Meteorology Club Ideas

[Sara Ganetis]

Since the semester or quarter has just started for everyone and AMS/NWA/Meteorology Student Clubs are getting organized, let's talk about some ideas that have been successful for each of your clubs. I recall there being a very useful breakout session at the AMS Student Conference where ideas were shared and issues were discussed so I know that each club is doing great things.

Here are some ideas from my own experiences (that worked for the most part, haha). Please post yours below!

Member Recruitment

• Hosting a pizza social
  
• Asking professors to broadcast the club's first meeting time/location
• Facebook groups/events
• Old fashioned fliers
• University-wide student activity fairs
  

Social Events

• Bad weather movie night (Category 6, NYC Tornado Terror, Sharknado, etc. Or "good" movies that you can scientifically rip apart- Twister, The Perfect Storm, The Day After Tomorrow)

Fundraising

• Sell snacks within your department by buying in bulk and marking them up
• Weather-themed bake sale
  
• Forecasting contest pools such as a the date of the first snowfall, hurricane US landfall, etc.
  

Student Resources

• Contact alumni from your department to come and give a career talk or host a career fair featuring a bunch of them
  
• Host an informational session where you discuss internship, scholarship and fellowship information (that you can find on MetScholars!)
• Try setting up a mentoring system between juniors/seniors and freshmen/sophomores (even if it is just over Facebook)
• Organize a trip to your local NWS WFO, TV station, or other resource
• Publicize and try to get as many students as possible to attend local, regional or national conferences (fundraising helps)
  

Outreach

• Talk to local elementary or high school teachers about coming in and speaking to classes
  
• Look for opportunities to have a table at community events near your university to discuss weather and weather safety
  

What is your best method of communication? Facebook, a website, email? Best of luck with the new term and getting your club off to a great start!

[pmarinescu]

In terms of outreach, one idea is to have your organization get involved with the CoCoRaHS network (www.cocorahs.org), where your group can help measure rain, snow, and hail. Not only is this a great way to help the atmospheric science community with observational data, it also allows students to do some hands on work with simple instrumentation.

[vanna]

Figured I would go ahead and add some things from the two chapters I was in.

Recruitment

• Campus newsletters
• University event calendars 

Social Events

• Bowling
• Laser tag
• Weather-related IMAX movies
• Science museums

Fundraising

• T-shirts
• Stadium cleaning (some schools offer student groups money to clean up after a stadium event)

Outreach

• Configure weather radios at a public event or before storm season (some TV stations will be glad to help you advertise this)
• Severe Weather Awareness Day/Week events.  At TTU we work with the local WFO, science museum and TV stations to put together a family-oriented event before severe weather season with weather and safety information, simple weather related experiments, weather related games, a green screen (everyone loves that), spotter training, weather instruments, our mobile radars and chase vehicles, and even special guests.  It takes some planning to get everything together, but it is rewarding and popular with the surrounding communities!