No Cost Student Chapter Website Build

Entry Details

We began by negotiating a no cost website with our Chapter’s website provider and Chapter partner MembersFirst. The purpose and benefit of creating a sister website for our Student Chapter(s) is multifold. It will provide a home to highlight each of our six Student Chapters' accomplishments and accolades, Chapter membership roster, Student Chapter leaders, and upcoming events on the student, Chapter, and national level. Our students will be able to use the website to search for career and scholarship opportunities, and it will also be an excellent tool for recruitment as we highlight alumni that have graduated to begin successful careers in the private club industry. Additionally, we are providing a hands-on marketing and communication experience for the future leaders of our industry! Our first-year student volunteers are contributing to the original website content build and will update their Chapter's information on the website throughout the designated school year. All future student volunteers will update their Chapter’s information on the website throughout the designated school year and participate in all website programming updates and upgrades.

Each year ALL our student volunteers will have the opportunity to apply for the Carolinas Club Foundation Marketing and Communication scholarship. This scholarship created and sponsored by CCF provides the tuition cost and travel expenses (airfare and accommodations) for the top three applicants to attend the recipient(s) choice of one of the following courses, with a total reimbursement of up to $2,500: National Student Education Conference or World Conference and Club Business Expo.

We are currently in the production schedule stage with MembersFirst and recently honored our top applicants with their scholarship award(s). Lastly, and perhaps the most powerful and positive benefit to all involved, we are enjoying the opportunity to network with each other as we continue our journey to a completed Carolinas Student Chapter website. Our tentative completion/launch date is the week of Thanksgiving 2020!

Implementation

Our Chapter and Foundation boards, MembersFirst, our university professors, and student volunteers are in full support of this project. We are proud to share our blueprint with CMAA National in the hopes you will strive to build a similar experience for all student chapters. Below is our step-by-step checklist to guide you through the process. We provided links with examples of communications, scholarship applications and guidelines, and our production schedule. From start to finish this project takes an estimated 4-6 months to finalize.

• Partner with your chapter’s website provider
• Designate one or more chapter members to perform as the project manager(s)
• Create communication that explains your website build goals, expectations, and timeline
• Create a student marketing and communication scholarship incentive to attract student chapter volunteers
• Share your prepared communication and scholarship opportunity with your student chapter club management professors and instructors
• Welcome and onboard your student volunteers
• Create volunteer contact information document to include: semester availability, email address, and cell phone number
• Include your professors and instructors on your contact list and copy them on all communications to the student volunteers
• Contact scholarship winners!
• Perform as communication liaison between your website build team, chapter Managing Director, student volunteers, professors, and instructors
• Sample website production schedule