Starting a Spirit Club at School

Survey your fellow students to determine the interest level in starting a spirit club. This can take the form of a cheerleading or songleading squad, glee club or an organization that rallies students, alumni and community excitement for fundraising events, competitions, races and campus campaigns.

Determine what specific activities your spirit club is going to be involved in. Your spirit club's focus could be on athletic competitions, campus parties or community support for charitable causes. You may want to draft a mission statement that identifies the purpose of the spirit club and what it intends to accomplish.

Identify where your spirit club is going to meet and how often. Once or twice a week is recommended so that the spirit club's activities don't interfere with homework or the family lives of the members. Solicit the assistance and support of teachers, administrators and school counselors as spirit club advisers. These people can be mentors as well as facilitate the use of classrooms or the school library for meetings and events.

Every organization needs structure and leadership. Identify the leadership model that will best fit the objectives of your spirit club. At a minimum, this usually involves the election of a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. It's also critical that you allow all of the members of your spirit club an equal voice in terms of proposing suggestions about how to raise money, how to raise school spirit and how to raise public awareness.

Consider creating a website and blog to keep your classmates involved with upcoming events and to invite suggestions, praise and criticism. This will help the spirit club keep pace with student needs and help the club continuously reinvent itself. You may also want to start a newsletter. The more ownership your peers feel in the organization, the more enthusiastic they'll be to support its objectives.