Club interest meeting
- Review the mission and purpose of our minds matter (feel free to take from the welcome page!)
- Introduce club leaders and sponsors (remember you need one sponsor to be a counselor, school psychologist or social worker)
- Take time for questions and answers
- Collect names and contact information of interested students
- Determine how often the club will meet
- Select a consistent designated date and time when the club will meet
- Consider meeting on a “Late Bus” day if the meeting is after school
- Example – the first and third Thursdays of every month
- Determine where the club will meet – if possible, pick a room that has access to a projector screen or smart board so you can showcase the activities from the website and play videos and other content easily!
- Example – Career Center, Classroom
- Pick a date/time/place for the first club meeting
- Decide how future club meetings will be communicated (e.g., email list-serve, school announcements, flyers, social media, etc.)
- Brainstorm how to market the club to attract new members
First club meeting
- Review the mission and purpose of our minds matter
- Introduce club leaders and sponsors
- Do a fun and easy ice-breaker
- Present the featured lesson
- Decide what school-wide activity will be held that month
Subsequent club meetings
- Prepare ahead of time for meetings
- Leadership team can meet with faculty advisor prior to each meeting to go over the activity that will be conducted at the next meeting. This will help student leadership become comfortable in leading the material at the meeting, with faculty advisors support.
- Make sure all necessary printing is conducted.
- Make sure you have all the supplies needed for the activity.
- Leadership team can meet with faculty advisor prior to each meeting to go over the activity that will be conducted at the next meeting. This will help student leadership become comfortable in leading the material at the meeting, with faculty advisors support.
- Present the featured lesson
- Decide what school-wide activity will be held that month
Last club meeting of the school year
- Acknowledge and thank the student leaders
- Identify next school year’s our minds matter leaders
Maintaining a successful club
- Solicit and utilize on-going student, staff, and parent support to help with activities
- A lot of work goes into planning school-wide events, so the more help that is available, the better
- Publicize the Mind Matters Club on a regular basis
- Use the broadcast news show, school announcements, flyers, posters, banners, give-aways, school magazine or newspaper, yearbook, etc.
- Collect feedback from club members and the student body
- Use the feedback to help guide future programming and activities
- Be flexible, understanding, and accepting
- Some activities may need to be adapted to better meet needs
- Some activities may go over better than others, and that is okay
- Each year will be different