Need help! Book club and/or Spanish club info?!?!?

Question

I've just been asked to be the president of my school’s Book & Spanish Club. The teacher has never started a club before, so she left everything up to me. I have a lot of experience with a leadership role, the clubs’ subjects are where I need the help. I’ve been the president of Book club before, but I can’t remember the whole routine. How do I set everything up, what are some things we are suppose to do? Anything I need to know or that could be helpful? With the Spanish club I have no clue. What do you do in a Spanish club? I need educational things along with fun. Also both clubs require a certain amount of community service to be done, & what could be some fund risers? I have a matter of hours before I need to hand in all the information, & the two constitutions. (Constitution = purpose, goals, membership requirements, meetings, officers, and activities) Club day is soon & we have to have the clubs approved long before then! Good feedback before I have a stroke, please! Thanks…

Answer 1

I am a Spanish teacher. Some of the things that we have done in our clubs are:

Make piñatas. We then broke them at a Halloween party for underprivileged children. We did this at Halloween. You could check with Children's Services or some other organization in your area.
We helped the local migrant workers with translating, collecting toiletries, working with the children (who are often behind academically).
We had a Justo Lamas concert. Check out JustoLamas.net to get more info. The Spanish Club members got to go for free when they helped set up the auditorium. The other students had to pay.
Have an international banquet. Kids make things and bring it in for an after school feast. You can include other language clubs too.
Do a fiesta after school (as your meeting) where all bring something new to sample.
We host Spring Games. All language classes go outside and perform games in the different teachers classes. One teacher did the mini tour de France where kids raced on 2 little kids bikes. I did balero competitions. All teachers need to cooperate for this to take place.
You can have an after school meeting where the French Club or other clubs compete against the Spanish Club in a game of volleyball.
You can organize a fund raiser.
You can organize Spanish tutors from members who are advanced to help students who struggle.
You can consider a trip to a Spanish speaking country. Your teacher has to do this though. You can suggest it to her. EF Tours is a company that I have used and like.
Think of different activities that your school does and see if the club can contribute in any way.
If there is an International Market or store near you consider an after school field trip.
Consider an after school field trip to a Mexican restaurant.
I have a whole packet at school with suggestions. I am not sure exactly where it is. We go back tomorrow and I can look for it. This at least can give you a start. Send me an email and I will list more things that I find from the packet (if I find it).
[e-mail]
Purpose should be something like promoting understanding of diverse cultures... goals is similar as well contributing to the community. Membership; decide if there are dues and how many meetings one must attend and if they must be a student of Spanish (some kids might want to be in the club even if they don't go on to spanish IV for example). Have at least 2 meetings a month. You can add more if necessary or cancel if there is nothing pressing. Officers; have at least a president and a vice president. This should help... I will see if I can find more.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I was in Spanish Club in high school. We had a lot of social activities like games and such, but there were a lot of other great things we did. You can do community service projects (especially if there is a hispanic neighborhood nearby.) We did a lunchtime field trip to a local Spanish-speaking elementary school and played games and read to the students. You can also make holiday cards for older people, or visit a hospital and maybe make bilingual cards and posters to cheer them up? Also, try some cultural things. Invite different people to make different ethnic foods, have some latin dancers come in, and invite hispanic members of your community to come and speak. As for a book club, as one of the other posts said, that should be pretty easy. You can also check online for some sample question guides for a lot of popular books. Good luck! P.S. As far as fund raisers, you can either sell certain things (I think we sold hispanic candy) or if you have a speaker or presentation, sell tickets to the entire school so they can all participate. A lot of students might like to attend a "Taste of Mexico" or something where they can try new foods, or you can have a "Trip around the World" with other clubs, if you maybe have a French Club or German Club at your school. And sometimes the teachers will encourage other students to go to these events by offering extra credit to anyone who attends. :)

Answer 4

Ok, the first thing you do is relax, take a chill pill. I understand how stressful this is. You should really get help from a friend or two. So it could be like a group thing. You can make a survey for prospective members to see what they're interests are and what they want out of the club. In a Spanish club, they are things season-oriented like Cinco de Mayo parties and El dia de los Muertos (Halloween). The Spanish Club in my school is a little community-service oriented. You can practice spanish, learn "spanish slang", tutor non-english students, etc. It all depends. For a book club, you can put up reviews of books on your school website.

Answer 5

http://www.booksonline.com/

http://www.canadianbookclubs.com/start.html

and if you need to do community service, I suggest going to a humane society. They are non profit, and it can be a lot of fun taking care of animals. I was a volunteer for 5 years at a humane Society out in the country. Was one of the best experiences I had as a kid.

Answer 6

Check with Barnes and Noble.com. They might be able to help you.

Answer 7

I wouln't know where to start to help you, but this sites could be useful:

http://www.cvc.cervantes.es/portada.htm
http://nuevayork.cervantes.es/
http://www.cervantes1.org/home.asp