What makes a good English club?

Tiếp theo series "chém gió": What makes a good EC's topic? và What makes a good host? mình muốn "chém" tiếp: What makes a good English club?

Let me go first sharing some criteria of mine (of course so narrow-mided):


1. Level of attendance:
Let's face the fact that a club's meeting is like a show, the more audience the better


2. Quality of aftertaste:
What a particular club’s attendant keep in mind after the meeting can be described as aftertaste. I believe this is significant enough to determine wether the attendant will come back (repeat business) or sharing with peers (word of mouth marketing). To make it easier to figure out, just think of a TV-series you watched lately, you will see that people start talking about it the next day in the office, in campus… if the episode aired the previous night is good. Their talking is like free advertising or critisism.


3. Presence of “The Elite group”
Maybe “elite group” is the wrong expression here but what I mean is the group of most wanted attendants. General description: they would be smart looking, outspoken, some are really talkative and showing-off (but not irritating to anyone), they attract attention (they are truly chicks/dudes magnet in vietnamese or english), they clearly can influence the flow of agenda (most of the time they are valuable contributors during presentation, game, role play). Because they are cool people to be with, in any ESC, elite group is like good weather to the crops. I have noticed that level of attendance would raise or drop when the group exist (forming and keep hanging) or exit (dissapearing).


4. New recruits
Have we witnessed enough shut-downs of ESC caused by its own management team? So far, the teams are young people (mostly students) with certain dedication and expectation/plan in mind to start/run the club. The club goes smoothly with a solid vision and shared values among members. After sometime (graduation for instance), they decide to stop to switch to other dedications and expectations/plans in mind. “It’s a fun ride, but I need to grow up” they may think outloud. In a hurry, the club starts recruiting new members to replace the resigning team. The problem pops up as soon as the new blood don’t have same dedication, vision, values, networks, ways of work, bla bla bla like the previous generation. If the difference is positive, the club sky-rockets. But many times, the difference is negative and routine attendants lose interest, which they used to have for the old team.


I have been blabing way too much already, solution will be in another post, in the meantime what do you think would make a good ESC, what are your criteria?

It's useful, thanks. Keep on sharing !

Maybe, it's time we change the way we think of how to manage as well as why bother to start an EC in the beginning. I don't think the friendship between the founders is a concrete material (as a foundation) or panacea to chronicle issues. If any club still runs on "friendship" (as gasoline to your vehicle), you will find sooner than ever that things are so unreliable and unpredictable. And also welcome you to the groups of EC that had the same phylosophy in last two decades, and your guess is right: they were all extinct like dinosaur.

The better approach is to treat your organization as a business. I'll mention more in next post

Really support your ideas mate! I just attended the RES english club the other day. They split the group into two: Intermediate and advanced groups. I think that the advanced group has quite a number of "elite member" based on your criteria. Your points are all valuable, but I think to execute them well, we all have to come back to the original purpose of intiating an EC . It's non-profitable, and most people come just for fun

Hehe, RES is that good? I'll check them out sometime
Now back to the point of non-profitable & for fun ... yada yada. It's kind of true if we also agree that a tip of the iceberg is the iceberg.
Having said that, I mean it's not evil if you are after making money, huh? But the money you make is for the club not for you (entirely ). Let me give you a vision, actually mine.

-Welcome drinks are self-served from 8:30 to 9:30 (nestcafe sponsors).
-Nice icebreaking takes place at 9:00, then host introduces club and new members coming on that day
-Fully-interactive and highly-engaged activities facilitated by host, supported by appropriate facilities like beamer, laptop, loudspeaker, flipchart, whiteboard
-Nice room, cozy chairs, good lighting and ventilation (air con***ioning)
-Good entertainment program with prizes for winner/contributor

Someone would jump up at saying that's an expensive vision, how can the club afford all that. Well you need money to finance what you want to do, and unless you want your club to continue to have meeting in some primary school with tiny furniture you need not read further.

How much you think you can charge an attendant for that day? OK, you head start doing the math. But the point is, with some money an EC can do alot of things to improve itself to make more money, the cirle goes on...

When "non-profitable & for fun" is used as an excuse to not working their ass off to literally change the situation, it's so lame

Once I asked a "guy" why the membership is so low: 50k/month. He replied that it's how much the students would happily pay. What kind of market research is that? 150k or 200k is also possible, IF he invest more in the meeting agenda. But he select the common path, which is old, worn-out and with boring landscape.