Running a club in school can be challenging since it requires detailed planning, careful implementation, and creative thinking. In this blog post, we will explore together the key elements you'll need to consider when organizing club activities and some tips on how to use mind maps to expedite these processes.

There are two main perspectives club organizers need to take note of when making any thorough plans: administrative and creative.

From the Administrative perspective:

A club calls for administrative management on every level if you want to form a close-knit community. From member recruitment to online meetings, effective administration is vital. In the first part, we will deep dive into the steps required to run a club successfully as an organizer.

1. Year Plan

Carefully plan out a schedule for the whole year that could give you a general direction for your activities and priorities for your club.

2. Recruitment

Prepare for your recruitment process alongside the promotional activities. Design compelling club posters and flyers, shoot promotional videos, and post them on social media to attract potential members. This process determines the future of your club committee and is a good chance for old members to showcase your club's culture and leave good impressions on fellow students.

3. Planning Committee meetings

Meetings are essential to communicating with members, discussing issues the club faces, and adjusting accordingly. It could also be the place for members to connect with one another regularly.

4. Reservation of venues and purchases

After all plans are made and solutions for issues located. Finding suitable venues and making equipment purchases is something club runners tend to forget but is very vital to the success of organizing any activities.

Here, we will mainly focus on the year plan for a club as it will determine what you'll need to do, what your members need to do, and what you expect the result to be.

Due to the pandemic, you might need to make two versions of the year plan in case your activities need to be moved online. A good example could look something like this:

Putting things side by side could be a good way to compare each detail, and making it into a mind map could be the way for club organizers to capture and untangle thoughts.

Unlike planning for specific activities, a year plan gives organizers a bird's eye view of how members should run things in the following year. When making a plan for a specific activity, organizers will need to add extra details for members to execute properly.

Note that info like preferred dates, persons in charge, and even steps for execution is the key to any activity plan. So make it as specific as possible and, of course, make adjustments along the way.

From the Creative side of things:

Creative activities are the heart and soul of any club. It is the reason why students join your club, not others.

Here, as an exemplary case, we will take the drama club, whose creative processes involve: scriptwriting, character writing, video shooting, and stage design.

1. Scriptwriting

An excellent story could draw audiences to watch your play and students to join your club. Innovating and recreating old play could be the way to go. If you feel extra creative, write a new story with your members and experiment with the content to fit your club or school culture.

2. Character writing

Characters are the ones who carry a play. And whether they are likable to the audience will make or break your performance. We will learn more about it in the latter part of this blog post.

3. Video shooting

By taking videos of your rehearsal, you can quality check the performance of your actors and the quality of your story. Of course, keeping a video record of the play on the big night could be the best way to promote your club and show the creativity of your members to all students in school.

4. Stage design

Stage design demands the collaboration of different departments of your club, including the makeup team, stage setup, lighting, music design, and many more. So making sure they work in coordination is also vital to the success of your performance.

You can check up on this blog post for your scriptwriting and this for video shootings.

For character writing, we will take the classic TV series Friends as an example:

We will need to consider: the looks, personalities, background stories, the tone of voice, and even pet phrases of each character.

Imagine what your character looks like will guide you on who should play this role and how to apply makeup on your performer. This look will probably be on all of your promo materials as well, so you'll need to take extra care of it. Think about details like hair color, facial features, and outfit styles.

A character's behavior is predicated mainly on their personalities and background stories. Give them vivid quirks and flaws. Where are they from? Did any unusual incidents happen to them? What are their long-term goals? Think of ways to tell your stories creatively through your character's behavior, clothes, and idiosyncrasy instead of revealing the story itself.

There are many more elements to consider when incorporating your characters into your stories, but we will not be able to cover them all here comprehensively.

All in all, the focal points of administration and creative working of club operation are different. The administrative perspective focuses more on landing a feasible plan, coordinating, and solving issues. As for the creative aspect, it is more about how to acquire more original ideas and sort out the scattered thoughts.

Try out some of these tips and have fun with your school clubs ;)