Tips for Finding other Passionate Students

• Share your ideas and passion with friends, classmates, and teachers in person, on social media, and/or by email. Ask them if they are interested in getting involved or if they know anybody who may be interested.
• Encourage teachers to create a quick class announcement seeking students who are interested in joining your efforts to host an event or start a chapter.
• Wear SODA t-shirts on a certain day to get awareness across campus, and wear t-shirts at advocacy events.
• Post flyers around campus.

Forming a SODA Chapter Leadership Team:

• Create a survey to share with interested students. See a sample application: tinyurl.com/sodaleadershipteam.
• Try to balance the age and seniority of Leadership Team members, relying on the expertise of upperclassmen and the energy of underclassmen. The minimum number of people on a leadership team should be three students.
• Consider having an open Leadership Team meeting to demonstrate to potential leaders how meetings usually work.
• Create committees as a stepping-stone to joining the Leadership Team (e.g., registration, programming, or marketing committees). Committee leaders with experience can become your chapter’s future Leadership Team members.

Leadership Tips

• When planning events, we recommend having at least 1-4 students involved. When starting a chapter, we recommend 3-7 students be involved with the leadership team.
• Consider using an online messaging platform, like Slack, for Leadership Team messaging.
• Planning meetings should be an hour or less and at the same time each week or every other week, as needed.
• Each meeting should have an agenda.
• Transition meetings into an open forum. This allows students and leaders to discuss any questions they may have.

Sample Leadership Team Roles

• 🤝 President – Maintains SODA's mission, manages the Leadership Team, facilitates team brainstorming, maintains relationships with campus administration, communicates with SODA National, and creates weekly meeting agendas.
• 📝 Secretary – Takes meeting notes, maintains an updated list of members, reserves campus space and equipment for events, and sends emails to chapter members. (Consider using Mailchimp to keep email formatting consistent.)
• 💰 Treasurer – Manages chapter budget, applies for funding through the university or SODA National, purchases supplies for events and campaigns, manages reimbursements.