Student organizations were taught how to cut spending and increase membership last week when the Office of Campus Activities sponsored "Programming 101." The program was developed after the success of last year's "Passport to Programming," which also instructed students on how to run their organizations more efficiently.
During the first workshop, held on Nov. 8, Tim Asher, associate director of Campus Activities, outlined ways in which organizations can effectively and economically publicize the events they are sponsoring.
According to Asher, the purpose of publicity is to make students well aware of events that are occurring so that they can make a conscious choice to attend them or not. He repeatedly advocated using more than one method of getting the word out and starting early when publicizing an event.
The second lecture was held on Wednesday, Nov. 10, and was led by Tim Wilkinson, fraternities and sororities program director. This seminar's purpose was to teach organizations the best techniques to increase recruitment.
"A lot of clubs don't have as organized and efficient recruitment plan as they could," Wilkinson said.
According to Wilkinson, many organizations make the mistake of only recruiting at the start of the semesters, especially at events like Lollanobooza. While Wilkinson said it is not an error to try and recruit during these times, he said stopping recruitment efforts once the events are over is a mistake.
"(It's) like playing baseball and only swinging in the first three innings," Wilkinson said.
Asher said this year's program differed from last year's "Passport to Programming," because his office, "got out of the habit of teaching students the nuts and bolts of leadership" and instead extended the workshop to other areas.
He said this year's program, however, did allow students who were not previously in leadership positions to pick up the information they missed from not attending "Passport to Programming" last year.
Feedback from the organizations' representatives was generally positive.
Ellen Lee, vice president of the Korean American Student Association (KASA), said she liked "Programming 101" and felt that the information would prove useful.
She also said that another member of KASA had attended "Passport to Programming" and membership has increased since then.
Joe Ramalho, a junior member of Phi Alpha Delta, also praised "Programming 101," saying he found the multiple short lectures preferable to the daylong "Passport to Programming workshop."
Ramalho, however, said he already knew most of what he was told from attending "Passport to Programming." After that workshop, membership in Phi Alpha Delta increased, according to Ramalho.
The office of Campus Activities is holding another workshop on how to be an effective organization leader tonight in Brower Student Center.
The office plans to hold other "Programming 101" seminars throughout the year and said everyone who wishes to attend is welcome.
