Changes

 Gregory Wilson, a second year PhD student at the University of Georgia and former University Innovation Fellow, was interviewed for his experience in founding an innovation and design club known as the What I.F.? club.

*Generate a mission statement

 The What I.F.? club (I.F. stands for Innovation Fellows) was created to further design thinking and lean start-up techniques through workshops, speakers, and projects that promote innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.  This club is located on the University of Georgia’s main campus in Athens, GA, and is entirely student-driven.

*Identify your need

 Gregory assessed the interest of students after standing as a guest lecturer to a freshman mechanical engineering class.  He believed that he could get engineers excited about design thinking through inter-disciplinary groups.

*Determine the expertise of your audience

 Currently, the location of bi-weekly meetings is the campus engineering auditorium because of ease of access.  However, steps are being taken to offer a more central meeting location to further promote the idea of inter-disciplinary work.  A potential site for future meetings that is being considered is the campus student center.

*Understand the limitations, risks, and opportunities associated with the focus of your organization

 Before starting a student organization, the Center for Student Organizations is the location where all regulations and requirements can be attended to at mandatory meetings.  Because What I.F.? was just started September 2013, they must wait until the start of next semester to become an official student organization.  At that point, they will have free access to resources provided by the Center for Student Organizations.

*Know that you cannot do this on your own- you may think you are the smartest person in the world but even the smartest people in the world oftentimes can’t accomplish a project of this caliber on their own

 This club is entirely student-driven.  The only faculty support has been in the form of the original mechanical engineering professor during whose freshmen mechanical engineering class the general interest for the club was assessed.  This faculty support under the general clearance of the department and college has allowed the club to proceed with meetings until it is officially awarded status as a student organization.

*Everything costs money.

Currently there are no funds that support the creation of the club.  All funds have been supported by already present resources or by the club creator himself.  Ideas for support generation have been identified as possible fees charged to members of the club.  Other future endeavors will include applying to educational grants and hosting fundraisers.  These fundraisers will not only generate revenue for the club’s spending but will also generate greater awareness of the club’s existence and participation in the community.

*You will need help along the way. 

 An outside mentor is scheduled to come speak at a future club meeting.  A community accelerator and technology incubator, Four Athens, will be leading a technology talk that focuses on the growing start-up scene located in Athens, GA.  This will expose students to some of the opportunities available for innovations that they create.

*Identification of your market audience is critical

 Another facet that makes this club unique is that it is not grade specific.  Currently, Gregory is promoting his club to new freshmen, but he has had interest from all levels.  Cross-disciplinary projects cannot be limited by grade or skill-level.  Instead, the best teams identify each team member’s weaknesses and strive to fulfill those weaknesses as a unit.  Oftentimes this is achieved through additional team members from different disciplines with alternative backgrounds.  It is this notion that strong innovative teams are inter-disciplinary that is the foundation for the What I.F.? club.

*It takes time to find the recipe for success.

Gregory was named a UIF in May 2013 when he generated a Landscape Analysis of his University of Georgia campus.  In the spring, he obtained initial interest from four main people, but once the summer began, the interest diminished until the fall of 2013.  Gregory attended a class the second week of classes to introduce the idea for the club and noticed a large majority were interested.  The first meetings were then held in early September.  The timeline for this individual club from idea to implementation was May to September, four months.

*Getting off the ground is the hardest part.  But if you collaborate with other groups, if you go to other group meetings, you see the inner-workings of an organization.  All organizations are run slightly differently- take everything in and see what you like and dislike.