Tips for Finding other Passionate Students

• Share your ideas and passion with friends, classmates, and teachers in person, on social media, and/or by email. Ask them if they are interested in getting involved or if they know anybody who may be interested.

• Encourage teachers to create a quick class announcement seeking students who are interested in joining your efforts to host an event or start a chapter.

• Wear SODA t-shirts on a certain day to get awareness across campus, and wear t-shirts at advocacy events.

• Post flyers around campus.

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Forming a SODA Chapter Leadership Team

• Create a survey to share with interested students. See a sample application: tinyurl.com/sodaleadershipteam.

• Try to balance the age and seniority of Leadership Team members, relying on the expertise of upperclassmen and the energy of underclassmen. The minimum number of people on a leadership team should be three students.

• Consider having an open Leadership Team meeting to demonstrate to potential leaders how meetings usually work.

• Create committees as a stepping-stone to joining the Leadership Team (e.g., registration, programming, or marketing committees). Committee leaders with experience can become your chapter’s future Leadership Team members.

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Sample Leadership Team Roles

• President – Maintains SODA's mission, manages the Leadership Team, facilitates team brainstorming, maintains relationships with campus administration, communicates with SODA National, and creates weekly meeting agendas.

• Secretary – Takes meeting notes, maintains an updated list of members, reserves campus space and equipment for events, and sends emails to chapter members. (Consider using Mailchimp to keep email formatting consistent.)

• Treasurer – Manages chapter budget, applies for funding through the university or SODA National, purchases supplies for events and campaigns, manages reimbursements.

• Marketing Chair/Marketing Committee – Designs marketing materials, promotes events and activities, maintains social media, and works on getting media attention from local or on-campus news.

• Programming Chair/Programming Committee – Plans events that reach students from a variety of backgrounds, secures speakers for these events, and delegates tasks.

• Volunteer Coordinator / Registration Committee – Maintains a relationship with local OPO, schedules at least one volunteer training per semester with the OPO, and manages volunteer opportunities both on and off campus.

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Leadership Tips

• When planning events, we recommend having at least 1-4 students involved. When starting a chapter, we recommend 3-7 students be involved with the leadership team.

• Consider using an online messaging platform, like Slack, for Leadership Team messaging.

• Planning meetings should be an hour or less and at the same time each week or every other week, as needed.

• Each meeting should have an agenda.

• Transition meetings into an open forum. This allows students and leaders to discuss any questions they may have.