Meeting Ideas

At our meetings, we generally have officer reports and open floor discussion (usually about events and activities) for 30 minutes, and the last 30 minutes is taken up with a game.  We've played Women in Computing Science Jeopardy, done word search races (for names of famous women in technology) and had short puzzles.  We also try to find good prizes to give away.  Prizes we've had in the past include free books (found in my apartment buildings free bookshelf library), perfume samples and fancy scarves (swag from fashion shows friends and family have attended), and other swag from events such as GHC.  We don't spend money on prizes but rather look for ways to find small, useful items that are free.  ~Kate

We have  meetings that last about an hour, with a technical and non-technical section. In each section, we choose a topic beforehand or on-the-spot, and have a debate or discussion on it. We plan to give out swag from our next meeting onwards for the best speaker. ~Sunayana

Meeting Games

If you're going to have prizes, you need games or activities.  Here are a few we've used in the past:

• Women in Technology Quiz (with answers!)
• WICS Programming Puzzle Game (this is actually borrowed from Dennis Shasha's book, "Puzzles for Programmers and Pros".

~Kate

Technical Events

1. Puzzle/Brainteaser Session:
2. Technical Interview Preparation Event:
3. Programming Language Workshop: We've had basic and advanced workshops for languages like C, C++. We usually have a basic C workshop every year for the non-CS students, since they have to take a course on C and are usually a little wary of programming. (Sunayana).  We've done language transition workshops, such as "Java to C++", which was very popular.  We had a faculty member come and show students the basic similarities and differences between the two languages, to show students that C++ isn't as difficult or scary as they tell us it is.  We also tried some new 'hot languages', such as Ruby on Rails. (Kate)
4. Programming contests: Predefined and on-the-spot programming contests are a great way to get people interested in programming. You can vary the level according to the group you are targeting. We usually have a programming contest for the freshmen, because they feel a little left out of other major programming contests as they've just started learning. ~Sunayana
5. Design workshops/contests: Poster making competitions, basic and advanced Photoshop workshops have been some of the most popular events we've had. ~Sunayana
   

Social Events

In the past, we've had various social events:

• Valentine's Tea and Sweets Social: tea, sweets, and various appetizers on Valentine's Day.  We even had Binary Cupcakes!
• Snow Tubing
• Lunches at restaurants

It can be as easy as inviting everyone to a restaurant at a certain time, or as involved as organizing a larger event at school with catering. ~Kate

Recruitment