As a former president of my College Republicans chapter at Lafayette College, I know how difficult it can be to run a right-leaning campus group. It’s challenging enough to find conservative and liberty leaning students on any college campus, and it’s even more challenging to then get those students motivated enough to actually come out to club meetings, get involved, and participate in events.
I have this piece of advice for all the chapters that we at CFACT work with every semester: do something crazy! I know that with all of your peers and faculty who are left wing, it can be scary to put yourself out there, but you can do really cool events without getting in anyone’s face or potentially offending someone.
For example, at Lafayette there were two events that we did that all chapters should emulate. The first was Second Amendment Day. Once a semester we would participate with the local gun range in Easton, PA and learn how to safely and effectively use and operate firearms. The participation for that event of our membership was easily three times that of any other event we held.
Second example: Lip Sync Air Band Competition. Okay, this one was part of the Music Appreciation Floor I was a part of, but we can still all learn from it. It was for a good cause everyone could get behind (proceeds went to VH1’s Save the Music Foundation) and it attracted people from all over campus to attend. We won several awards for how unique and successful of an event it was. It took minimal set up, too. Reserve the room. Make a banner, ask people to compete. Plus it was a lot of fun, our group’s rendition of “It’s Raining Men” was pretty epic.
Speakers are awesome, and tabling is important. But if you really want to swell your numbers and make an impact, think outside of the box!