Hello
I'm interested in setting up a wild animal conservation society at my university.
I would like to use to raise money for projects, get involved with projects by providing members of the societies to volunteer in conservation.
And to raise awareness to those in the society but also to those at the university and local town.
i was wondering if anyone had any other ideas on how you run the society, from weekly meetings to types of conservation work we could help with.
And how you use it to spread the message of conservation.
And maybe any good fundraising ideas, i don't want to keep doing sponsorship.
Please respond even if you have nothing to do with conservation work or universities i would love to hear ideas from everyone to get good mix of ideas.
What a fantastic idea! Man, I wish I did something more constructive when I was in university. I started a society, which is still going strong, by the way, but it was a party society.
So I spent most of my time organising and publicising parties. I left before the club was around for a few years, but my brother collected the large silver tankard that you get from the uni if your club exists beyond a few years.
I have not actually contributed to your thread yet, have I? Too much nostalgia.
I see that your location is in the UK, so I assume that you attend a UK university. I also studied in the UK, and at our uni, you needed something like 10 persons to start a club. This was the hardest part of getting the club off the ground: finding 10 other like-minded people like you on campus that would be willing to pay the 5 pound (?) membership fees and do the initial hard work. So firstly, be aware that you literally need to have an unofficial club in existence already.
Secondly, don't be disappointed if after you start your club, not many people want to join. Remember, you aren't the soccer club, or Malaysian Society, or Muslim Society, or French Society (or my party society
). Don't forget to ensure that a similar society is not already in existence.
This brings me to my third point: try to have a fairly good idea of what your club will do. I see that you mentioned conservation projects in your town, and that sounds cool. People seem more inclined to do charity-type work now than when I was at uni.
My fourth point would be that you need to make sure that your club does fun things. So maybe a monthly social event where you go hiking somewhere to spot wildlife, or a visit to the zoo.
Fifthly, don't forget that a society really is a chance to meet like-minded people but there will probably only be a core of about 10 or 15 active members. Nonetheless, weekly or fortnightly meetings are cool - but keep in mind that it may clash with students' classes or their meetings for other clubs. Use social media by having a Twitter, Facebook, and newsletter: in other words, keep members engaged, and keep your club visible.
Sixthly, we found that sponsorship was difficult to come by. As students, we had very little contacts in 'the real world' to leverage off. The only sponsorship that I ever got was a few dinner vouchers to offer as prizes for bowling night, and some discounts for members at nightclubs. The money to run the club was obtained from membership fees and fundraising (like printing t-shirts for members to buy at a slightly inflated price). Try to get as many members as possible to sign up during freshers week, and try to get them to pay their membership fees soon after - most will never pay, and a high percentage that do pay will not be active members, but at least you got their cash.
I don't have any ideas for conservation projects, as those would be specific to your town, and you would have a good idea yourself. However, don't get too caught up with saving the world: remember that most uni students want to meet girls/boys, drink, and party. So, make sure that after each day of hard work on a project, that it is followed by a nice dinner/drink in a pub. I was a lousy shooter in the shotgun club (I was on the university C-team I think
) but I looked forward to hanging out after we cleaned the firearms.
I'll wait for a reply from you to see if you are a "one-post wonder" or if you would be a regular poster before I type any more.
