SOCIAL CLUB GOES CYBER Chi Sigma Alpha takes a step into the future with the creation of a club website Typical club participation included creating Club Week books, paying dues at meetings and signing up for functions on the club sheet in the student center. The men's social club Chi Sigma Alpha took a leap into the future by creating its new website, chisigmaalpha.com, which enabled prospective members to find out more information on the club and gave current members access to calendars and online options to pay for dues and functions. Chair of the club's induction committee senior Josh Stafford conceived the idea for the website as a way to save money during Club Week. Sophomore Adam Jackson said he came up with the idea to avoid printing induction books, which cost between $460- $500 the previous year, by putting the content online. "Adam thought it would be a great resource for Club Week, and it would be an advertisement for the club, and it could also be used for sign ups," Stafford said. "It would really streamline the club." With club information provided by Stafford, Jackson began to design the website late in the summer. Jackson, an information systems major, designed a website for his high school band and served as the school's main website editor for one year. Jackson estimated he worked about 75 hours to build the site, which he designed from scratch with the help of limited open-source coding. "The basic functionality that we wanted the website for, and really the original purpose that it was made for, was to show potential members, 'here's what Chi Sigs is about, here's what we do, here's pictures, here's what's going on,' stuff like that," Jackson said. "But then it turned into something for current members too." Within weeks of its launch, the website expanded to include features such as a club directory; a Google calendar page for club events; and a PayPallink for members to pay club dues and functions. The PayPal feature, which was also Jackson's idea, created the most interest in the website by other club members. For only a small convenience fee, members could pay their routine dues. Senior Daniel Schliffka, the club's treasurer, said the ability to pay online was a Huge advantage of the website that reduced liability issues that came with his position. "For a college student who isn't always carrying around $40-$50 in cash, the website is a really nice thing to have," Schliffka said. "It also makes my job as treasurer a lot easier because even after one meeting you might be carrying $200 in cash, and that's a huge liability." The new Chi Sigma Alpha website was an advancement in club administration. While social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were useful, the addition of an official club website helped streamline the flow of information within the club. Matt Ryan During Roll Call, Chi Sigma Alpha inductees sing a parody of the "12 Days of Christmas" Nov. 1. Chi Sigs dressed in Christmas attire because of their annual tradition of caroling outside of girls' dorms for the holiday season. Savannah Lee Club Feature I 69
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