At the beginning of the year, you may be just getting things going again, or getting started from scratch. Attracting new members and creating visibility on campus are very important.

Advertising is key. Find out college policy on posting flyers and putting up big signs (we use spray-painted flat bed sheets on our campus) on campus buildings. Find out if you can use a building façade as a place to hang large, colorful advertising or banners. You may also want to send out "personal invitations" to active, open-minded students on campus. Careful wording about needing the support of both GLBT and allied, heterosexual students on campus can get more folks involved.

Send out mailings. Send fliers and meeting/event notices to academic departments, out and allied faculty and staff, and residence hall mailboxes (find out what your college's policy is on this before you flood them with unsolicited mail). Look to other progressive organizations on campus for mailing lists and suggestions! If your group is just getting started, emphasize that there are positions for officers and executive board open in your group, and that you would appreciate the advice of students who are leaders of other campus organizations (even if they aren't into GLBT issues) as you try and get things off the ground!

Send out an Email to "remind" people of meeting times. Some schools allow registered organizations to send campus wide emails (to everyone!) and others have to build a contact list first. If you have to build a contact list, consider getting in touch with other political activism groups and progressive groups on campus (Amnesty International, Young Democrats, talk to the Women's/Gender Studies Department!) to see if you can borrow their list or ask them to send an email out for you.

The folks at the Auburn University of Montgomery increased the attendance at their weekly meetings by changing the time they met. They changed the time from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 and got more people. You could also alternate the times of the meetings, 3:00 p.m. one week and 7:00 p.m. the next - it might get complicated, but different times work for different people.

Chalking the sidewalks on campus gets people's attention as well. Different schools have different policies: some allow it without restrictions, some require permission or applying for permits, others don't allow it at all. Find out what the policy is, buy some big sidewalk chalk, and get a group of people together to do it - the best time is the evening before the biggest class day of the week or in conjunction with a large event (National Coming Out Day, Day of Silence, Awareness Weeks, etc.).

Consider the name of your group. There are pros and cons associated with how GLBT student groups are named. Whatever your organization is called, advertise to increase name recognition. The "Lambda Club" doesn't bring an image to most people's minds (although this can sometimes be an advantage when dealing with preconceived notions!) they have to associate it with something!

The Pride Group at Guilford College selects a topic in advance of each meeting and someone, usually an officer of the group, makes an informative introduction to the topic, goes over some key issues, and then they open it up for a sharing of personal experiences, discussion, etc.

The folks at Guilford also have specific nights when they get together into groups and make posters about different queer issues to put up on campus. Another time they made sock puppets and did skits that dealt with their experiences of discrimination in a light-hearted manner.

Create and maintain a fabulous web page. Make sure you update it regularly and include the web address on your fliers, signs, mailings, etc. Also try to get a URL that is easy to remember or find - directly on the university's server (for example: www.yourcollege.edu/glbtstudents), or as its own domain name (such as: www.glbtstudentgroup.org). Web sites that are based on sites like Geocities are free, but often hard to find (unless you do a great job at advertising them).

Hold a Drag Ball, Show or Contest. I am surprised how many people get into this, GLBT and straight! The "contest" aspect and/or prizes give people an excuse to dress up (as in "I would never do this but so-and-so dared me," or "I'm not gay, but I have to have a better costume than Jim!") Some students get involved in amateur Drag King and Queen competitions and really know how to pull this kind of thing off. Kalamazoo College in Michigan holds a "Crystal Ball" every semester and invites professional drag queens! Each fall, the University of Southern Maine crowns a King and a Queen at their Royal Majesty Drag Competition and Show.

Show "Live Homosexual Acts" on campus. Rope off an area, chalk the sidewalks (get permission!), and show queer students going about their daily business. Have out members of your group do homework, eat lunch, chat in this little viewing area, to show that "they're people too!" This suggestion came from Molly and Wright State's Lambda Union. She says to expect verbal confrontations, so I say at the meeting before this event, do "skits" or something to simulate what people might say and how students might respond--and reduce tensions.

Do charity work with traditionally GLBT related causes AND NON-GBLT related charities. Show you care about all the members of your community, and human rights for all people, not just GLBT rights.

Organize a show of support on campus (wear jeans day, wear purple day, rainbow pins - something to increase visibility on campus). This may work better later in a term when people are more secure and have had contact with the group to feel supported enough to be open/out in this manner.

Set up a table wherever your campus allows (on the quad, in the cafeteria, the lobby of classroom buildings, during the Welcome Fest or Student Organization Fair, etc.) and pass out rainbow ribbon pins (like the red AIDS ribbon, only rainbow). They are cheap to make and many people, gay or straight, can feel comfortable wearing this small token of support around campus (and I know people who have a collection on their backpacks from every time this was done during their 4 years!). Last year at Wright State University, the Lambda Union passed out plastic, rainbow colored slinky-toys with the groups name and contact information on them.

Hold a Film Festival! You can show both serious dramas and campy classics: The Big Eden, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Claire of the Moon, Better Than Chocolate, Lost and Delirious, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, If These Walls Could Talk 2, Broken Hearts Club, a Queer as Folk marathon, etc. There are also lots of foreign language films dealing with GLBT issues (Ma Vie En Rose is a perfect example). Each campus has different rules and regulations about showing films on campus - be sure you don't violate copyright laws! Check with your campus activities office. Our campus has facilities (a projector and screen) that allow us to show films outside. Other campuses have weekly film nights in a member's residence hall room, and others work with faculty to show films in classroom and educational settings. Organizing a film festival is one way of raising money for your group or for a local charity.

Showtime has a program called "Night Out" on Wednesdays, at 9pm (http://www.sho.com/nightout/). The controversial show Queer as Folk is on after whatever Gay Cinema they show. Whether QAF is positive or not, it definitely provides fodder for discussions of "the issues." Since many people don't get Showtime, see if you can find someone who does and can tape the show for you to show at another time each week.

Speak with your Dean of Student Affairs, or even the President of you college (if s/he is approachable, I go to a small college, so I can speak with her any time!) to feel them out on the issues. You may find unexpected support (or unfortunate lack of it...). Often these people have decades of experience on college campuses, tap their knowledge of what has worked in the past. See if they remember any memorable awareness-raising "stunts" on any of the campuses they have worked on! Find out where you will get support/what you are up against in the upper echelons of administration at your college!

Alfred University in NY sets up a large "closet door" on a frame in the middle of the campus center. The group decorates the door (pink, purple triangles, rainbows, etc.) and has people "come out of the closet" by walking through their door. They are then congratulated, given a rainbow sticker, etc. You could also take their picture as they emerge from the closet. The folks at Alfred also set up a table with information about coming out and local organizations.