I thoroughly enjoy unicycling and juggling and am jealous of all who have a club or gang. I have decided that I need to look at the possibility of creating my own club and getting that much coveted group to uni and juggle with on a weekly basis. I am considering combining the two activities as a way to get more people together. I have also found that people seem pretty intimidated by unicycling, but less so with juggling. I think the two activities will create a larger group (thus more momentum and fun) and more opportunities for crossover into the other acitivity.
I am looking for suggestions for ways to promote and start a group. I don’t think a venue will be a problem, just getting the people to gather and learn.
Thanks, and wish me luck.
Bill
PS - I live in Washington, PA (south of Pittsburgh) in case you happen to be in the area!
If you ride the streets/muni stuff it’d probably be pretty easy to get a picture and short article in your local paper, they’re keen on stuff like that.
Make sure they mention the stuff you want them to i.e. the fact that you’re setting up a club.
When they did an article on me I e-mailed them some facts about Muni cos I suspected that they might have problems putting a factual article together as they had no experience of unicycling.
Secondly, have you considered getting poi spinners in as well as unicyclists and jugglers? currently poi/staff spinning is probably more popular than juggling.
I know a few who juggle and no one who does poi/staff spinning. I would have no problem with adding them, if any were around. Gotta go with my strengths unless others join in with enough commitment to make the addition strong and lasting.
My personal observation about successful clubs is that successful clubs almost never get created before there are already club members. It probably sounds a little paradoxical.
There may be a few “Field of Dreams” type clubs where someone put together a club and magically, members joined, but I think for the most part, a successful club requires a core group of at least four people who almost always show up and aren’t particularly discouraged when no one else shows.
The club should meet regularly in a regular space. After that, it’s a matter of making sure people who have an interest in the club can look it up easily on the web. One of the worst things for a club looking for new members to do is to meet on a whim at random locations.
So the real question is where do you find the core members of the group… My guess is that it helps to be attractive, charismatic, well-spoken, skillful, and have the ability to look like you’re having the time of your life while you’re doing your thing. Either that or find someone like that.
>I am looking for suggestions for ways to promote and start a group.
There have been a few threads about this. E.g., Tommy Thompson (handle
Tmornstar) posted some excellent advice in a thread titled “Starting a
club, any tips?”. The thread starter was nu_uni on 4 Feb 2003. I have
saved it locally so I could e-mail it to you if you can’t find it.
LMK.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“My butt has a crack in it , but I can still ride. - spyder”
> I am looking for suggestions for ways to promote and start a group. I
> don’t think a venue will be a problem, just getting the people to gather
> and learn.
If you ever have a fair near you, you could bring along some of your props
and while everyone’s discovering that unicycling is actually harder than
it looks, you can hand round leaflets. Plus, it gives you a chance to
show off. If people see something to aspire to, they’ll be more likely to
join, I think.
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I still getting used to this forum stuff and have to remember to do a search before I ask questions. Thanks for the link to the “starting a club” thread in February. Even though the topic has been covered earlier in the year, it’s encouraging to have some current thoughts and feedback. I get lonely . and it’s nice to chat with other uni enthusiasts.
i don’t really like the idea of a juggling and uni club’s mix together as it is normally all freestyle,i am more of a trials and muni person but i guess it could be a place to meet other unicyclists and make a ride from there but a club is great cause you learn more quicker and you always want to do better than your friends so you practice more.but if your a freestyle kind of guy then juggle and uni club would be cool
and it’s nice to chat with other uni enthusiasts.