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Forming a Red Cross Campus Club: A Personal Account
Igor Alves, president of the Rutgers Red Cross Corps
Thursday, October 02, 2003 — Igor Alves, a senior at Rutgers University studying Political Science and Global Affairs, is a founding member and current president of the Rutgers Red Cross Corps. He and a small group of Rutgers students used the Campus Red Cross Club guide to help them through the process of starting their club. We asked Igor to revisit the 12 steps and respond to each one with his personal experience. This is what he had to say:
Step 1 – Contact the Red Cross unit nearest your campus for guidance and approval.
The chapter affiliated with your university, the American Red Cross in Metropolitan New Jersey, is the local chapter you grew up with. How did you first become acquainted with the Red Cross?
I was a youth volunteer at the chapter. I actually did my Eagle Scout project for Boy Scouts with the Red Cross and that’s how I got involved with the Red Cross. About a year after that, when I was 18, I was invited to join the chapter’s board to serve as a sort of youth liaison with full membership rights.
Last summer, before my junior year, I figured – what better way of continuing my involvement with the Red Cross than by forming a Red Cross Club at my school?
The first step to forming the club was having our chapter on board. I received encouragement from the staff of several departments, including the CEO of Metro NJ, Walter Gramm. Specifically, the club needed a chapter liaison/advisor, who would be knowledgeable about our affairs, be willing to meet with us, help with Red Cross forms, make suggestions, set us up with materials and provide awards. We received chapter buy-in and a person was given the responsibility of chapter advisor.
Step 2 – Get your school’s approval
How difficult was it to get school approval?
First, I went to the Office of Student Activities and they gave me a student organization handbook, which most colleges have, that included how to start a club at the school. It outlined how to reserve space and apply for official club status.
What were the requirements?
We were required to submit a constitution. Rutgersprovided a model constitution in the handbook and we adapted the sample constitution in the Red Cross Campus club guide to fit those requirements. We were also required to provide 20 signatures of registered students and to submit names of four people committed to being officers: president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. We also needed to secure a faculty advisor. Finally, we had to complete a budget packet for the Student Government Association, which outlined our planned activities and estimated our operating costs.
How did you go about finding your faculty advisor?
I was referred by the Dean to Dr. Phyllis Peterman, who is the chair of the social work department. Her background made her a natural fit and after only two weeks of convincing her, she was on board as our advisor.
Step 3 – Name your club.
How did you go about naming your club?
The official name of our club is American Red Cross Corps of Rutgers-Newark because that’s what the Red Cross Campus club guide says for you to do. I understand how that makes sense because it will be listed first on the school list of organizations and that’s what I would suggest you do. However, we wanted a catchy name where we could just use an abbreviation, so we use RRCC (Rutgers Red Cross Corps). I know other schools have specific naming requirements.
Step 4 – Begin thinking of Red Cross-related activities in which you’d like to see your club become involved.
You mentioned earlier that you had to create an initial list of club activities. How did you determine what Red Cross-related activities in which you’d like to see the club become involved?
From the beginning, it’s best to work with the chapter advisor to determine what your kick-off activities are going to be. I would suggest doing that for at least the first two projects. We knew we were going to kick off with a blood drive. This was obvious for us and it worked out because no one did a high profile blood drive at our school and it’s such a great way for the Red Cross to advertise.
Step 5 – Develop a structure for your club
How was the structure of your club determined?
The structure of the club was defined by the student organization handbook and developed in tandem with the constitution. When you’re making a constitution you’re determining the structure of your club, because that’s what the constitution is all about. In the constitution it says how often you’re going to meet, it even asks you to say how you would structure a meeting: new business, old business, treasurer’s reports, etc.
I convinced my friend and co-founder Anna DeSouza to help me develop the club structure. It’s a challenge to start a club, but it can also be a challenge for the second group who didn’t start the club to actually know how to transition. Those who start a club are really motivated – it’s their ‘baby’ and they feel an allegiance to it. I want those moving up to feel the same way and to know what they’re dealing with. Anna put together documents that will be relevant for each of the officers. Since we don’t have the time or money to make copies to fill binders for everybody, each person has a computer disk with the information recorded on it. For example, the president’s disk includes every document that the club has and the secretary has a disk with documents that are tailored for that position. Each officer adds what’s relevant to their disk throughout the year. At the end of this school year, when Anna and I graduate and officers change, we’re going to have a predecessor’s report and pass along the disks.
You have to know how to reserve a meeting space, also. That’s important. Try to reserve for the entire year as early as possible. We learned the hard way. We would reserve our room one meeting at a time and by our fourth meeting, the room we were used to was taken by somebody else. Shifting around is not good because people can not find the new room. We lost members for awhile before we could go back to the old room.
Step 6 – Create job descriptions.
When did you create job descriptions?
We completed this step while defining our constitution, using the job descriptions included in the Red Cross Campus club guide. Each officer received a list with their specific job description on it.
In addition to job descriptions we had to come up with a faculty advisor’s responsibilities sheet to satisfy the faculty advisor. In the club guide there’s a list of about five things the faculty advisor should do, but our school actually had a brochure of what is expected. Be sure to check with your school about things such as job descriptions for officers and faculty advisor responsibilities because they may require different things. You have to defer to the way your school wants it.
Step 7 – Create a budget for your activities.
How did you go about creating a budget for your activities?
We had to turn in a sample budget and a calendar of events to be approved as a club. This was hard because we had no idea how much money we needed or what activities we would do. We were planning on recruiting people and then deciding on the activities as a group. I wanted to be democratic, but I realized that I needed to make some initial decisions myself.
The Student Government Association (SGA) holds a meeting at the beginning of the year during which they allocate funds to clubs whose constitution is approved by the Dean of Students Affairs. For the first semester we found out we would not receive funds because each club must prove itself for a semester before getting funding.
With this in mind, we started with a very small budget, planning for projects and activities that were low-cost and relying on the Red Cross chapter for brochures and other materials. While our chapter supports us, their tight budget prevents them from supplying us with any money. Still, we get discounts, in-kind donations and direct access to staff – which is very important.
Fortunately for us, our first project, the blood drive, didn’t require that we spend anything. The blood region brought in all the materials. They gave us posters and small sheets that we distributed in our classes with the information on it. We got the rest donated from a bakery – fruits, pastries and juice. Every member had a goal of recruiting ten people. At that point we had about 15 members who were really set on doing club stuff but after the blood drive, the club grew about threefold.
In February, we applied for funds and received $800 from the SGA.
Step 8 - Write a constitution for your club.
How did you go about writing a constitution for your club?
I discussed this earlier, but I’ll add that the Dean of Students reviewed our constitution and wanted us to change a few basic things before he signed off on it.
Step 9 - Communicate with your local Red Cross unit.
How do you communicate your activities with your local Red Cross unit?
It’s important to communicate your club’s activities and needs because the club needs backing from the chapter and, in turn, you want them to know what the club is doing. A board member and two staff directors came to our first meetings and presented information on the Red Cross.
Throughout the year, the person assigned as a youth advisor is our contact at the chapter, but we are also able to develop relationships with other staff. I recommend this. If the club is involved in a measles initiative project, we can talk not only with the youth person, but also with the international services director. If we’re doing a CPR course, we talk to the health and safety director. That’s also a great way for each department to be aware of what youth are doing. Basically, everyone at our chapter is on board with our club.
Step 10 - Start recruiting members for your club.
How did you start recruiting members for your club and what do your ongoing recruiting efforts consist of?
At the beginning of the year, our school has a club fair and we applied for a table. We had no money, but the chapter stepped in and provided a Red Cross banner, pens and brochures. They gave each officer staffing the booth a Red Cross t-shirt to wear. We recruited about 70 people that day. We were so amazed. We were asked, ‘What sort of activities are you going to do?’ and we would say ‘We’re still figuring that out, but we are planning a blood drive, a CPR class and a disaster action team. You don’t have to commit. Just come to our first meeting.’
In my “stump” speech to students, I try to stress how different the Red Cross is from most other clubs because we have an iconic organization behind us with built-in credibility and established programs and projects that we tap into. This means that we do not have to start everything from scratch, which leaves more time to provide service, because less time is spent creating posters and contacts, for example.
Very important to recruiting is the use of a website to communicate meeting times to those who fill out volunteer forms. We also post orientation documents (service project ideas, history of the Red Cross, awards, etc.) as well as links and an online calendar. The site has chat capabilities and we upload pictures from each event so people can see what we have done.
We also initiated contact with our school’s office of communications and we post announcements on the events page of the school website.
Finally, we recruit by word of mouth by asking members to recruit one person. It is a simple ask, but it helps increase membership, plus everyone likes having friends in the organization.
Step 11 - Use your first meeting as a brainstorming session.
What did your first meeting look like?
We held two orientations as our first meeting that brought in about 50 people. Once we had presented the history, different service areas, award opportunities and some basic information on the Metro NJ chapter of the Red Cross we invited everyone to fill out a volunteer application and a code of conduct form. I put this information in a database and throughout the year we would contact the people when we came to a project they had expressed interest in. We provide a copy of the volunteer application to the chapter so they can officially record our club members as volunteers.
Step 12 - Register your Red Cross campus club with American Red Cross national headquarters!
What about registering your Red Cross campus club with American Red Cross national headquarters?
We accomplished this by visiting the youth web site at www.redcross.org and filling in the short registration form.
Additional Comments
What additional steps did you take to ensure that your club would be a success?
We set up a web site early on because communication is so important. That’s the one thing that the constitution did not take care of but you should still think of that as soon as possible. Email is great for us, and we post everything on our club Web site. However, there are times before events when there’s nothing like a phone call. We had a successful blood drive turnout because we split up phone calls between ten people and called everybody who signed up.
Your club is beginning its third year. What changes are on the horizon?
This year, we convinced Rutgers University Computing Services to provide us with web space and we’ve redesigned our site. Besides web space, we solicited a computer from Computing Services to place in our office and a campus mailbox.
We plan to be creative in promoting events: this year we are calling our blood drive “Vampire Day.” It’s silly, but it is a gimmick to get people’s attention and a way for members to have fun.
We also created an internship program through the social work department, and five people have registered to assist and receive 3 college credits for it. I think this is a great way for club members to become Red Cross experts and keep them involved without taking away from their courses.
We are expanding to the college across the street, New JerseyInstituteof Technology, so that we can involve a whole different set of students with the Red Cross. We are also partnering with the SetonHallUniversityRed Cross Club on a World AIDS Day project this year. I would encourage every Red Cross club leader to reach out and establish relationships with other Red Cross clubs.
Thank you, Igor, for sharing your valuable experiences with all of us!
To start a Red Cross club on your campus, call or visit your local American Red Cross chapter or email clubs@usa.redcross.org.
Contact your local American Red Cross chapter for the Campus Red Cross Club Student Leadership Guide, A1281.
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