swak

Is it possible to turn a head if i were to point out the desire to have a cycling team at my university?

They have a huge triathalon club, a swimming team, and a running club... But no cycling club.
If there was one i would be all over it, but i am not interested in going the tri- route.

What would be the best way to bring this to the person in charges attention?

The school is very bike friendly (bike lockers, LOTS of bike racks, free tube patch kits, etc.)
Any help recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks.

ridethecliche

Where do you go to school?

Are you interested in starting a club or a team? The difference would be races and expectations.

urbanknight

See how many of the tri guys you can get interested in helping you with the startup. I bet about 1/3 of them would like the idea Seriously, though, somebody in the tri club has to have some advice on the grunt work of things.

JonnyV

Start the club, then ask for permission to start the club.

swak

Im part of an outside cycling team from school (do group rides, races, time trials etc.)

Looking for something similar with my school.

urbanknight

+1 Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. It might actually work to start the club, start riding and advertising, then wait for the university to contact you about being official and getting insurance, etc.

Orion12521

One thing to take into consideration is if you want to subject the club to control of the university. I played rugby in college in a club environment. I don't think you necessarily need permission to form the club. Your considerations are more along the lines of if the school is going to give support financially and what strings come attached. We specifically did not accept money from the school so that we did not have to answer to them in how the club was run and the issue of holding the after match socials at a bar.

urbanknight

You do if you're going to use the school name or any affiliation with it (meetings on campus, funding, etc.) and if you don't do that, it's not really a school club.

Orion12521

I don't disagree with you uk, if you are willing to forgo the funding and potentially the use of the school name you wouldn't really need to consult the university. As far as meetings, I don't know practically how the school could prevent you from using facilities just because you belong to a club if your members are all registered students.

Pros and cons to both approaches. I was just trying to point out that being officially recognized as representing the university is not always better. Sometimes too many strings come attached. In my mind the rest is symantics: School X Cycling Club vs. Cycling Club X comprised of students from School X. Tomato, Tamahto

roy5000x2

Talk to the athletic department and the tri club. Maybe spam your university mailing list to see what comes up. I don't think you'll have too much trouble starting one up. Talk to whomever deals with club budgets and see what you can scrounge up. If you're just going to be doing regular rides, you'll just need to dig up a budget for some jerseys. It just branches out from there.

Waves77

Talk to a LBS, see if they'd be willing to sponsor (give you a 10% off and all that). Get enough people involved, and it will be very convenient for your school to make it an official school club, since all the work has already been done for them

saratoga

Look on your school's intranet portal under "organizations" or something similar. They'll have an area where you can submit a request to start a new organization or club. You won't be doing it by yourself however; my university requires 5 initial members and a faculty adviser before they'll even consider it. The form below was copied from what I described.

The answers to the following questions are required & will help to set up your organization appropriately. You will need to enter a valid Faculty/Staff advisor netid and FIVE initial member netids to complete this application.
* indicates a required field
Organization FULL Name *Acronym (optional)CampusWeb Address (optional)Email (optional)Phone (optional)Please check the category that most appropriately describes your organizationCategoryAcademic & ProfessionalCampus-WideCouncilsFraternities/SororitiesGraduateHonorInternationalMulticulturalPoliticalRecreationalReligiousServiceSocial JusticeSpecial InterestsSports ClubsThis is information we will make available on the Center of Student Involvement WEB site, to help you promote your organization. Please be as accurate as possible!Organization Purpose *Please explain why it is necessary to create a new organization and how it differs from existing organizationsReason for Establishing Organization *Please enter the new organization constitution. You will be able to change it laterConstitution (optional)Meeting Time (optional)Meeting Location (optional)Faculty/Staff Advisor Netid *President Netid *Treasurer Netid *Member 1 Netid *Member 2 Netid *Member 3 Netid * Compliance Statement By signing below, this organization agrees to abide by FL statute #1006.63 regarding hazing. I verify that I have received a copy of this statute for our organizational records. Furthermore, I agree to abide by all Center of Student Involvement policies as outlined in the student handbook, to check our organization mailbox regularly, to communicate via e-mail upon request and to update our organization's records whenever there is a change.Buckley Waiver Consent We hereby authorize and consent to the release of names, addresses, and phone numbers of the officers and advisor listed above for use in the preparation of the Student Organizations Directory and other University publications, and for the release to other students, faculty and staff upon their request.Provisional Status Please note that upon completion of your meeting with the Student Organization Coordinator, you may be registered with provisional status. This gives you 60 days to complete your registration requirements (Selecting an Advisor, Completing your Constitution and Recruiting Membership). If your organization does not complete requirements within the 60 day period, the provisional status will be revoked.Please make note that your official email will be used for all correspondence regarding your organization.

urbanknight

I agree completely. You just can't do things like post fliers or obtain the keys to meeting rooms. It would simply be an informal group of like minded people. That's how my high school mountainbike club had to run its rides. The meetings could be official, but for liability reasons, the off campus rides had to be imformal.