Pitch Your Ideas

Why and How Students Volunteer at Knox

Some of the greatest projects that have happened in the Center for Community Service are those that were pitched by students. All you need is an idea or a passion and we can get to work on designing a plan of action as well as deciding how to let other students know about your project. The Center for Community Service is a great resource to help you define your goals, develop a plan, promote your project, and get the helping hands you'll need.

So, how does it work?

Make an appointment with the Center to pitch your idea. Here are things to consider as you formulate your idea:

• Has anyone done this before? Email other Knox clubs, Greek organizations, faculty and staff
• What is the goal? Create a mission statement: why you are pursuing this goal
• Recruitment and advertising: Do you plan to reserve a table in Seymour? Make flyers or postcards, design an email to all students, send invitations, submit to the Knox Calendar, write a TKS Advert/interview for TKS
• Finding a Community Partner: Is this a local, regional, national, or international project?
• How much time do you have? When will your project start and finish?
• Timeline: There are three 10-week sessions in the Knox College academic calendar. Check out the following table of weeks in each term for the 2010-2011 academic year to find the optimal time to hold your event. The grey weeks are considered "blackout times" because students are just returning to campus or they are about to leave campus.
  
  

  Fall Term	Winter Term	Spring Term
  Sept. 10-12	Jan. 3-9	March 23-27
  Sept. 13-19	Jan. 10-16	March 28- April 3
  Sept. 20-26	Jan. 17-23	April 4-10
  Sept. 27-Oct. 3	Jan. 24-30	April 11-17
  Oct. 4-10	Jan. 31-Feb. 6	April 18-24
  Oct. 11-17	Feb. 7-13	April 25-May 1
  Oct. 18-24	Feb. 14-20	May 2-8
  Oct. 25-31	Feb. 21-27	May 9-15
  Nov. 1-7	Feb. 28-March 6	May 16-22
  Nov. 8-14	March 7-12	May 23-29
  Nov 15-21

• Are you interested in partnering with another organization on campus?
• Do you need funding for supplies, travel or entertainment?
• Are you acting as an individual or this an event produced by a club, organization or Greek house?
• Do you want to pursue forming a club on campus?
• How will you keep track of and report the volunteer hours to the CCS?