Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Lucas Fernandes
Kyle Hudgins
Matthew Lepine
Mercedes McDermott
Matthew Nicholson
Rachel Welch
May 3, 2016
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................... 2
Organizational Leadership......................................................................3
Advertising............................................................................................ 7
Member Engagement...........................................................................10
Conclusion...........................................................................................12
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Introduction
While there are about 200 student clubs and groups on the WPI
Development Club (SDC), a relatively new club on campus that has made a
big impact during their short existence. The SDC provides students with
leadership skills. After starting the 2015-2016 academic year with half a
dozen members and a shaky vision, the SDC took huge strides throughout
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model of strong leadership on campus. In the process of this growth, SDC
leadership found that the keys to their success are strong organizational
engagement.
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Organizational Leadership
The SDC has been successful in large part because of their
practice by first ensuring that the right people were chosen to be on the
only was recruiting the right people important, but also ensuring jobs fit
each persons interests as well as the needs of the team was an equal
priority. Each executive board member has come to the agreement that
leadership abilities, enables the club to thrive. When asked what key traits
made the executive board successful as leaders, the club president said,
been essential to our growth this year, and I believe they are also keys to
clearly communicating with all the members of her club. During work
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accomplishing the teams goals, then enacts plans to overcome those
obstacles.
interactions with the team. She uses rational persuasion to explain to the
logically minded engineers why the club goals are worth pursuing and what
value supporting these goals brings to each individual (DuBrin, 2016). She
frequently consults with members by asking for each persons thoughts and
the SDC was presented with an opportunity to pursue the goal of a satellite
making this big decision herself or with only the executive board, the
president sought out the ideas of each club member in order to expose
different manner. When a final decision was chosen, the team was
noticeably more convinced and inspired to support the new goal because
working as a whole to attain this goal. The president and her executive
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and technical jobs given to the appropriate subgroups. From there,
practices that enable and inspire crew members to complete tasks. For
programs the CubeSat, divides work according to the subsystem. There are
specific tasks each subsystem must accomplish so the code for each
work closely with and then writes the code for that subsystem. Each crew
enthusiasm to convince new members to keep coming back when there may
relationship or interaction between the leader and the people being led
(DuBrin, 2016). The SDC found proof of the importance of this relationship
member info session to get more students excited to join the team and put
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the teams technology in space. The club advertised this session in almost
all formal outlets on campus, from the daily events email, to table sitting in
the Campus Center, to advertisements on the TVs in the dining hall. Yet
when the day came for the meeting, the president asked, Who heard of us
She then asked, How many of you were brought here by a friend?;
everyone raised his or her hand. While the advertisements were not
necessarily successful, the enthusiasm that spread from the clubs leaders
to the clubs members and then to the members friends was inspirational
important for the board to be enthusiastic about their clubs mission and the
objectives they have set for the year. The SDC began the 2015-2016
academic year with few concrete goals and shaky leadership. By the end of
by the pursuit of the CubeQuest Challenge. To make such leaps and bounds,
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In addition to the enthusiasm that the club exudes, the board also
campus. SDC leadership took a proactive stance when guiding the club in
its development. From the start of the year, the club president recognized
the potential the club had to bring passionate people together and
establishing loose but directive guidelines. In this way, teammates had work
personally through the process. This care for each persons development
established trust between the president and the rest of the team,
complete tasks. The president and executive board frequently seek out
resources and advice. They are unafraid to admit what they do not know
and ask for help when they need it. The club as a whole appears to run
according to the idea that, in the words of the president, No one is going to
do the work for us. If we want to get our own technology into space, its up
to us to make it happen and learn about what we dont know from people
who have done it before. This big goal of ours is possible, but only if we
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reach out beyond our comfort zones and seize the opportunity. Yet in order
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Advertising
One of the several ways the SDC has gone about increasing club
coming into the organization, the SDC developed four strategies: group
they interact with other clubs and organizations that share the values and
clubs include the Robotics Club and American Institute of Aeronautics and
in these respective clubs enables them to network with students and faculty
can help them become a truly innovative organization. The SDC also targets
They then advertise through various media in strategic locations where the
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most students are found on a daily basis, such as the Pumpkin Lounge in
One tactic the SDC uses to promote their brand is by sharing its vision
potential members outlining what the club does, what their goals are, and
what they do. Having a vision not only gives the prospective member the
forethought of what the overall plan of the SDC is, but also encourages
stands for Goddard Orbital and Atmospheric Testing Satellite) into space.
They open their website with the welcoming mission statement, Our
One way the SDC can improve the club is by incorporating social
greater scale. For example, the SDC could create an Instagram account to
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would allow users to connect to the post while elevating the satellites
attendance, and participation at club meetings. The group may also benefit
Tweets are simple and can be utilized however SDC sees the best fitfrom
Another great tool the SDC can use are incentives, whether it be free
food at the first meeting or having a raffle for people to win prizes. Aside
from the usual free food, t-shirts, and souvenirs, the club has also been
the club. The club thrives to implement innovation into their meetings by
regularly holding conference calls with NASA and other companies in the
industry to discuss the latest happenings in the field. Another example the
New Space Age Conference, where the students learned the full spectrum
of the space business. The conference speakers from all over the nation
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discussed not only satellites and space tech, but they recognized how
profitable astro-preneurship can be. Attending this conference with the club
this allows all members from all backgrounds to explore the fields business
opportunities.
Advertising, when executed correctly, can reach the timid student that
does not leave their dormitory as well as the extrovert who wants to be
involved with every club on campus. The goal of advertising is to inform the
targeted group about what an organization can offer and what it plans to
accomplish in the future. The SDC does just that with its advertising
methods. After strategic advertising, this new club grew to be one the most
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Member Engagement
One of the greatest practices that an organization can implement is
members goals and constantly demonstrates ways for members to give back
and get involved, member interest greatly increases. This is important for
all clubs, but is especially true for new organizations. An organization that
does not actively work on its member engagement strategies will eventually
organization with good member engagement will inspire its group members
to give back, and individuals will get more out of the experience while the
One of the most important ways that the SDC establishes good
corps, because this increases the morale of the group, and the members will
community feel, because they are a relatively small group students who
share the same interest and passion for space exploration. They all truly
desire to make an impact and send their own technology into space. The
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environment where everyone is treated equally and with respect, regardless
building a satellite requires a wide range of talents and theres room for
everyone! (SDC, 2015). In many instances from his textbook, DuBrin states
that groups run more effectively and people are more efficient if they feel
valued and like they are an important part of the overall organization
(DuBrin, 2016).
More specifically for the SDC, they are able to achieve a community
feel because they have a very interesting and rewarding goal ahead of them.
sending a CubeSat into space. With such an intense objective in motion for
a small group of people, the members of the SDC have a very legitimate
sense of belonging and pride in their work. Along with their strong
community feel, the SDC has been effective in working towards their
SDC openly accepts members from any major on campus because they
understand there are many facets to the current project and additional
projects that may come about in the future. As the class discussed in Project
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there are many different and complex components that need to be
addressed in order to achieve overall success. Within the SDC for example,
contribute in different ways that are all important for the final goal. A
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Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the analysis of the SDC, the organization is headed in the
new club with a large project in the works with modest membership, there
and executives of the SDC to try and reach out to successful and established
groups on campus and try to learn about what does and does not work when
trying to achieve success. Doing this could allow the SDC look at things
from a new perspective they had not previously seen. Next, they could
involve professors more and make use of advisors from WPIs faculty. By
having a strong mentor, the group could grow more and gain insight from
projects. Through the analysis of the SDC, it is evident that they are
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Works Cited
DuBrin, A. (2016). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (Vol.
8). Boston, MA, USA: Cengage Learning.
SDC. (2015). Satellite Development Club at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Retrieved May 1, 2016, from http://users.wpi.edu/~wpisdc/
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