Welcome to the ESC101 Document. The purpose of this document is to serve as a comprehensive guide to your club's involvement with required activities set forth by the Engineering Student Council (ESC) and Office of Student Experiences and Engagement (SEE) that come as requirements for resources such as representation and funding in the OSU College of Engineering ecosystem. This document also details additional resources and contacts that can be useful when starting a club up, whether it be for the first time, revitalizing a club, or just looking to get more engagement from the student body.

The document you see here is one of three forms that the ESC team has taken the pleasure in creating. This document is our most detailed form of ESC101, and is best if you are looking to dive into specific instructions for a particular task. Our website version is interactive, and is updated constantly to include tutorials and more in a consistently accessible format. Finally, our pamphlet version, issued in mass communication, is a great way to get the bullet points you need, without jumping too far in depth.

Thank you for taking the time to read this document. We hope it makes your experience as a student leader much easier. 

 

Getting Started: How to Start a Club

Starting a club can seem difficult at first, but knowing the proper routes and channels of contact can help speed things along and set your club up for proper success. It is crucial that as you start, you identify some key features and facets that will be carried along for the life of the club, these include:

  • The club advisor is responsible for overseeing all club operations and should be willing to work with the students on any tasks or duties that require their attention.
  • A primary advisor for University Student Organizations can be anyone who is a faculty or staff member at OSU. As long as the advisor and the club agree and the advisor will log into Ideal-Logic to confirm, they can be the advisor for the org.
  • Orgs can have more than one advisor, if they wish, but one will need to be identified as their primary advisor.
  • A club advisor is also required to sign off on many of your funding-related documents, so it is good to keep that in mind and inform them of this responsibility.
  • It is important to identify what the club will actually do and determine whether any other clubs may already be doing this.
  • Make sure that your club somehow relates to engineering and/or its principles, otherwise it may be better suited to belong under another college within the University.
  • To become aware of what kinds of clubs are already in operation in the College of Engineering, check out this link: https://clubs.oregonstate.edu/
  • It is required that you have a financial officer and a president at minimum for your officer team, this can be the same person.
  • It is required to have a total occupancy of at least 4 members (including officers) to be recognized.
  • All members should be associated with OSU in some way. This means you may have undergraduate or graduate students affiliated with your club.
  • Build out a thorough charter and various documents required to run your new organization! Reach out to a Peer Educator from Student Organizations & Activities for help on writing these documents.
  • A outline for the all of the required documents can be found here: https://beav.es/wR5
  • For example, view the ESC operations manual: https://beav.es/JtR
  • Identifying the responsibilities of each officer position is crucial to a functioning organization, some examples of roles can be found here: https://beav.es/iUt

Anywhere along this path you are welcome to contact the Engineering Student Council for additional information, setting up a meeting, and/or contacts that may pertain to your club’s creation. It is recommended that you meet with the VP of Development at least once during the start-up period of your club.

Gaining Members and Growing Your Club

Student Outreach: Student Outreach is critical for attracting students to a club. There are several ways to accomplish this:

  • Social Media is a popular way to spread information. Keeping your Instagram active is a great way to show students the type of events that your club hosts. Examples of actively utilizing social media include Instagram takeovers, spotlights of students within the club/board members & giveaways. Keep in mind, sending posts to other organizations to repost is a great way to further promote an event.
  • A great example of a well-utilized club instagram account is the Girls’ Empowerment, Engineering, and Outreach club, @geeo_club. Check it out!
  • The Living Learning Community (LLC) is a great spot to target for advertising a club since the majority of the students living there are engineering students. Examples include:
    • Creating TV slides that can be put up around the halls
    • Creating posters or little flyers to pick up is a good way to spread the word
    • It is possible to also have little goody bags for students to pick up
  • Sarah Kylo (sarah.kyllo@oregonstate.edu) is a great contact if your club plans on wanting to do any of these.
  • Ask another organization to do a recruiting event with you! A collaboration is a great way to increase attendance to an event. There is twice as much traction since both organizations and their affiliates are advertising.
  • List of current clubs: https://clubs.oregonstate.edu/
  • Go into different intro level engineering classes like the Engineering Plus classrooms and give a brief introduction to your club. You can pass out small flyers/ pamphlets of your first meeting day and time so students can keep it with them as a reminder.
  • Faculty directories for all schools under the College of Engineering: https://engineering.oregonstate.edu/faculty-and-staff
  • Incentives are a great way to outreach to students. You can easily garner a large audience by offering eye catching incentives to potential attendees.
  • Incentives can be simple!
    • Food is often served at meetings and/or events. This is often considered a staple, and most popular incentive for college students to attend your club events.
    • Raffling out items like club merchandise or gift cards lets you purchase one large incentive but still capture the attention of a large audience.
  • Many students turn to club fairs as an opportunity to see what clubs are available. Be ready to participate in these events and have information on hand with meeting times and other benefits that students would have if they were to join the club.
  • In addition, helping with Industry Networking Nights also gives students an opportunity to see how clubs are related to an industry. It is also a monetary incentive for your club.
  • Have an event particularly for new students who are interested to join your club. This can be something casual but make sure to have some of your board members there for support! This is an easy way to have some bonding and for students to get an idea of your club.
    • Examples of outreach events by clubs:
      • CBEE Student Club’s Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Social
        • A fall term club tradition after Cookies and Clubs which welcomes incoming members.
        • Club members join after their classes to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen and are offered pizza, food and drinks.
      • OSU Overclocking Club’s Overclock ‘till You Drop
        • A club tradition that invites interested students to watch them overclock computers with liquid nitrogen.
        • Engage members with pizza, food, drinks, and overclocking expertise.

Student Retainment:

  • One way to retain students is to bring alumni of your club back in for an event. Through this, students will see first hand how the club aided in the alumni’s career goals.
  • A big reason students join clubs is for a sense of community and meeting new people. Having some sort of casual bonding event where people can get to know other club members is a good method of community building. This also gives you the opportunity to check in on members to make sure they are settling in comfortably.
  • Keep a consistent time for general body meetings and be organized! This will ensure students don’t forget about your club meeting time and are ready to participate.
  • Stick with your club mission statement. Being able to follow through with your goals as a club will keep club members motivated to attend, especially if your mission statement coincides with their goals too.
  • In order to make sure students feel as though they have purpose, have some long term and short term goals set aside along with deadlines for your club. This will help keep your club on track but also feel like every student is contributing in some way. Another way to do this is to assign tasks to students.

Engineering Student Council Requirements


Event/Occurrence

Location

Club Requirement

Club Deadlines
General Body Meeting: Week 2 and Week 6 during Fall, Winter, and Spring Terms Asynchronous Zoom Webinar. Announcements for the ESC GBMs are distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Website under the Minutes and Attendance tab. One (1) current club officer is required to attend the ESC General Body Meeting in one (1) of the following ways:
  • Attend ESC GBM and submit a completed Attendance Form.
  • Access recorded ESC GBM and submit a completed Attendance Form.
  • Read ESC GBM Meeting Minutes and submit a completed Attendance Form.
 The one (1) current club officer that attends the ESC GBM has one (1) week from the day of the ESC GBM to submit a completed Attendance Form. Contact ESC VP of Info. and Comm for any comments, questions, or concerns.
Leadership Retreat: Fall Term Asynchronous Zoom Webinar. Announcements for the ESC Leadership Retreat is distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Website under the Events - Leadership Retreat tab. One (1) current club officer is required to attend the ESC Leadership Retreat in Fall Term in the following way: Watch the ESC Leadership Retreat videos and submit a completed Leadership Retreat Exit Form. The one (1) current club officer that attends the ESC Leadership Retreat must submit a completed ESC Leadership Retreat Exit Form.The deadline for the Leadership Retreat Exit Form will be announced during Spring Term. Contact ESC VP of Development for any comments, questions, or concerns.
Funding Request: Spring Term Asynchronous online form and video submission to OSU Ideal-Logic platform. Announcements for the Funding Request deliverables are distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Google Drive and ESC Website under the COE Funding Requests tab. Prepare and submit the following deliverables to the Ideal-Logic platform:
  • Balanced club budget from the past year.
  • Completed RSO Annual Report and Recognition Renewal.
  • Completed Funding Request Form. Funding Request Presentation video to justify requested funding.
 The club will receive Funding Request deadlines at the beginning of Spring Term via the ESC Newsletter.
  • Most deadlines are by the end of June. Clubs will receive notice of awarded funds in the following Fall term during Week 2.

Contact ESC VP of Finance of any comments, questions, or concerns.

Event/Occurrence

Location

Club Requirement

Club Deadlines
General Body Meeting: Week 2 and Week 6 during Fall, Winter, and Spring Terms At OSU Corvallis Campus. Location to be announced via email. Announcements for the ESC GBMs are distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Website under the Minutes and Attendance tab. One (1) current club officer is required to attend the ESC General Body Meeting. To receive attendance, the club representative will pick up a nametag at the start of the ESC General Body Meeting with their associated club name that an ESC officer will collect at the end of the meeting. A club representative is required to attend the ESC General Body Meeting in person during Week 2 and Week 6. Contact ESC VP Info/Comm for any comments, questions, or concerns.
Leadership Retreat: Fall Term At OSU Corvallis Campus. Location to be announced via email. Announcements for the ESC Leadership Retreat is distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Website under the Events - Leadership Retreat tab. One (1) current club officer is required to attend the ESC Leadership Retreat. To receive attendance, the club representative will sign-in at the beginning of the ESC Leadership Retreat. A club representative is required to attend the ESC Leadership Retreat in person during Fall term. Contact ESC VP of Development for any comments, questions, or concerns.
Funding Request: Spring Term Asynchronous online form submission to OSU Ideal-Logic platform. *Subject to change. In-person funding request presentation At OSU Corvallis Campus. Location to be announced via email. Announcements for the Funding Request deliverables are distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Google Drive and ESC Website under the COE Funding Requests tab. Announcements for the Funding Request deliverables are distributed via the ESC Newsletter and information is available on the ESC Google Drive and ESC Website under the COE Funding Requests tab.
  • Balanced club budget from the past year.
  • Completed RSO Annual Report and Recognition Renewal.
  • Completed Funding Request Form. Funding Request Presentation video to justify requested funding.
 The club will receive Funding Request deadlines at the beginning of Spring Term via the ESC Newsletter.
  • Most deadlines are by the end of June. Clubs will receive notice of awarded funds in the following Fall term during Week 2.

Contact ESC VP of Finance of any comments, questions, or concerns.

*There is a 5% deduction of club funding applied to the next academic year funding award for each General Body Meeting and Leadership Retreat club absence. A club absence means that the club requirement of attendance by form submission was not submitted or submitted late without advanced notice. Failure to submit the club Funding Request deliverables through Ideal-Logic results in no club funding awarded through the COE for the next academic year.

Hitting Restart: Reactivating a Deactivated Organization

Deactive Clubs Page:  https://groups.engr.oregonstate.edu/esc/inactive-clubs

Often clubs will cease operations due to lacking membership retainment or scant transitioning officers to maintain the club. That doesn’t mean the club has to disappear! This section will cover all things needed to bring an existing club back to life! Before following this guide, check to see if the club is active.

  • If you know a club exists/existed at OSU but haven’t seen any officers or representatives for it, check to see if the club is a registered organization with student organizations.
  • Double checking doesn’t hurt! Feel free to contact an ESC representative and ask them if a club has ever been present in any ESC processes such as funding requests or general body meetings.

 

Guide to activating a deactivated organization

  • The main way to reactivate a club is to submit a new organization application.
  • The process of becoming an organization consists of 4 main steps:
  • The application will ask if the organization has existed in the past or not.
  • The application will also ensure that the basic criteria is met to be an organization again, but instead of making a new club profile, the old profile will be reactivated.
  • If possible, contact the original members of the original organization.
    • Discuss with them what the original goals were for the club and see if you want to maintain them or tweak them to fit your vision of how the organization should look.
  • Search for old files and documents maintained by the original organization.
    • Following the paper trail of what the old organization had done previously is a great way to piece together your desired idea on how the new organization should operate.
    • Almost all clubs save all their documents in a central location such a Google Drive, Box, emails or messaging platforms.
    • Check to see if ESC has left over information from funding requests sent in to ESC
  • Reactivating a club gives the chance to make a new constitution or edit the original document.
    • If possible, obtain the original constitution maintained by the old club. This can serve as a jumping off point.
    • Otherwise, use this example as a template: https://beav.es/JtR
  • A club can only operate if it meets the minimum membership number requirement, including the president and treasurer.
  • Recognition requires at minimum 4 students who will be the starting active members.
  • Meet with interested prospective members regularly to discuss how the club once operated and what changes are desired when bringing the club back.

The timeline of this process depends solely on how motivated the student leaders are to working through the process. Some organizations have completed this process within a week while others take a month. If you are interested in reactivating an organization, contact the VP of Development to get you integrated with the ESC structure: