Archive:2005-08-07

First conference call of August!

Attendance

 * Who is starting a chapter this semester? Who is continuing a chapter from last semester?

How to start a chapter
Fred, Rebekah, Nelson, and Gavin will talk about their experiences starting chapters (and anyone else who wants to)
 * How do you start a chapter at your school? How do you get people to join?
 * What do chapters do? What happens at meetings?  What's been successful for current chapters?  Do you have any ideas for cool events?
 * Would you advise coordinating efforts with other student groups? Which ones, and how?

What will FreeCulture.org do to help?

 * We will ship you lots of literature and goodies
 * We will provide every chapter with a mailing list, blog, and wiki

Who needs stuff shipped to them, and who needs web stuff set up for them? We must make sure that someone keeps a list, and that your needs are taken care of.

Q&A
Any questions we haven't answered already? Feel free to write them down here, especially if you're worried that you might not be able to make the call.

Minutes
Attendance: Nelson, Jeremy from UMich, Aphid from UC Santa Cruz, Fred formerly of NYU, Emily and Andy from Emerson, Andy and Stephen from UEvansville, Rebecca from Brown, Stephen from BU, Gavin and Eldo from UFlorida

Fred on how he started a chapter at NYU

 * Started club through the NYU student center, has an advisor etc.
 * Most unis like having new clubs since it creates a better value for the tuition.
 * Where to get new people: LUG, Computer classes; simply asked people to join.
 * Get dirty old hippy profs
 * Get help from the IT department
 * Contact people with related fields through listserves
 * Flyering kinda worked
 * Make sure you get a website, mailing list, etc. so you are not bogged down with uni IT people
 * Bueracracy: deal with it, cause they are the ones giving you money.
 * Fund raising: different for diff unis, depends on private/public school.
 * Final lesson: Focus on one event if you can in the spring semester. Plan around that. Dont have more than necessary meetings/updates.
 * Have people give speeches.
 * Events that can attract more people.
 * Target Froshies
 * Try to work within the bureaucracy

Gavin on starting the UFlorida chapter

 * Try starting a chapter during the Fall.
 * Basically try to contact the related people such as media, tech, arts, etc.
 * First meeting should be something big if you can.
 * Try using Facebook to promote.
 * Start a "Free Culture" Facebook group
 * Try using the "my parties" feature to invite people to parties and RSVP
 * Consider buying Facebook ads to advertise big meetings/events, it can be cheaper/less work than flyering
 * Make sure to get contact info
 * Do something rather than just sitting around talk, anything.
 * Make sure to put a faculty advisor who is interested in what you are doing.
 * The prof may not be in the correct field.
 * Do whatever is locally 'needed'.
 * Publicaly funded schools are required to give out info based on FOI
 * Private schools are controled by Alumni assoc.
 * Try not to limit people by puting out a certain opinion.
 * Make sure the group is not pidgeon holed into a certain subject.