Meet the New Boss

by Adam Gellert

            A new year means new faces for the Technology Club at Iowa Lakes. Club membership this year has gone up with more students being in the game and web development courses. In the first meeting, votes were held for officer positions in the club. This year the club presidency went to first year game design student Tyler Taylor.

            The role is familiar to Taylor, as he has been in charge of a club before in high school. The only adjustment he feels he needs to make is to this campus.

            “While I haven’t had any experience here yet, I have run clubs before, so it’s sort of business as usual for me,” Taylor said.

            Taylor runs meetings with enthusiasm, trying to make sure most if not all of the members are engaged in the discussion. He has also been making efforts to bring in students from outside of the game and web development programs to expand the club. In one meeting there was even an ambassador role established to interact with student senate to try and promote the club.

            While the results of the ambassador role have yet to be seen, Taylor is still fairly satisfied with club activities so far this year.

            “Our game nights have been pretty successful, even if we have some hiccups getting the games to run,” he said. “Most of the club members make it to the computer lab and have a good time though, so I’d call that a win. We also just had a combination movie and game night for Halloween that went well. We got together with some pizza, popcorn, and soda and watched a scary movie and played some games and had a good time.”

            The club also has a unique volunteering experience this year as well. On Nov. 22 there will be a Ted-X talk held at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Spirit Lake, where club faculty sponsor Kevin Grems will be speaking. The club has volunteered to demonstrate some of what they do. For their display they will be setting up a virtual reality headset for attendees of the event to play with.

            “This is a pretty cool opportunity to show people just one of the cool things we have going on,” Taylor said. “Getting this headset set up has been a little bit of a chore, but it’s going to be worth it in the end to see people get to try it out.”

            Taylor has some ideas for the future of the club, mostly driven by wanting to promote the club.

            “I want more people to know about us, so I’m really pushing sales of our club t-shirts,” he said. “I also want to try and organize either a tournament or public game night too just so people can see how we roll. We’re also starting to think about our next fundraiser as well, and I’m excited about some of the ideas we’ve had.”

            Taylor has already gotten comfortable in his short time as tech club president. It’s clear that he’s enjoying his responsibilities and coming up with ways to promote the club.

            If you’re an Iowa Lakes student and would like to join the club, all you need to do is come to a meeting. Club membership is open to any student, regardless of major. Meetings are held on Fridays at 11 a.m. in room 45 on the Estherville campus of Iowa Lakes. If you’re interested but can’t make the meeting time, any member of the club or Kevin Grems can be contacted to make accommodations.