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Finding Other Students to Join You

Building a strong team to support your SODA chapter will help you achieve your education and registration goals. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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