ection 2.2
Initiating Marketing Plan

The Initiating Marketing Plan must be constructed on a solid foundation of answers to the question, "How will a Mathematical Journeys club fulfill the educational needs of our college's students?" This approach places the student and student learning at the center of the club. Answers to the question of how the club serves student needs must reflect knowledge of your students, of your college's mission, and of a Mathematical Journeys club. The Initiating Marketing Plan then becomes a design for assembling answers to a student-centered question and communicating them to all pertinent segments of the college community. The purpose of this marketing effort is to obtain your college's support and approval for a Mathematical Journeys club.

In answering the question of how a club fulfills student needs, there are numerous sources that assert the educational and learning benefits of establishing connections between mathematics and other disciplines as well as addressing mathematics within meaningful contexts. Such sources include:

• Crossroads in Mathematics –Standards for Introductory College Mathematics Before Calculus, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC),
• Crossroads in Mathematics –Programs Reflecting the Standards, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), and
• Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

"Students in a traditional classroom setting often don't have the opportunity to witness or to experience for themselves the creative aspect of mathematics".¹ A club also gives students an opportunity to develop and practice skills and habits of thought that are transferable to future academic work and careers. Such skills and habits of thought involve: bibliotechnology research, application of the scientific method, development and support of a thesis, small group collaborative work, and computer-based technologies.

The following purposes of a Mathematical Journeys club, directly or indirectly, serve student educational needs. A Mathematical Journeys initiative will:

• Break down subject-bound, compartmental thinking
• Create communities of learners
• Provide cross fertilization of ideas
• Establish relationships among faculty from different subject areas
• Provide opportunities for students to apply mathematics in authentic situations
• Provide opportunities for students to learn and use the scientific method
• Provide opportunities for students to learn in context
• Provide opportunities for students to do research
• Provide opportunities for students to become information literate
• Provide opportunities for students to exercise creativity
• Provide opportunities for students to showcase their work
• Provide students with authentic technology problems
• Provide opportunities to establish linkages between the college and local industries
• Promote development of quantitative literacy
• Encourage students to think critically
• Provide an innovative direction for the college curriculum

A club has the potential to raise the college community's awareness of and interest in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. This in turn can help to change the all too common attitude that mathematics is something to be feared and avoided; if mathematics is "in the air," students are much more likely to partake of it.

In addition to showing that a club supports students' educational needs, you also can argue that it serves your college's public relations needs. A club is ideally situated to reach out to local industry and government organizations. The central purpose of such outreach is to establish channels of communication for exploring ways that mathematics is used in the real world. Forging links between the classroom and workplace not only extends student understanding of mathematics, but also has other beneficial consequences. Industry and government organizations have an opportunity to serve their community, establish internships, sponsor site visits, and identify a pool of potential employees. Students have an opportunity to perform service learning and receive mentoring from professionals in industry. Thus, a club can be beneficial to both the college and the community where the college is located.

Once you have assembled cogent justifications for starting a club, it is time to begin the process of establishing and maintaining communication with individuals, offices, and groups that can help to build support for the club. A first step in this communication process is to discuss your proposal for initiating a club with colleagues from the mathematics, science, technology, and engineering departments. This step opens avenues for ongoing communication and collaboration, informs colleagues about the club, and offers colleagues an opportunity to contribute ideas about how the club would serve students and fit into the existing educational structure. You should inform pertinent college administrators about your intent to start a Mathematical Journeys club and ask them to participate in the process of launching it.

To seek approval for a Mathematical Journeys club requires a few interested students, a faculty member who subscribes to such a club's goals, and an administration willing to entertain a proposal to create an academically oriented club. However, a club can receive vital support and enrichment from a wider interest base. Thus, you should invite people to participate in the club who are members of groups such as: faculty, staff, and administrators; senior citizens; friends of the college who are retired or currently employed engineers and technicians; and secondary school faculty and students.

Once you have assembled a student-centered rationale for establishing a club, discussed the rationale with key individuals and groups, and obtained a positive indication of their support, you will be ready to undertake the process of obtaining your college's formal recognition and approval of the club. The Initiating Marketing Plan is a guidance framework for accomplishing this process.

The following is a checklist of possible steps to obtain your college's approval for the club:

1. Begin planning one academic term prior to the club's introduction.
2. Verify that your proposed Mathematical Journeys club supports the needs of your college's students and mission.
3. Discuss the Mathematical Journeys club with your colleagues and seek their support for it.
4. Option: Co-advise the club with a professor who teaches a laboratory course.
5. Option: Set up a club advisory committee with membership representing the mathematics, science, and technology departments and local industries.
6. Discuss the club proposal with your supervisor.
7. Review your college's policies and procedures relative to extra-curricular activities, co-curricular activities, and clubs.
8. Seek approval for the club in accord with your college's policies and procedures.
9. Review the club schedule of activities in the Management Plan, and set up an estimated budget for the year. The budget should provide for services of the faculty advisor, travel expenses, honoraria for guest lecturers, incidental club expenditures, etc.
10. Seek funding based on the proposed budget for the club. This would typically require funding from more than one source — department, student services, college foundation fund, small grants, local industries, etc.
11. Announce the club through the college public relations office, in student newspapers, on the web, and in circulars mailed to students, advisers, counselors, and faculty.

The following Sustaining Marketing Plan addresses communication that supports ongoing operation of the club and its continuance from one year to the next.