Club Starter Guide

19 min readAug 27, 2020

Understanding the club-making process step-by-step.

What is a High School Club? And why should you start one?

A high school club…
A club in high school is a group or organization of people that is aimed towards a specific subject, service, community, etc. It’s made up of a group of students who take part in activities and meetings–which can take the form of games, competitions, fundraising or volunteering at public events. Clubs provide a great means for students to gather together, share experiences, and build a community surrounding a certain topic, cause, or service.

Clubs usually meet before, after, or during school. They don’t interfere with the students’ classes or studies, but are a way for students to be a part of their communities and gain experiences outside of school and academics.

Clubs provide many unique benefits:
Clubs are a great way for you to participate in activities that you and fellow students enjoy. The variety of club offerings ensures that you will be able to be a part of something you find interesting.

Student leadership is a big part of the club lifecycle. Students will often hold leadership positions–such as president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, –in a club, allowing students to grow in unique ways and learn how to manage and organize events for their communities. Often students find that participating in a club is relaxing, providing them with opportunities to interact with their peers outside of the classroom and to engage in activities based on their interests.

Club participants will often be able to take part in a variety of extracurricular activities as a result of joining a club. Extracurricular activities outside of the classroom are one of the most important aspects of college applications. Admissions officers appreciate participation in activities outside of class, such as clubs, because it gives them a better idea of a student’s personality and interests. As a result, clubs have an important part in the college application process.

Brainstorming Ideas:

What should your club be about?
Figuring out what kind of club to create is typically the most challenging part of making a club! However, this is pretty simple. All you have to do is analyze your personal interests and the community around you.

Exploring by asking questions
Asking yourself a few questions and contemplating the answers is a great strategy to find an idea for a new club.

What does my school or community lack?
One of the most powerful ways to contribute to your school is by giving it something it doesn’t have, which can be a club that provides something new and exciting. For example, if your school is lacking a space where students can openly discuss political ideas, create an organization that will allow students to freely have open conversations about politics.
What are some of the issues at my school and community?
This is similar to the idea mentioned above. If a club is a solution to an issue at your school, its creation will be extremely effective and worthwhile. For example, if your community is facing a homelessness crisis, can you create a club that will bring attention to the issue? Consider starting a club whose job is to organize fundraisers and to donate essentials to the homeless.
What is something I am really interested in?
Often we look far beyond ourselves. We try to create something that other students will enjoy and consider joining, but we don’t really consider what we like to do. Creating a club that you are passionate about will result in a more enjoyable and successful experience! Start a club that feeds a curiosity or interest within you. Do you like Star-Wars? If so, start a Star-Wars Debate club! Are you interested in Data Science? Start a Data Visualizations Club for your peers!
What are my classmates interested in?
Do you know friends who aren’t able to make the most of schooling because certain opportunities aren’t there? Create something for them! Help your peers out! Even if you and your buddies have different interests, see if you can create a club for them to partake in. School and activities will be much more worthwhile for them as a result.

Some ideas to get you rolling:
TED-Ed Club: Start a club where students can gather together and learn what makes an effective Ted-Talk. Later down the line, once your members have a solid idea of how to create and present a talk; dedicate a few meetings for students’ Ted-Talks that they can present to your members.

Ethnic Studies Club: Dedicate a club to ethnic studies–which includes the study of differences among race, ethnicity, gender among other things–and spreading awareness of it since it is not a part of the high school curriculum.

Data Science Club: Spread Data Science awareness by starting a club where students can learn programming and applying concepts to real world situations. This would be a great way for students to work on projects outside of the classroom. We can provide our Data Science curriculum if this excites you!

Does your idea already exist?
Once you figure out what type of club you want to create, make sure you double-check to ensure that the particular club isn’t already in place. Your school may post all the clubs in a handbook or file; for example: clubs at Granada Hills Charter.

If your club idea is already in-place, don’t worry! You can still be a part of the club both as a member and maybe as an officer. Reach out to the current club leadership and see if there are ways you can collaborate with them and be on their leadership team. Propose integrating your new and unique ideas to improve the already existing club!

Defining a Club Purpose and Goal:

After Brainstorming…
Once you have a clear picture of what your club is about, you want to start focusing on the purpose of your club and what your long-term goal(s) is. This leads into figuring out what type of activities members will take part in.

Let’s take the TED-Ed Club idea as an example: If you were running a TED-Ed club, would you want members to gather to watch TED-talks, learn how to present TED-Talks, or fundraise for a TEDx event at your school? In the long run, is your ultimate goal to learn from previous TED-talks and/or have students give their own TED talk?

Questions to consider to help out:

Why did you originally set out to create this club?
Why does this club add value to your school and community?
What are the logistics of your club? Do you meet once a week, twice a week?
What are some qualifications/prerequisites for members? Or is anyone free to join your club?
With school being online (due to COVID-19), what challenges will you need to overcome in creating this club?

This is can get challenging.
The process of creating a club can get challenging, and you may gain or lose ideas as you go along. You may get overwhelmed with ideas, and that’s okay. Having a group of friends or collaborators who you feel are just as excited and invested in establishing this club as you are is very important. Having a team will not only ease the club-starting process, but it will also allow you to gain new perspectives and really fine-tune your overall idea for a club.

Structuring and Assigning Duties:

Team.
The most important part of the club is the team.

A team will allow you to delegate duties and get work done in a much quicker manner compared to working alone. Plus, having a team of people will undoubtedly bring a bundle of ideas and challenges that will be great for the growth and innovation of your club.

Generally, a club’s team will consist of 5–6 members who will serve as the leadership or executive team for the club. This number may vary based on the club you are creating and its needs.

Club Leadership:
How you want to organize your leadership team is entirely up to you. You may even need a team outside of your leadership–such as a curriculum development or content team–that will add meaningful value to your club.

Here’s a general structure for club leadership and some duties (not a full or complete list):

President
Provides leadership and direction for the club.
Coordinates with the exec team on club events and activities.
Maintains club registration by following all school club rules and completes all related paperwork.
Vice President
Leads the meetings in the absence of the President.
Leads new officers and helps onboard new members to the leadership team.
Coordinates with the President and Executive team on club matters.
Secretary
Handles club records and communications with school on registration matters for the club.
Maintains the data for the club and records requires things such as club minutes, attendance etc.
Often the main point of contact between members and the executive team.
Treasurer
In charge of club finances and fundraising events (where applicable).
Records all monetary transactions and keeps the records of club receipts throughout the year.
Events Chair
Collaborates with members of the executive team to create and plan exciting club events.
Works with the Secretary, Treasurer, and Webmaster to ensure club events follow club’s policies, budget, and promotion.
Outreach Chair
Publicizes club activities through email, social media, and club website.
Works with the Secretary to spread club messages and communications.
Webmaster
Finds ways to make use of technology to improve club operations.
Maintains club website and social media accounts (if applicable).

Some clubs are more laid back and won’t have or need every position filled, but others might have more events going on and will need more people. It all depends on your goals for the club.

Who should complete your team?
The most important part of the club is the team, so it’s important to bring aboard the right people. To find your team, do what feels the best to you, but feel free to take ideas from our suggestions!

Friends make for some of the best teammates, allowing you to work with people you know and trust. Ask around and see if friends in your circle are willing to work with you in creating a club. One thing to be cautious about is to ensure that you and your friends will still be able to focus and work hard on a club together. Often working with friends can get too comfortable and distracting, so make sure you’re with a group who can have fun but can also stay level-headed.

Meeting and recruiting new people can be a great way for you to grow your interpersonal or people skills, while also finding students who are willing to support your club and stand for its mission.

Remember to bring aboard people who you feel will bring great value to your club and stand behind your club mission. Remember to also give those who you think don’t have enough experience a chance to be a part of your club–you never know the unknown value they may bring to your development.

Register a Club at Your School:

Making your club official.
One of the most challenging, yet important, parts of creating your own club is making it official. This means getting it recognized at your school, which can be greatly beneficial. Oftentimes, schools will help you market your club and spread the word to other students who may be interested.

Every school works a little bit differently, so you’re going to need to get in contact with your school to learn how to properly register your club. If you are unsure how to go about doing this, try asking one of the offices at your school. For example, at my high school, we had a club committee office, which handled the registration for clubs. Another alternative is asking a teacher and asking them to guide you in the right path to gain more information.

A big part of your club registration process is the paperwork. For that, this guide can’t be of much help because the paperwork will vary significantly by school. Generally, however, schools will ask you basic questions like what is the club’s purpose, how are officers chosen, what are some leadership roles for your club, how can members join, etc.

One requirement.
The biggest piece to making your own club is to find a sponsor–usually a teacher–who is willing to lend their classroom and time to monitor the club and provide a space to meet.

With COVID-19 and online schooling, this can be an issue, but there are pros and cons to this. It becomes much easier to gather together online–whether that is through Zoom, Google Meets, etc. However, with online education teachers may want to dedicate more time to schooling and may deny your request for them to be an advisor for your club.

If that does happen to you, don’t worry. Contact as many teachers as you can and ask them if they are willing to be an advisor or sponsor for your club. With COVID-19, your school may even allow you to meet online without a teacher sponsoring your club. Get all the details and find out this important information.

How to ask a teacher to be a sponsor.
The best way to ask a teacher to be a sponsor is to personally meet with them. During a normal school day–either before or after class, or during lunch breaks–ask the teacher if they have time to talk to you for a few minutes about being a club sponsor.

When the teacher takes time to hear you out, make sure you take full advantage of this opportunity and have all your information ready! Be sure to have information on your club’s purpose, goal, leadership, meeting format, and other logistics prepared. By perfecting all these details, you’ll help make a good first impression and are more likely to impress your teacher, thus convincing them to sponsor your initiative.

With COVID-19 the best way to reach out to a teacher or supervisor at your school is by email! Same thing as above, but write out a detailed, yet concise and to-the-point email asking the teacher to be a sponsor.

Spread the Word:

Congrats on registering your club!
Before you start spreading the word about your club, you need to get it registered. If you are already at this stage, that means you’ve already done the hardest part–registering and making your club official!

Now you need to spread the word and encourage students to join your club as members!

Promoting your club.
In this section, we will provide some tips to spread the word during online schooling.

With online school, promoting actually becomes much easier and fun to do! You will learn how to be more resourceful as a result of utilizing online means to effectively market your initiative.

Social media–such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn–will be a very powerful way to popularize your club. Make an IG account and/or a Facebook group for your club and try to follow and spread the word to as many students as you can! If you have a webmaster on your leadership team, this can be one of their primary roles. (We highly recommend adding the webmaster role to your team given the current situation of online schooling.) Posting eye-catching flyers will allow you to make the most of social media platforms!

Even during class, you can spread the word to your peers. Ask your teacher if it is possible for you to share a little bit about your club before or after the class. Verbally sharing is a more direct and foolproof form of conveying information about your club to your peers.

Lastly, for even more coverage, you can ask your teachers to share about your club to his or her other classes! This will allow you to gain members from outside your classroom as well.

The setup.
Make sure that when you are promoting your club to peers, you take time to set up the registration forms and other paperwork related to signing up as a member.

Promoting your club can be quite fun, but it’s still important to remember the small things such as registration forms and more!

Create Materials and Curriculum:

The most important part of all of this!
Creating materials/curriculum for your club is something you should be thinking about all throughout the club making process. However, this becomes very important as you gain members and prepare to serve them.

Brainstorming again (but not really).
At this point in time, you should have a really good idea of what your club will be doing, so this should be easy to do.

To create club related materials, you will want to get together with your executive team and start thinking of ways you can achieve the goals you set out for your club. This is where you will be matching your club’s purpose and goal with action.

For example, if you are a club that is introducing a new concept to students–say, Data Science–you will want to have materials to learn from–such as Data Science curriculum. If you are discussing issues in your school, you will want to gather evidence of those issues to be able to have great discussions surrounding them. If you are a club that gets together to play video games, you will want to have the setup for online gaming ready to go. Whatever that is for you, make sure to take time and put effort into it so you can serve your members accordingly.

A cool, fun idea:
As school is online for the current semester, it may be worthwhile to see if you can invite members from outside your school to be a part of club meetings and share experiences. For example, inviting guest speakers becomes much easier since schooling is online! This can add unique value to your club and provide students with a variety of people to learn from. (Make sure that this is allowed for clubs at your school before you invite speakers and guests.)

Resources:

Plenty of online resources:
Clubs have been a big part of the high school cycle, and with the internet, many club resources are available online. One of the key reasons you will need resources is to create content for your club to discuss.

Resources for these ideas:
If you are interested in starting your own Data Science Club at your school, feel free to reach out to us at LanLearning. Earlier this summer, a great group of high school students helped lead our first ever Data Science program. It was fully online and was aimed towards high school students with ZERO coding background.

We can provide:

Curriculum in the from of Jupyter Notebooks
Advice on club activities and how to proceed teaching
Guest lectures from some of our past instructors
Youtube videos for the corresponding Jupyter Notebooks
Classroom support

A TED-Ed club can easily be created at your high school. Resources for the club are provided by TED. You can always reach out to us on your TED-Ed club and we can provide advice related to it.

Link for the TED-Ed club and related resources: Ted-Ed Student Clubs

Resources for graphic design:
Canva is a free graphic design platform where you can create posts for your club social media, posters, and more! There are thousands of free templates they offer, or you can start from scratch with a blank canvas. Additionally, it is very easy to collaborate on Canva because there is a feature where you can share the link of your graphic with the rest of your executive team.

Extra: Want to creating a branch of a national organization at your school?

What are the pros?
Starting a branch of an already existing organization can be beneficial for those who have little experience in starting their own club. Typically the organization of the club is already decided, making it more convenient to execute. A branch of a national organization is usually more credible, so students are more likely to join.

What are the cons?
It is difficult to innovate the club without seeking out permission because the club must be run in accordance to the national guidelines. It can also be more difficult to find an organization that meets all of your interests considering that its foundation is already laid out. Making the branch official can be a more lengthy process as you need approval from the organization and your school. The process also varies based on the desired organization.

Brainstorming Ideas
Go through the same brainstorming process that you would if you were starting a club from scratch (as given above), except keep it more vague; focus on the field or topic that you want your branch to center around–music, medical science, physics, volunteering, environmental science–rather than various, extremely specific activities that you want the club to include as it may be difficult to find an already existing organization that tailors to that. As before, think about your interests, your peers’ interests, what your school lacks, etc. to stimulate ideas.

Find an organization suitable for you
After deciding on a general field or topic for your club, find an organization that includes that topic and draws your attention. If you kept your brainstorming general, you may be able to find multiple organizations, and can then choose your favorite.

One of the best ways to find a good organization to work with is by seeking out national organization branches at other schools near you that your school does not have. This can also give you an idea of how to run the branch at your own school.

Asking staff at your school can always help as well. There is a chance that your school has or had implemented branches of existing organizations, so teachers and advisors can guide you towards the proper resources for national organizations.

Personal research will give you the most options though. Most organizations have websites, so researching online is an effective way to seek out various organizations.

Work out the logistics and plan out the branch
Use the website, social media, email, of the organization you chose to research the branch; you will need to research the purpose/goals of the organization as well as the requirements your branch must meet. With that information, you will begin to establish specific goals for your branch if applicable.

Some organizations require you to have a specific team, while others are more lenient and allow you to establish your own team based on your necessities. Either way, you will need to seek out friends or peers at your school who would also be interested in helping you start a branch; use the same process as given previously for creating your own club from scratch. If the desired organization has team requirements, keep that in mind and make sure you are able to fill the necessary roles.

Each organization will have its own specific requirements. Some will have certain goals or activities that you need to complete in certain time frames. They may even require you to send in a weekly, monthly, or yearly report of what your branch accomplished to keep it on track. It is important to research these guidelines so you can create a plan for your specific branch goals, activities you will do, how you will run the meetings, etc. For example, if your organization is oriented around bringing awareness to and helping cancer patients, you may want to start thinking of ideas for fundraisers and ways to get the members of your branch involved.

As you start planning how you will run your branch, think about ways that you can effectively meet the organization’s requirements while including your own creative, unique spin. Adding on to the previous example, if you were trying to help cancer patients by raising funds for their treatment, you may have freedom to choose how you raise those funds. Think about ways to engage the community, spread awareness, use online platforms, etc., especially since it is harder to do so right now with COVID.

Register your branch through the organization
The process will vary based on which organization you chose and their specific guidelines. With that being said, you should first find the website of the organization that you chose and find information on how to start a branch. Typically there will be a form you will need to fill out which will ask you specific questions relating to how the branch plans to operate. Then they will either approve or deny your request to create a branch based on your eligibility. If you are approved, you should receive information on how to proceed.

If you are having trouble finding information on how to create a branch, try to find the contact information of the person in charge of recruitment (this could be the Vice President). There should be an area of the website dedicated to the leadership team, or officers, so search for that and find the email of the individual in charge of recruitment. Keep your email concise, but detailed, making sure to explain what you are wanting to do in creating a branch, and asking for any resources you need. If the organization is big, it may take a little while to receive a response, but email is generally an effective way to contact organizations. However, if you feel that it has been a long time and you have not received a response, don’t be afraid to follow up and stay persistent, just make sure that you are not spamming or being disrespectful in any way. Another option is to contact another leadership team member!

Register the branch at school
Follow the same process that you would if you were starting a club from scratch. The only difference is to make sure that the advisor and any other staff involved are aware that you are starting a branch of an already existing organization.

Spread the word
When marketing the branch around your school and gathering members, make sure to emphasize that it is a branch of a national organization, as that oftentimes draws more people in. Besides that, follow the same steps that you would if you were creating a club from scratch.

Seeking content
Based on what the organization and specific branch aim to do, you may be provided content, need to create specific content, or a combination of both. For example, if you were teaching a data science club through LanLearning, we would provide you with the content that you would then teach. However, if you were creating a branch aiming to help cancer patients, you would need to seek out opportunities and present them to the members through content made by you, such as an informational slideshow.