University of Michigan Wins First Weekly Challenge!

September 23rd, 2008 at 10:38 am

Congrats to the University of Michigan on winning this year’s very first OCC Weekly Challenge! Check out their account of the winning week below:

We held an entire week of OCC Launch events! We kicked off with our first meeting Tuesday evening. We had about 15 attendees which was a great turnout for the short notice we gave them. We gave them an overview of our goals for the year, the activities we want to focus on for the next month, and most importantly the rest of the launch events. Throughout the week, members of our group stood up in their classes and talked about the campaign and passed around Declarations for students to sign. We talked at our student group meetings (student government, dance marathon, etc) and got them to sign up as well. E-mails were sent to all of our friends asking them to sign up.

Then, on Friday morning/afternoon we set up a table in the atrium of a very popular building for classes on campus. We had members from our group wearing ONE gear and talking to students as they walked by, getting them to sign the Declaration and asking who wants to get involved. Students wrote down different groups they are involved in so that we can start networking and collaborating with other groups on campus. Friday night group members attending the Home Volleyball match and sat in “The Zone” (student section) talking to students about ONE and cheering on the team with them.

Finally, on Sunday, we went to the big AIDS Walk-Ann Arbor event that was held on campus. Community members, students, faculty and staff formed teams and walked a 5K to raise money for our HIV/AIDS Resource Center. ONE set up a table with information and went around talking to people about our goals and getting them to sign the declaration. We co-sponsored the event by making a donation to the cause and setting up our table and volunteering with event logistics. It was a great way for our group members to bond and get the word out to the greater Ann Arbor community as well as UofM students.

In total, our launch events helped us sign up almost 450 new members, which surpassed our goal of 400! We have gotten a lot of interest from tons of students and are looking forward to our next meeting on Tuesday!