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| 1) What does the Club Sports Council (CSC) do? | 1) We act as liason, advocate and governing body for student run club sports to the Athletics administration and MIT in general. | |
| 2) How do I join the CSC? | 2) Every year we have elections midway through the spring semester. E-mail csc-officers at mit.edu that you are interested in running. Include a brief descriptive paragraph about yourself and your goals with respect to Club Sports. You must be an active member of a club. | |
| 3) Why does my club need a constitution? Why do our Treasurer and President have to be students? | 3) Club Sports groups are also groups under the Association of Student Activities (ASA). As such, club sports must follow both the rules of the ASA and DAPER. These rules include but are not limited to having an ASA-approved constitution and core officers that are students. | |
| 4) Why does my club have to be student run? | 4) It is part of the DAPER mission statement that there be high student participation in any activity that it supports heavily. Since the clubs under the CSC fall into this category, we follow this guideline and enforce it. Often clubs that are run by non-students quickly fall into stagnation as they become more out of touch with the student body. | |
| 5) What specifically is an MIT affiliate? | 5) An MIT undergraduate or graduate student, alumni, staff and facultly member. In addition, any cross-registered student or student employed at MIT, usually from Harvard or Wellesley, is considered an affiliate. The spouse of any of the above classifications is considered an MIT affiliate. For Club Sports, children of affiliates are not allowed to participate unless they are above the age of 18 and are considered affiliates by the rules of DAPER. | |
| 6) How do I get more students into my club? | 6) There are two main components: recruitment and retention. The clubs that are most successful spend a great deal of time working on both componenets throughout the year.
Recruitment: Retention: |
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| 7) What can my club spend money on? | 7) Money that the CSC provides may only be spent on the things that we specifically allocate it for. For instance, if we provide money for instructors, you may only pay your instructors with it. You may not use that money for purchasing equipment. If during the year your club realizes that it needs more money in one category than another, then it may petition the CSC with a request for moving the funds into the other category. The earlier the better.
Things that are specifically disallowed are: Now you may ask, "What do I do about things that are on the disallowed list? I need them!" This is where fundraising and dues come into play. Many clubs collect dues ranging anywhere from $5 per year to more than $100 per semester. This money may be used for whatever purpose you desire, as long as it is legal in the State of Massachusetts and allowed by MIT. Even so, the money must go through your SAFO main account. The CSC rewards clubs that take care of their finances in a responsible and overt manner by generally allocating more funds. Clubs that do not show much activity in their account or have bad accounting practices do not get as much money in the next cycle. |
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| 8) How can my club get more money? | 8) At the end of the financial year, we often discover that groups have not spent all of their money. We try to reallocate that money towards things that are useful to many clubs, or ones that need something significant. We also try to save money to send teams to National Championships. If your club needs money for something it was not allocated, you should first contact the csc-officers at mit.edu and explain the situation. In the case that something can not be worked out, the request will be forwarded to people who may be able to help. It is important to contact the CSC officers first because all of the people that you would be referred to will ask if you have already tried to work it out with the CSC. | |
| 9) My club needs more than 2 instructors. How do I get them in? | 9) The CSC usually allocates full-time instructor cards for 2 instructors. Clubs may request a maximum of $750 for each full-time instructor from the CSC.
Under certain circumstance, the CSC will allocate a third full-time instructor card. The CSC will not allocate extra funds for this third instructor. The CSC will do this on a case-by-case basis for clubs with an overwhelming demonstrated need. Contact csc-officers at mit.edu with your request. If your club needs part-time instructors, we can issue limited passes on a case-by-case basis. Fill out the Part-Time instructor form and drop it off in the CSC mailbox. In general, we only give part-time instructor passes to clubs with an overwhelming demonstrated need, and then only in limited quantities. |
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| 10) How can my club hold an event with an outside group? | 10) Visit our Events page and contact the CSC with the required information for event evaluation. | |
| 11) Why do I need to fill a waiver? | 11) One word: Liability. We live in a world where everyone sues everyone else for the slightest injury. In the case of MIT, people could theoretically sue MIT for a ton of money if they got hurt doing an MIT approved activity. The waiver is the first line of defense of protecting MIT from frivolous lawsuits. If MIT did not have the waivers, they probably would not allow Club Sports to even exist because the penalties are so high. | |
| 12) How can I start a club? | 12) You will first need to find out if there is sufficient student interest. It is very important that student interest be enough to start the club because clubs are required to be student run and heavily composed of studnets. Until the club is stable, they will be effectively on "probation", where they will be carefully examined to make sure the club will survive well enough to become a full club sport.
Visit our New Clubs Page for further information. |
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| 13) What does "probation" mean? | 13) Probation means that the Council is watching the club carefully. This is because it is a new club and unproven or the club is in a weak position. The club may be de-recognized at any time by the Council if the club in question is caught breaking the rules. This is the time when clubs should be working on becoming aware of CSC policy and building membership. At the end of probabion, the club will be considered to see if they would survive (and preferably flourish) in which case they would become a real club. | |
| 14) What is "suspension"? | 14) When clubs do things that are inappropriate or negligent, the CSC will often place them under suspension. This means that the club is unable to access its funds, nor reserve space. This condition can be easily remedied by coming into compliance with whatever problem occurred. Common suspension offences are: - Seriously missing paperwork/online submission deadlines - Significant financial problems - Membership numbers too low or heavily non-student - Non-affiliate non-CSC approved members |
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| 15) What is "de-recognition"? | 15) When a club is under suspension for a significant amount of time, usually a month, and is unable to comply with CSC policy, the club is then de-recognized. This means that the club is no longer a part of the Club Sports Program. This causes all of their instructors who are getting admission through the CSC to lose access, the clubs funds are seized and they are unable to reserve space as a club. A club that experiences de-recognition may reapply for admission into the Club Sports Program the next time reactivation occurs, usually late spring. | |
