Starting a student organization in high school

Starting a student organization in high schoolGetting people, work and roles into shape in three months

You may feel something is wrong at your school or in your area and be unsure whether it counts as a social problem. You may not be able to raise it with friends for fear of looking earnest or attention-seeking.

You may have a name and a social account and nothing to post, because there is no actual activity yet. Or you may have a project in mind and not be able to bring yourself to contact a school or a local authority alone.

You may have asked friends, found they do not care as much, and feel you are doing all the preparation. And be torn between gathering people first and building the first project first.

There is also not wanting to be thought of as doing it for university applications, and losing track of whether you really are doing it for the people you say you are.

So this piece covers the first three months: getting clear on the problem, the first project, finding people, splitting roles, meetings and review.

Who this is for

• High school students who want to start something and don't know where to begin
• Teenagers wanting to turn concern about society or their area into activity
• Anyone nervous about starting alone
• Anyone who asked friends and found they cared less
• Anyone with a name and a social account but no actual activity
• Anyone unsure how big the first event should be
• Anyone contacting a local authority, a school or a company for the first time
• Anyone worried it is really about themselves
• Anyone afraid that stopping partway would count as failure

Founding an organization is not the goal. Start from what you are asking, and what experience you want to give to whom.

You do not need a good answer to begin with

You may think starting an organization requires being able to state clearly the problem you want to solve and how you will solve it.

But not every problem comes with the answer already visible.

What organizations start from is not a finished solution but something that felt wrong in an ordinary day.

• why does this opportunity only reach some people;
• why is it always the same people who speak;
• why is there nowhere for teenagers to think about local problems;
• why do decisions in society feel so far away from us.

None of these has to be phrased well at the start.

What matters is not stopping at "that's how it felt to me" — finding out whether other people are in the same situation, and what is already being done.

"A question can move society" does not mean society changes because you wondered something.

The contact with society only happens once the question becomes research, conversation, a project, a policy or a class, and you carry it out with someone.

Month one: not the name, but why you are the ones doing it

The temptation is to settle the name, the logo, the social accounts and who is director and deputy first.

Something visible from outside makes it feel like it has begun.

But the first question is whether a new organization is really needed at all.

If an organization or a mechanism already works on this, joining it may deliver something useful faster than founding your own.

Try answering these:

• what exactly felt wrong, and when;
• who is affected;
• have you actually talked to them;
• what is already being done;
• who existing work is not reaching;
• what you can do precisely because you are teenagers;
• is there a way to do it without founding anything;
• would a one-off project serve better than a standing organization.

The goal for month one is a single page containing:

1. the situation that felt wrong;
2. who the problem concerns;
3. what you know so far;
4. what you do not;
5. what you want to try first;
6. what that first attempt should establish;
7. what you are deliberately not doing yet.

Month two: try something small rather than recruit widely

With few people, it feels as though nothing can happen until there are more.

But recruit at scale before there is anything to do and there is no work to give the people who join。

The first attempt can be tiny:

• talking to the people affected and those involved;
• holding a small discussion;
• researching a problem at school or locally;
• trying a small workshop;
• putting the idea to the local authority or an expert;
• testing materials or a plan on a small group.

What matters is going once through planning, doing and reviewing.

Some of this is hard to decide with only under-18s in the room.

For venues, money, personal information, photography and contact with adults outside, talk to an adult you trust or whoever runs the building.

Look for people who can think about the question, not people who feel as strongly as you

A founder has been thinking about the problem for a long time.

A friend asked later naturally does not arrive with the same intensity.

Keep holding out for someone as serious as you and eventually nobody looks good enough.

What to look for instead of intensity:

• can they get interested in the problem;
• can they ask when they don't understand;
• can they take on a small job;
• can they tell you about deadlines and trouble;
• can they disagree with you;
• can they reopen what the organization, or its founder, thinks.

Our phrase is Always Be a Questioner.

It does not mean gathering people who agree with the founder unconditionally. It means people who can take the question they were handed and think it through in their own words.

When you ask a friend, don't just say you need help. Say:

• what you want to think about together;
• what happens in the first month;
• roughly how much time it takes;
• the role you want them to take first;
• that saying no is available;
• that the role can change later.

Don't judge the whole thing on one answer. Keep looking, gradually, for people the question interests.

Month three: settle where responsibility flows, not the titles

Once there are a few of you, it is tempting to assign director, deputy, communications, planning.

But titles do not help if it is unclear who signs things off。

Settle these five first:

1. who contacts people outside;
2. who holds the deadlines;
3. who does the final check on documents;
4. who checks money and personal information;
5. when you disagree, who decides and how.

While there are few of you, one person holding several roles is fine.

Per project, this is enough:

• who is ultimately responsible;
• who does the work;
• who they can consult;
• the deadline;
• what counts as finished;
• what the person doing the work may decide alone;
• what everyone has to agree.

"We decide together" sounds fair, and can mean nothing gets decided until everyone's schedules align.

Have the founder decide everything instead, and everyone else starts waiting to be told.

Separate what the person responsible can judge from what the group has to talk about.

One possible order for the first 90 days

Three months does not have to produce a finished organization.

As a rough guide:

None of this requires a big rise in followers or members.

What to check:

• can you explain the question to someone else;
• did you hear from the people it concerns;
• did you carry the first attempt to the end;
• did you write down what went wrong;
• does anyone other than you have a role;
• is there a reason to continue;
• and could you decide not to.

Leave decisions and next actions behind, not more meetings

Starting something produces a great deal to talk about.

Meetings run long; the same ground gets covered repeatedly.

Talking is not waste. But if no next action is settled by the end of it, nothing moves。

Record at minimum:

• what was decided;
• what was not;
• why;
• who is doing it;
• the deadline;
• when you check again.

You do not need an elaborate reporting system.

One shared document with what moved, what is stuck and what is next, checked regularly, is enough.

Systems exist to stop information and work from getting stuck inside one person — not to make the organization look impressive.

Starting an organization is not proof that you are special

Once you start, how other people see it starts to matter to you.

It can feel embarrassing to have nothing to show, and like failure to stop partway.

Even if the first project fails, talking to the people concerned and noticing your assumption was wrong is real progress.

We take enquiries all year from teenagers who want to start a Mock Ward Mayoral Election or Osouji-tai: Protect Your Neighborhood where they live.

Thirty minutes, free, online. Tell us your area, what you have in mind, who is with you and what you want to discuss, and book through the site. We go on answering questions afterwards as you think it through.

Frequently asked questions