I went to Smith (as many of you know). Smith has a club team, and fencing is one of the better established club teams (major competition being Rugby, maybe Ice Hockey). The athletic administration has been generally very supportive (although every year there's usually at least one really dumb thing that ends up happening anyway....)
In any case, I know the discussion of how to get support from colleges for teams is always an issue that comes up. One of the tricks is to portray yourself as an asset-- but especially when it comes to clubs, the athletic department isn't going to see it as an asset.
The admissions staff, however? They might.
At Smith, admissions/communications is part of this big conglomerate that really wants to highlight the interesting things that happen at Smith. They just don't know how to find them. This year, the team managed to promote the first big meet of the year in New England, called "The Big One", in a big way. I'm not even on the team or on campus anymore, but here are some things they have going on:
*There's a large banner in the campus center. (painted by the team)
*The event is being promoted by the weekly email of events (submitted by the team)
*The official Smith College twitter account has now sent at least 3 tweets about the team/the event in the last week (as a result of other forms of publicity)
*There was an article in the "Grecourt Gate", which is a publication put together by Smith staff (this article was written by the president, as to avoid many of the usual traps)
http://www.smith.edu/news/2009-10/thebigone-129.php
*There's a youtube video on the official Smith College video... thing. (helped by the team, but NOT created by the team!) (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5oZxWfkQAs)
Now, many of the things have happened before- there are usually fliers and chalkings and word-of-mouth to friends. And certainly those things mixed with the new things will get Smithies to visit the event, and possibly even the team.
But getting admissions involved is somewhat more powerful-- by training the entire administration to see fencing as something that's not just something they support with a certain number of dollars and a weekend in November, but something that they can promote as unique and exciting. By giving the staff some access and some content you're an asset to them. Then, when the team inevitably runs into trouble with scheduling or parking or funding, the administration is already primed to see the value. They're already primed to remind fencers about the resources the college already has that may be helpful, or to pull some strings or change a rule.
For varsity sports, the athletic department is already often tied into these things-- The Smith Varsity Squash team has their own Twitter account, has their own youtube stream, AND a blog. And a whole bunch of institutional support. Club teams, however, can create some of this-- with a little effort.
I've mainly been looking at the new(ish) "web 2.0" solutions- are there any other things in this area I've overlooked in this area? Are there other (older) ways that teams can get support by giving it to their colleges?
Linear Mode
