Nine Tips for Growth and Maintenance

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters.

This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send many Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to most of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

The Ohio State ACM-W Student Chapter has developed nine tips which they use to grow and maintain their chapter. These tips range from having a Mission Statement to Member Recruiting and Fundraising.

In this series of videos you can learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders. Each link below will take you to a page that has a short video and discussion about the tip that is being presented.

1. Mission Statement – Explain why your ACM-W Student Chapter exists and how it will function.
2. Goal Setting – Having goals ensures that you stay on track while you plan for future growth.
3. Executive Board – You can’t do it alone. Also, it’s no fun trying to!
4. Event Planning – How to connect with your community and keep members coming back.
5. Member Recruiting – Build a cohesive brand through flyers, posters and online communication
6. Funding – You can run your chapter for free, but companies and schools can often help with expenses.
7. Company Relationships – Company partnerships are beneficial to you and them.
8. Community Involvement – Look for fun activities that help your members bond with their community and give back.
9. Sustainability – Always be thinking of ways to make it easier for next year’s members.

Step 9 – Sustainability

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Courtney, talks about the importance of planning for the continued success of your club. She says that the key is to make it is easy for your incoming officers to find the resources they need. Transparency is key. One thing she recommends is having a single location, like a google drive, to store all your meeting minutes, archived communication and contact lists.

What is your chapter doing to help the next year’s officers to be successful? Do you have a shared drive or repository for your worksheets and letters? What other things could you do to make sure that your chapter continues to serve your school’s women in computing community?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This is the last article in the series. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 8 – Community Involvement

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Vicky, talks about the importance of engaging with your campus and community with your club. She says that this is a great way to create shared experiences among the members of your organization. She shares some of the things that the Ohio State University ACM-W Student Chapter has done. For example, they have hosted coding workshops at local middle schools and volunteered at the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio.

Has your chapter ever done a coding event with a local school? How did it go? What kinds of outreach activities are possible in your area?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 7 – Company Relationships

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Amy, talks about building relationships with company partners. She explains that companies benefit from having a partnership with your ACM-W student chapter, so the relationship is beneficial to you and them both. One way to get started is to invite recruiters to give a tech talk, resume review or career planning workshop. If the first session is a success you can invite them back the following year and ask them to provide swag or food sponsorship.

When you are looking at companies, don’t feel like you need to just talk to the major tech firms like Microsoft and Apple. Remember that IT is a part of every company. In Columbus, there are many insurance companies that hire many CSE students every year.

And remember to reach out to your alumni members. They are often working with companies that would make good partners. They may want to come back to your chapter and do an event.

What companies are in your area? Does your school do a job fair? Have you ever invited a recruiter to talk to your chapter? Can you think of reasons why a company would want to partner with your ACM-W Student Chapter?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 6 – Funding

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Mary Catherine, talks about how to raise funds for your chapter’s activities. As Mary Catherine says, you can totally run your chapter for free. If you have a few members, your goals might be modest: to have regular meetings and occasional faculty-led tech talks. But if you want to grow your chapter, it really helps to have financial support.

Often your school will have a group that helps student clubs. They might have places for you to meet, to make copies of your posters, and they might have drinks and snacks. They may even have small grants that you can apply for.

Mary Catherine says your school may also have a diversity and inclusion committee that can connect your group with funding resources.

One of the best ways to get support is to develop relationships with companies. For example, when you invite them to talk to your members about careers, ask if they can provide refreshments. Once you have some history and trust, you can ask for bigger donations, to help send a group of members to a conference, for example.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask for donations. All of these organizations have been asked for funding many times. They won’t be surprised to get an ask from you. And even if they can’t help you themselves, they can often put you in touch with someone who can.

What has your chapter done to raise funds? Have you ever had a bake sale or pet wash or other kind of fundraiser? What was something that you found surprising or interesting about asking people for money?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 5 – Member Recruitment

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Vicky talks about recruitment and advertising. She says that advertising your club is an ongoing effort that helps recruit members and creates a recognizable brand for your organization. While the ACM-W OSU chapter uses many traditional approaches, like posters, flyers and emails, they also make personal appearances in classrooms. Every semester, chapter officers visit incoming CSE majors in their classes to tell them about ACM-W and invite them to attend the first meeting. Vicky talks about the chapter’s weekly emails that advertise upcoming events, and she recommends using the Mailchimp app to manage these promotions. She also recommends using Canva to develop a consistent look for your posters and emails.

What have you done to encourage students to attend your meetings? What worked well for you and what didn’t? Does your club have a logo or mascot that you use consistently on your posters? Did you know that you can use ACM-W branded graphics for free? Check it out.

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 4 – Event Planning

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Laura, talks about planning effective events for your club. She says that the best way to grow your club and your community is through events. Consider hosting a back-to-school social at the start of the semester, tech talks with professors, and networking events with company recruiters. To plan your event, think about these three event basics: your venue, menu and calendar.

Venue: The size of your room should reflect your expectations about the number of attendees.

Calendar: Having consistent regular events (weekly, monthly, etc) will help your members plan ahead to attend. If your club is new, you may only have a few meetings a semester.

Menu: Students like food, so try to have something for them. Check with your school to see if they have funding that can be used to provide drinks and snacks. Or, if you are hosting a session for a company recruiter, see if they can provide refreshments.

Does your chapter have regular meetings? Where do you meet and how often? What kinds of snacks do your members like?

Looking for ideas for ACM-W Student Chapter events? ACM has sixty-two suggestions for you!

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 3 – Executive Board

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Officer, Amy, explains the importance of Finding Executive Board Members for your club. The ACM only requires that you have a president, vice president to start a chapter. Amy explains that you can (and should) have many other executive board members. The exec board is the heart of your club. Some positions to consider are treasurer, event coordinator, media coordinator, website manager , community outreach and company liaison. Some positions may be strategic, like funding or sponsorship development to help support activities in the following years. Think about your exec board as being an extension of your ACM-W mission to support, celebrate and advocate for women in computing. The student chapter officers should have positions that help them grow while helping your club grow as well.

What officer positions does your chapter have? How did you find people to lead your chapter?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 2 – Setting Goals

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters. This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, tech talks, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Co-President, Courtney explains the importance of Setting Goals for your club. She advises you to create two lists of goals: practical and aspirational. Dream goals will help your club visualize its future and give direction to your day-to-day operations. Having big dreams allows you to recognize opportunities when they present themselves. Your ACM-W Student Chapter should pick a few achievable goals for your first year. Accomplishing these small steps will give you the energy to take on incrementally greater things later. For example, you might set a goal to have one tech talk and one social per semester in your first year. Next year you might set a goal to have one more event. Build on your successes!

Does your chapter have formal written goals? Are they tactical or strategic? How are you planning to accomplish them? What’s your chapter’s dream goal? And how does it help drive your club’s activities?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Step 1 – Formalize Your Mission

The Ohio State University Student Chapter of the ACM-W was chartered on May 13, 2003 and is one of the oldest continuously operating ACM-W Student Chapters.

This chapter annually hosts 40+ events that include trips to the Grace Hopper Celebration, the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing, company visits, socials, and workshops. They have around 50 active members, and they serve a total community of about 200 students. They often send more than 50 Ohio State students to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and can provide financial support for travel and registration costs to 35 of these through chapter fundraising efforts.

Learn how to build, maintain and grow a strong ACM-W chapter from The Ohio State’s ACM-W Chapter Leaders.

In this segment, ACM-W OSU Chapter Co-President, Emily explains the importance of having a formal Mission Statement for your club. A mission statement will help you explain why your ACM-W Student Chapter exists and how it will function. It will inspire you and provide guidance to your members. Having a mission statement helps you recruit members, create community, foster corporation relations, and raise funds for activities.

Does your chapter have a Mission Statement? How did you create it? And how does it help drive your club’s activities?

Let us know by interacting with us on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook. Use #BuildYourACMWChapter and our handle @OfficialACMW Want to know more about how to start an ACM-W Student Chapter at your school? Here’s the quick-start guide.

This series continues. Please read the other tips in this series:

1. Mission Statement
2. Goal Setting
3. Executive Board
4. Event Planning
5. Member Recruiting
6. Funding
7. Company Relationships
8. Community Involvement
9. Sustainability

Are you an ACM-W Chapter in collaboration with another ACM/ACM-W chapter? We love to hear from you!  And if you don’t have a collaborator,  partner,  a buddy, it’s time to have one! 

We are starting a new campaign and encouraging all ACM-W chapters to partner with other ACM-W chapters from the same/different state, country, or region to become a Buddy.  Your partnerships can be created to achieve some common goal, be it  Academic, Social, Professional or  Service. We are inviting you to tell us how as ACM-W chapter buddies, you work towards a common goal and provide a shared experience for your diverse community members. 

To be part of this campaign, you can work with 

• Local Buddies: ACM-W Chapter(s) present in the neighbourhood, e.g., the same state in the US.
• Country Buddies (CB): ACM-W Chapter(s) established in the same country. 
• Region Buddies (RB): ACM-W Chapter(s) present in a region. 
• Global Buddies (GB): ACM-W Chapter(s) from other regions

You can use the collaboration ideas recommended in the following resources: 

1. One Hundred One Ideas for ACM-W Chapters: https://www.acm.org/chapters/acm-w-chapter-activities 
2. ACM-W Chapter-in-a-Box: http://www.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/chapters/chapter-in-a-box_acm-w.pdf

Contact us at acm-w at acm dot org to tell us about your current experience or plans on how you collaborate with your buddies and empower women in computing locally, in your country, region or globally. We will share your stories in our newsletter and on our website January-December 2023. We are looking forward to hearing from all ACM-W Chapters around the world!

Starting this year, the Greek ACM-W Chapter, with the support of the ACM Europe Research Visibility working group (ACM Europe RAISE), organizes a series of annual winter schools, on timely computer science related topics. The main goal of the school is to offer the opportunity to young computer science professionals to learn, interact and make a difference.

The inaugural edition of the Greek ACM-W Chapter Winter School (GECSW22) took place online on February 24-25, 2022. Living the revolution of AI, with issues of biased treatments, exclusion, and unfairness being raised, the topic could not be anything else than “Fairness in AI”. Participation was free but limited to facilitate interactions. After the selection process, more than 60 participants from more than 20 countries had the opportunity to be part of the
GECSW22.

Top scientists from around the world presented their exciting work on the topic in the two-day event. Participants learned, through scientific talks and tutorials, the fundamental theory behind algorithmic fairness, the state-of-the-art in ranking, recommendations, web search, online markets, computer vision & some software tools. Also, they understood the need for a broader, multidisciplinary treatment including police, education, legal, philosophical and societal views.

For a more engaging and interactive virtual school, participants were divided into working groups. Each working group (7 people) had to complete a small task (see image). At the end of the conference, the participants presented their work and voted for the best presentation.

The entire event was live-streamed with the help of people from Athena Research Center and has been recorded on the Greek ACM-W Chapter’s YouTube channel. (Respecting the personal data of the students, their presentations have not been recorded)

The full program of the event is still available on the official website of GECSW22.

GECSW22 would like to thank its supporters and sponsors, all who contributed to make this event so successful, and of course its attendees for their participation and enthusiasm! Until the next GECSW, see you at the 4th Summit on Gender Equality in Computing by the Greek ACM-W Chapter!