Ryan ChartrandClubs on campus have a new option to get the word out about upcoming events and announcements thanks to polyclubs.com, the brainchild of five Cal Poly students fed up with the current word-of-mouth and flyer systems used around campus.
The free Web site, which was created in 2006 and recently relaunched with a new look and new features, offers clubs a place to post events, upload photos, utilize message boards and e-mail members.
“Right now, people run around school posting a bunch of flyers and sticking their little stakes in the ground, hoping that people see them,” said Shasta Palmer, a polyclubs.com co-creator and recent Cal Poly graduate. “You have to wait around and hope students see your stuff and come to your events, and it’s not effective.”
Instead of this hit-or-miss system, Palmer hopes club leaders will register with polyclubs.com and receive their own page to keep members of their clubs, as well as non-members, informed and involved.
Students can log on to view a main calendar of events encompassing all registered clubs and organizations. This allows a one-stop shop to find out about happenings on and around campus. From there, users can click on individual club pages to view more in-depth information and to access links to each club’s preexisting Web sites.
Edward Clements, another co-creator of the site and recent graduate of Cal Poly, said registered users can join groups they’re interested in to receive up-to-date e-mails and information about the clubs.
“It’s tailored to Cal Poly and the groups that we have, in the sense that there’s a private side just for students and also a public side,” he said. “Clubs can have a hidden section (on the page) that only group members can see.”
Though it is similar to other Web sites that offer group pages, polyclubs.com is unique in what it has to offer, Clements said.
“A lot of people use Yahoo groups and other things for there clubs, but it’s not very consistent. This gives everybody a way to find all the different clubs and to know what they’re doing each day,” he said.
The site’s other features include a sorting option allowing users to choose a category such as entertainment to filter results accordingly, as well as a “What’s Happening Today” section with an at-a-glance list of daily events on each page.
Palmer, who was president of Internet Technology Services when the site was first created, hopes that it also serves as a tool for clubs that do not have the resources or knowledge to start a Web site for themselves.
Though there are currently few clubs actively using polyclubs.com, Palmer and the other creators hope that will soon change as more people become aware of it and what it has to offer.
“It’s a way for people to work together and find everything in one place, which doesn’t exist right now,” Palmer said. “Club leaders don’t actually have to do a lot with it if they don’t want to. They can just post links and events, but it’s really one of those things that is only as successful as people make it.”