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NoRules

starting a college club

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Hey guys :P

My first post (ahh!)...

Well, my friend and I made a pseudo skydiving club where we basically just round up a bunch of tandems and take them on trips (they get discounts, we get free jumps) and hope that some of them get hooked.

For those people who do have college clubs, how'd you do it? Does the college pay for anything or recognize you as a club? Let me know--thanks!

~m~



~ * Life Has No Rules * ~

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paige started the club at ou this year. ive since taken over since she graduated (congrats girl) and we are recognized only as a student organization, not a club sport. we get absolutely no money from the school. its really a tough deal.. pm me if you want to know more!

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Texas Tech University used to have a skydiving club (The Flying Raiders). If I recall correctly, the school reimbursed their travel expenses for certain organized trips and gave them like $100 a year for gear. I believe they bought a club altimeter with the money. It wasn't a lot of reimbursement, but it seemed to help. They also got to use school facilities for organized weekly meetings. There are probably still a few former members floating around somewhere, if you keep an eye out for them.

Blue skies,

Douva
I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

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I was thinking of starting a club here at the University of California, Riverside. I've been hesitant to because I would be embarrassed if only like 2 people showed up. LoL! I do know, however, that an officially recognized and registered club gets $600 a year (more as the years go by). Maybe I'll still try it, who knows. I was discouraged by the fact that only like 2 or 3 people even expressed any interst in skydiving, who are in the Ski and Snowboard club (http://www.skiclubucr.com). You'd think snowboarders were "extreme" enough to go skydiving as well. I guess it all comes down to the high price. Oh well. In the meantime, anyone from the UCR area, or so. cal. area in general wanna go jump with me? :)

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I think that starting a college skydiving club is an awesome Idea.. go for it. I myself was thinking the same thing, and I came across something from the University of Maryland on DZ.com, which I think sums up about everything to be successful.. I will give the address, but making sure they recieve credit for it... it seems as if they knew what they were doing and made it through.. I wish you luck and hope you can get your club started....http://www.dropzone.com/news/HowtoStartaCollegiateSky.shtml

"When once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return." ~da Vinci

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I was president of the University of Maryland club for a couple years before I graduated. There are two things you'll need for a successful club. Money and help. Money is the easy part, believe it or not... well, not always but help is the hard part.

First of all, sounds like you have a deal with your DZ already. If you really want to be a club, go through the paperwork with your school and become official. Then, instead of getting free jumps from the DZ for each tandem you bring, get cash and set up a bank account. Use the money to have t-shirts made, banners, bumper stickers, and advertising. Get the word out that your school has a skydiving club. Save some money and buy a jump for a school newspaper reporter. Your DZ (if they're smart) will do it at cost or even less in exchange for the free advertising they'll be getting.

Set up trips to the DZ, advertise em like crazy. Put flyers on bathroom doors in dorms. Flyers should be bold and simple. Get a web page and get all your info on there so you dont have to answer the same questions over and over again. A domain name helps people remember the site so you'll get more hits. I bought UMDskydiving.com, which is pretty easy to remember and short enough to put on flyers in big letters.

Work on getting funding from your school. They might not give any, or they might start off with none but give some after the first year. Funding, if you can get it, grows every year. But it's still not as useful as cash in the bank.

Hold information sessions often. Offer free pizza. Use powerpoint to look professional and not forget any important information.

Well, that's how I did it anyway. It's a lot of work and you really don't get much in return. But you'll meet a lot of people and see a lot of smiles. And somehow it's kind of fun.

Dave
http://www.umdskydiving.com

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I've set up basically the same thing at my university, UCSC. We advertise around campus and bring in people to do tandems at a discounted price in return for a few free jumps. It really isn't much of a club but I think everyone wins so I am cool with that for now. Plus, when I tried to go through all the official paper work the university wanted a lot on my part for almost nothing in return. But maybe your school is not a bureaucratic as the University of California.
loudawg- tell me more about this $600 thing. They never offered that to me in sc. And BTW our ski and snowboard club jumps every spring and this year about 20 people from that club jump with us

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At UW-Madison, the skydiving club is not helped by the school at all. Basically we take as many people to do tandems at SDC as we can several times a year, and charge them a membership fee. SDC gives all madcity people a discount, and are much more supportive of us than the school. Makes sense, they make bank when we bring down 60 people. It works, so my advice is find a kickass dz and get them to help. Knowing the skydiving community, they probably will.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams

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