Starting a roller coaster club at college

[AWill961]

Does that sound geeky or what?

 

I wish there was a roller coaster club at my college, but unfortunately there is not. Thinking of starting one, but then again, I'm not the most knowledgeable on roller coasters.

[Goliath513]

Some questions. Where do you go to college at? What kind of people are there? What would this club do other than have members who are interested in coasters?

 

No offense, but unless this is an engineering school or something, you will probably come across as a complete geek. At my college, which also doesn't have a coaster club, I took the opportunity to break out of my coaster shell that I had lived in for so many years by joining the ski club and have been having a great time in it. Colleges generally look for clubs that offer some kind of regular activity, so unless you are organizing theme park trips every month or going above and beyond in some way other than just meeting to discuss the latest coaster news, what rides you like and so on, then the school probably won't support it.

[Wes]

College is for drinking.

[fatdaddy]

That sounds cool as long as it was informal, i mean maybe a couple meeting to discuss what's going on and where to go. I remember a couple trips to theme parks when i was still in school which were awesome, but could have been better if we had planned them a little (transportation, discounts, money, etc.).

[ParkTrips]

College is for drinking.

and hooking up

(though they kind of go hand-in-hand)

[HCLcoasters]

But my mommy told me college was for learning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*sarcasm*

[AWill961]

I think it would be a cool idea. Have trips to Six Flags Magic Mountain or Knotts for example. We're not too far from SFMM (less than 20 minutes I'd say).

[Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess]

The closest I have done is starting a coaster club this school year. It wasn't a very successful club and we only ended up with about 5 members. It was mostly just a social group for people who have an interest in theme parks. We actually managed to organize one successful club "event", which was a coaster marathon for charity. (will post the TR of that)

 

About comming across as a total geek, another thing you will likely encounter is your members being just GP people who think "roller coasters are fun". Atleast that's what I ended up with. And lots of ignorant questions that come with that. Because I graduated this year and nobody wanted to take over or keep it going, theme park club is no more.

[AllenA07]

I think that is going to frankly be a hard sell for you. Fact is that most people really are not "enthusiasts" like you see at a site like this. As was said below, most people see roller coasters as being nothing more then something that is fun to ride (which frankly is the truth isn't it?). Very few people actually care that Goliath has a new set of trim brakes 140 feet from the mid course brake run (which it doesn't). Besides that if I could give just a tiny bit of advice, especially for college, try to expand your interests. Not saying that you're one of these people, but I see a ton of people on this site who can't imagine having interests beyond roller coasters. College however happens to be a fantastic place to discover that there is more to life then theme parks.

[Homer]

Just join an engineering club or a club that partakes in social activities. There's a lot more to life than roller coasters, and I realized that by not posting here as often as I did in high school.

[Moose]

^ On that note, if you join another club, you could always organise a trip to a park with the members of that club. I was a member of a large social/service group and every year I organised a trip out to the (somewhat) local park and in the final year a much further trip to 3 parks. Everyone had a great time, I fulfilled my coastering needs, and I met friends with very diverse interests.

[Josh Linn]

Just join an engineering club or a club that partakes in social activities. There's a lot more to life than roller coasters, and I realized that by not posting here as often as I did in high school.

 

Like partying and sex. In college anyway.

[PKI Jizzman]

College is for drinking.

and hooking up

(though they kind of go hand-in-hand)

[chadster]

i suppose you could always wear around one of those nifty "you must be this tall to ride this ride" shirts, see this way you have two outs, one, you can talk about coasters, the other, you can talk about your uhumm, "ride"

 

As such, no need for a coaster club except for maybe TPR

[themeparkman25]

I know Ohio State has some theme park club. Not exactly sure what they do, but I guess it might be cool. Maybe transfer?

 

Theme Park Engineering Group- Ohio State

 

 

I would say I agree with Wes, but if I can manage model making and your activity, anyone can!

[samisthabomb]

The closest I have done is starting a coaster club this school year. It wasn't a very successful club and we only ended up with about 5 members. It was mostly just a social group for people who have an interest in theme parks. We actually managed to organize one successful club "event", which was a coaster marathon for charity. (will post the TR of that)

 

About comming across as a total geek, another thing you will likely encounter is your members being just GP people who think "roller coasters are fun". Atleast that's what I ended up with. And lots of ignorant questions that come with that. Because I graduated this year and nobody wanted to take over or keep it going, theme park club is no more.

 

I agree! I try to teach my friends proper terminology because I can't even understand what they're saying! My friend Jordan was talking about Titan at Six Flags Over Texas' CORKSCREW!!! And I said, "Jordan, Titan doesn't have a corkscrew. Titan is a hypercoaster and hypercoasters don't usually have inversions." First she's like "What's an inversion?", and then she says, "There is too a corkscrew!" She finally told me what she was describing. She was describing Titan's double helix.