Getting the Toys from the Toybox- Getting Your Members

~Let's take a journey together, and let reality mix with the dream realm~

Next stop, to the land of toys to find your players.

The next step in preparing for a successful term for any club is to figure out your core members. This will tend to vary from club to club. Clubs should be open and friendly to ALL member who come in regardless of who you hate, have a grudge against or any other miscellaneous drama that happened. When you are in any extracurricular - try not to bring other affairs into it and be professional. Even if someone you don't like is in the club, it doesn't mean that members should just leave for that sole reason. So it's time to go to school and do some research.

What kind of people will fit into your club and who can you see becoming active, dedicated and not only will be impacted by the club but bring their own positive impact into the club? Finding members is a lot like casting new actors or actresses for a play or choosing a toy - before you go jumping to conclusions that I'm saying members are like toys and get offended think of it this way; all those little toys you had as a kid? The ones you played with, the ones that you held when you got scared or didn't understand what was going on and treated like a real person (heck I even put a seatbelt on for them)? We should take really good care of our toys, no matter if we threw them around as kids and wanted the new shinier toy - at some point or other they took really good care of us (I'm pretty sure I pulled this from Toy Story). Anyways, like an actor or actresses, you can have drama - loads of it. It's really inevitable, anything you want to do will come to drama; all that you can do is change the way you look at it.

So it's time to get to work. What kind of toys are there?

• Puzzles and Rubik's Cube
• These members have a tendency to ask many questions, but they are also the types who like to create problems, probably even more so than they solve problems. They have a tendency to get confused and other types like to point out contradictions. They tend to be a bit pessimistic,though the ones who are less confident in themselves are pessimistic about if they can do it right so they ask you questions to the point where they're asking atomic-level details; the more confident members tend to be pessimistic about others and make generalized assumptions - so you'll have to work with these members to solve not only their questions but making sure you snap them out of their pessimistic daze.
• Barbies and Dollies
• These members are really good at following directions and getting involved but often you have to do some string-pulling to get them to be on the same page as you. They’re flexible and can works in numerous environments as well. They usually come in groups - so if you have one doll in a collection - you probably can get the rest. They can be a bit plastic times and won’t really do more than the minimum requirement so really try to push them to do things for themselves and set goals and misc. so that way you’re not always pulling the strings.
• Action Figures
• These are the type of members who always - as the name implies - jump into action and try to be the hero or jokester of the day. Sometimes these members tend to get carried away in their own fantasies and they’ll completely forget what they are originally supposed to do. Just try to play along and make it so that they have a healthy mix of  fantasies with reality. These members also tend to get into fights easily, so when it’s all cannons ahead - as you can assume - it’s could be difficult to derail back to the original topic so try to keep a vigilant eye for any fights.
• Stuffed Animals
• These members are good at listening, you can talk to them and they will remember even the most minute details. Getting these members to events isn’t all too difficult, but it’s to actually to get them to work instead of chatting/gossiping/taking selfies/eating that’s the challenge. As far as I know, they’re pretty harmless when you are on their good side.
• Yo-yos and Spinning tops -
• These members are super-active and go getters. Concepts will easily click, they’ll ask you questions, ideas and tons more. One problem could be is that they strive a bit too far and they fall of the string/table. You’ll probably have to keep them on a tight string and ground them a bit, but once you get used to them, you’ll be pulling some amazing tricks in no time!
• Noisemakers
• These members are extremely loud! They love to make noise, drama, and bend as many rules as possible until you just want to pull your hair out. That’s their goal, anyways. There’s two sides to this spectrum. They love to make a big deal about not following the rules, or following the rules. They generally just mess with you to step on your toes - earn their respect and they’ll all play to the tune of your drum.
• Magic 8 Ball
• Leaders who are more inclined to leading/planning/organizing and doing all the administrative work than they want to do what the club is actually about. They'll be the people who come up to you and give you ideas, advice, etc. You should probably spread them out to engage other members - activeness is contagious. Though, their only flaw is that they tend to forget the whole passion side of an extracirriculars. There's a difference between doing something to just do it, and to do something because you love it.
• Etch-a-sketch
• Members who are very straightforward and blunt, they critique but seldom say what they want to since they have a tendency to go in circles(Or should I say squares?) They can be so straightforward that they go off the plane and once they leave the train station - let’s just say it’s hard to get them to think of much else. This member will make many assumptions but they usually take their time to think things through before they show their thoughts, but once you have them on board, it’s full trains ahead.
• Play-doh
• Mooches of the club who join for college apps or for class requirements and usually have fun for the club they don't really do much to help the club they are volatile members and only come to usually get what they want. Normally some of these members can be dedicated, but you'll probably have to put forward more than what you get back - but usually it's worth it. Just like play-doh it's a lot of conditioning and messing around to try to get your member to work with you and many times these members will take many shapes and backgrounds so not only will you be shaping them but you'll have to be flexible like play-doh to find their niche in the club.   
• Tamagotchis
• Members who are extremely shy but want to help and have some really good ideas but you have to help them along and help them break their shell and usher them in the right direction to get involved and help them.
• Tinkertoys
• The really creative members who have the best ideas for service events, they're very passionate about what they do and they know what it's all about. They tend to be absorbed in their work that they forget the original requirements so they are not all the best leaders and are not super organized or good at molding to fit any mold, so it's best to try and find a creative outlet for them to do their own thing.

         There's plenty more toys that you can choose from, far more than I can list and explain, you just have to find them. Don't doubt any toys/members because they all come with their own instructions - but a majority of the time, people don't use the instructions or they stick too close to them so they are unable to bring out the full capacity of a certain toys. After all if yo-yo -ers (?) stuck to the same old routine, we wouldn't have the amazing tricks they do today? It's all a matter of whether you are willing to put in the resources and the effort to make each member shine that will make one of the most productive clubs as well as fun and efficient.

        For example, just as one person, I find that if I focus on a specific group of people I can easily get them more involved. My method is that I usually target groups, sometimes the leader - but I like to focus on all the members and talk to them one on one and ask them if they are going to this event, if they need rides, how they are doing and I try to get to know them as people. So far my efforts have proven fruitful, but not exactly on the scale I would like. I've gotten a key group to become involved in clubs like Key club and I've gotten them to inspire their friends to join - but if their efforts in the chain reaction are fruitful, you can never be sure until that time comes. It always feels good to be acknowledged as your own person - and to know that people are going to look out for you.

       One good method of governing is to work in a manner that makes things easiest for your members. You don't want to inconvenience your members, if they need forms to go to an event, or if they need a ride always offer them - don't leave them out just because they "seem busy" truth is a majority of the time "I had homework," is an irrelevant excuse that noone really questions - since we can't really gauge the capacity or the amount or difficulty of every person. Everyone has homework; my reasoning is whether they were willing to put in the effort and passion to maintain that homeostasis between their obligations and things they actually want to do and actually come to an event and balance that homework.

       One of your biggest goals for members is not only get members who you can influence and teach and help but find members that can make a difference; these members are hidden "wild cards" or kind of like shiny Pokemon. You have to do some searching in order to find them and preparing them doesn't always work out. Sometimes you'll find you pulled a blunt and you'll just have to cut your losses or you may have pulled a blunt and it became a complete success after tons of effort. When your members leave your club, sport or whatever activity this may be - they should leave with a fountain and a grain of salt and be able to go on for hours and have to be stopped when they talk about the curricular.  Once you find that you inspired or helped someone become passionate about something, it's extremely gratifying. I’m not saying to be controlling like another overbearing parent - but be someone that members can look up to; someone that they strive to be. Like a little kid dressing up in his parents/older siblings clothes and playing with their toys, and you’ll see what I mean.

Until next time dreamers - sweet dreams, 

~Marilyn Nguyen

P.S. Handling your responsibilities is great, but there's some times where you need Peter Pan and you just need to remember what it was like to be a kid again.