such as the suggested LAN party and possibly guest speakers) so that the club remains successful and does not become boring for the members.
 

LordThing

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Jun 8, 2001
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Originally posted by: paruhd0x
Originally posted by: pulse8
That's probably your best bet to have some fun and not Nerd Out.
LAN parties aren't nerding out?

Not compared to sitting and talking about technology...

Yeah, sitting around just talking about technology and geeking out might be a bit much. I would probably structure the club bi-monthly. One meeting would be club business, event suggestions (like trips to computer shows, lan parties, console parties, movie watching, convention going), fundraisers, whatever. The second meeting would be the actual event.

I would open it up not only to just computer gaming, but console gaming, anime, and maybe even go further into comics and other types of things if you like. Maybe elect some officials like treasurer, webmaster. Form clans to compete in different games. You could hold "practice" sessions. Bring in new hardware/games for people to try on PCs or Consoles. Provide price help and help support for those that want to mod/build themselves(you could use ATHD for that :D ). Hold movie nights with anime. You can even do some community service by getting together and help be tech support/web support/web development for local churches, the school, libraries.

I think if you really run this right, you can definately start something rather cool people of all levels would want to join and even may give you skills for later jobs/college applications.
 

tk149

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2002
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You might want to find a faculty sponsor (i.e. a teacher at your school). It'd be easier to get school funding, and you could plan school-sanctioned field trips and get the teacher to drive the school van. Try the Physics or Computer Science teachers. We once had a trip to a nuclear reactor planned. I didn't get to go :(

BTW, most business meetings usually follow a structure:

Old Business (last week's stuff)
New Business (planned stuff to talk about)
Miscellaneous New Business

Good luck!

 

CybDude

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Aug 8, 2002
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Thanks for all the help you guys have given me. From your suggestions I think I have developed a schedule that the club could work on. First week of the moth would be devoted to the plan and discussion of that month?s activity. Second week would be a hardware/software discussion and would allow for time to prepare for the activity. The third week would then be the activity itself. The last week would then be an executive meeting where we could discuss how the activity went and how to better next month. The board would most likely consist of the following: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, PR, Lead Tech Support (thank you LordThing for the idea which I think is worth pursuing), and Webmaster. I plan to get the club moderated by the AP Computer Science teacher I will have this year; who I had for math last year. In the Political Action Committee we follow the old, new, miscellaneous business model and I feel that this would work well for this club as well. Any other comments or activity suggestions are appreciated. Thank you again.

-CybDude