Building an effective computer science student organization

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a practical guide for building a student organization and designing activities and events that can encourage and support a community of women in computer science. This guide is based on our experience in building Women@SCS, a community of women in the School of Computer Science (SCS)(2) at Carnegie Mellon University. Rather than provide an abstract "to-do" or "must-do" list, we present a sampling of concrete activities and events in the hope that these might suggest possibilities for a likeminded student organization. However, since we have found it essential to have a core group of activist students at the helm, we provide a "to-do" list of features that we feel are essential for forming, supporting and sustaining creative and effective student leadership.