High school computer clubs

[random]

My high school computer club, the YorkCC (http://york.gose.org), is trying to network with other computer clubs.

We're hoping to share project ideas, info about good tutorials, etc. Check out our wiki @ http://york.gose.org/wiki or join us in our IRC channel at irc.freenode.net #yorkcc.

Currently, our projects include:
-Writing data processing software for Quarknet (google, I'm too lazy to find a link - it's a physics program that Fermilab is in charge of)
-Setting up websites for teachers (using PHP-Nuke)
-General website design for the school (currently, administrator pages)
-TV-based news-scroller (using powerpoint).
-helping members learn *nix
-putting together a photo archive of the old building (which was torn down last year; we have images, we're just organizing them onto an image map)

What are you guys doing in your computer clubs/LUGs?

[ImEric12]

Oh, sure, our school will let us start a computer club.
Minor drawback: we're not allowed to use any of the schools computers.

[random]

Not sure exactly what you mean, so I'll give it a crack. I assume you mean that either the school administration (principals, etc. or the tech administrators) is thinking, "OMG, haxxors!" or "we can't let them install #### on the computers".

We got shut down (before I was there) b/c of the first reason. So here's what we did: we wrote a club charter (like a constitution?) detailing our club mission, and mentioned that we frowned (officially, at least, ;-)) upon "malicious activities". You could also try signing something saying you won't engage in "malicious, illegal or unethical activities" - probably the same as the internet-access form they already have you sign, but worth a shot.

W.r.t. the latter, we don't have much that's special installed. We have accounts on a Fedora box donated by a local programmer who helps out the club. We got permission to put PuTTY, XChat (for club meetings in the IRC channel), and WinSCP in our home directories - you could just as easily burn them on mini CD-Rs.

We've made ourselves an asset - building sites for the district, teachers, clubs, etc, photo-archiving the school, etc. We're pretty trusted now, so we have a box that we can SSH into from outside the school (school network doesn't handle Linux, lazy techs, so we have a clear line out), we feel safe reporting security holes without being yelled at (although for a few years, every time the network was down, it was apparently our fault for a week or so ... then they caught a few kids causing trouble, not members, and found some idiot tech mistakes ... since then they've left us alone).

The point is, make your requests as minimal as possible. Build trust. Make yourself indispensable, as far as web maintenance, occasionally troubleshooting for teachers, doing "tech projects" for the school. Eventually, you'll be trusted. You'll be considered as a valuable resource. You'll be a source of pride for the administrators ("look what we encouraged" - don't tell 'em they were reluctant, let 'em tell others that they helped you). And you'll be listened to when you ask for favors (like a clear line out, donations of old equipment, etc), they won't jump on you when something goes wrong, etc.

[random]

Sorry it was such a long post ... but I was on a roll.

[Black Mage]

Our school couldn't "fund" a computer club, instead, they need to buy new equipment for their oh so precious jocks year after year.

[ImEric12]

Yeah, our school is made of cardboard (when you run into the wall, it moves, and then stays that way), yet they had to redo the track, even though the old one was perfectly fine and level. And hell, why not throw new football uniforms into the mix?

[Stanley]

In response to why they often give money to athletics over say...computer clubs. It's essentially because more people are involved in athletics. They also sell tickets to such things as football events, which does generate some revenue. The other thing is, it's the midwest. Sports are a major deal at High Schools here. It's just kind of how it is. Intellectual pursuits are not as emphasized as they are in the places like the east.

[wzoo1]

mmm...
Yea, our school has a computer club but it kinda 'sucks'.
All everyone does is either play Starcraft or Tribes over the school computers network'ed. We haven't done anything else as everyone is addicted to games in the club including me. So what I mean is..., we haven't done really anything with programming, etc, just games... Although I would like to...
http://campcaen-dev.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[ConfusedSoul]

I've heard that mobs who steal Starcraft CD's and lock them away until their owners remake the game using Qbasic causes some initiative.


But...that could just me. And sometimes you don't need mobs. You need Large, Angry, Mobs.

[random]

Update: I said we were allowed and encouraged to post security holes. No longer. They got pissed that we were doing a better job than them. From the email we were sent:

<i>The tech people request that we no longer look for networkvulnerabilities. They now have the software in place that will identify anyproblems within the system as far as these things go.</i>

Of course, we still stumble into holes ... but since they closed off the software we were told we could use, and since we're not supposed to tell them about holes, we feel there's no problem with exploiting them to get our software in a useable state.

Furthermore, not 2 days after that email was sent, the network was borked up ... by a non computer club member. Oh well, I guess it's not <i>my</i> problem if my English paper won't print and I get an extra day to work on it http://campcaen-dev.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Shadowmage]

I started a computer club but everyone (except for me) was lazy and didn't accomplish anything (aka I did all the work). I blame Eric Diehr :p

[nubbins]

In middle school there was a club called computer challenge. It was a nice start for flash and some basic programming concepts (we did flash animation and robots).