Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Itel Nagli, the president of Social Spear. Social Spear is an organization at Florida State University (FSU) that allows individuals to connect with others and increase their brand. In this article, I was able to observe the unadvertised aspects of running an organization.
Her Campus (HC): Hello Itel! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Itel Nagli (IN): I am a sophomore at FSU and I am a marketing major. I am pursuing a degree in marketing because I want to open my own business eventually.
HC: What is Social Spear?
IN: Social Spear is a marketing organization that is open to anyone on campus and its main goal is to connect individuals with other companies. We have workshops, speaker events and social events. It is also a great way to meet other students within the marketing field.
HC: How did you get involved with Social Spear?
IN: I found Social Spear on Nole Network and I requested to join the organization. Then, the previous president reached out to me and I joined the E-Board as the recruitment chair. When the previous president graduated, I was elected as the president.
HC: How do you see this club expanding in the next couple of years?
IN: I see Social Spear growing immensely. When I became president, it started with 30 members, and now we have over 175 members. It grew a lot when we were at the involvement fair, and we were able to recruit a lot of new people.
HC: What has been the greatest challenge running Social Spear?
IN: The greatest challenge has been getting students to come to meetings because a lot of students have busy schedules. Also, it is challenging to find engaging speakers.
HC: What kinds of adjustments has Social Spear had to make due to the pandemic?
IN: Last year, all of our meetings were online via Zoom. It was only last semester when we started having hybrid meetings. We would have meetings on Zoom as well as in-person meetings. It is great that we can have meetings in person now because students can get to know each other.
HC: Do the members of Social Spear interact well with each other? How so?
IN: Yes. In fact, one member came up to me and told me that she met her best friend through Social Spear. We have social events, like picnics, which are purely for people to get to know each other, and I try hard to get the students comfortable with each other. It also helps with attendance if members have a friend that they can come to the meetings. Every meeting, I also ask students to introduce themselves again in case there is a new member at the meeting.
HC: What are the duties and demands of running this club?
IN: As the president, the duties are to delegate tasks, which can be very demanding. It takes up a lot of time because once I delegate the tasks, I have to make sure people follow through with what they were supposed to do. For instance, I have to delegate someone to find a speaker, then get someone else to reserve the room for the speaker to come to. There are so many details that people do not really see, and the behind-the-scenes aspects are a lot.
HC: How has Social Spear helped you expand your knowledge on business and networking?
IN: Honestly, I’ve been doing a lot of research, such as how to reach out to people. Before I had the E-Board set in place, I had to reach out to speakers on my own. This led me to build up my LinkedIn account, because that is where I find speakers. So, that has helped me build my business profile. Also, when we have speakers and workshops, I’m there and I listen to them, so I have been able to learn a lot from that.
HC: How do you make the meetings fun and enjoyable?
IN: Every meeting, I try to bring food, so people can look forward to something to eat. At the last meeting, we had donuts and we had pizza at our social event. I just want everyone to get to know each other better, so I’ll try to do something at every meeting for people to get to know the person they are sitting next to and the people around them.
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