rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) (04/28/91)
In article <91115.161332DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu> DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu (David Barr) writes: >Whee. The student ACM here at PSU is rather dull. Give us tips for >livening up the club. Just as long as it doesn't include more pizza. =) Here's a few suggestions that ACM student chapters I've been involved with in the past have had good luck with. Some of them might work well for you. (Think creative! :) * Get outside speakers in. There's the ACM lectureship series; this is a reasonable place to start, or to get "keynote" sorts of speakers from. Talk with local companies involved with computers; often they'll be willing to send somebody to talk to the group. Find out who's using computers in new and interesting ways at your university, and ask them if they'd be willing to give a short talk. * Go on field trips. Again, call up the computer-related companies in your area (or even general high-tech places, if you think they would be interesting to visit). Some of the places that groups I've been involved with have visited included: - The Minnesota science museum (we did this every few months) - NWA's simulator facility, where they train pilots - Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant's simulation/training center - A manufacturing center of Sperry's (where they built core memory and other neat stuff) - The computerized address processing center at the Lansing, MI post office There's surely a lot of neat places around PSU. * If you've got enough people who would be interested, think about starting a newsletter. Maybe just one for your members, to keep them all in touch; if you can find the funding, perhaps you can distribute it to CS majors, or to users of the computer center's facilities. You can get exposure that way as well as contributing to the university. * Think about regular social events. For a while, out at MSU, we had a TGIF going--we'd go out Friday afternoons to a place where we could play foosball, pool, etc. and sit around and talk. If there are other organizations at your university (like IEEE), maybe you can organize joint events. Lots of possibilities. Good luck with them! Anton +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | rang@cs.wisc.edu | UW--Madison | "VMS Forever!" | +---------------------------+------------------+-------------+----------------+
prisoner@jec312.its.rpi.edu (Allen S. Firstenberg) (04/28/91)
>>Whee. The student ACM here at PSU is rather dull. Give us tips for >>livening up the club. Just as long as it doesn't include more pizza. =) I'd suggest Ice Cream... {: > * Get outside speakers in. There's the ACM lectureship series; this Can someone provide details about how student chapters can work with the lectureship series? We keep heraing about it, but have no firm details. > * If you've got enough people who would be interested, think about > starting a newsletter. Maybe just one for your members, to keep > them all in touch; if you can find the funding, perhaps you can > distribute it to CS majors, or to users of the computer center's > facilities. You can get exposure that way as well as contributing > to the university. Contributing to the university is always a good idea. Talk to the CS, Management, or Engineering departments. Talk to the computing center. Talk to your roomates! Find out what needs to be done and try to get the ACM to do it. Expand beyond the CS department. There are "computer professionals" in many many departments. Try to show that the ACM isn't full of hackers, but is full of people who want to use computers in all fields. Prisoner (RPI-ACM Secretary) -- prisoner@rpi.edu "Do you know what this means?" prisoner@acm.rpi.edu "Yes, It means I'm free." prisoner@rpitsmts.bitnet "No" -Les Miserables