What's in a Name?

...turns out everything!

This is one aspect of the social club that has to be nailed perfectly. Branding can make or break this new BYU cultural phenomenon. Two nights ago, I pulled together two of my really creative marketing friends, Kenny McNett and Jeff Dickson, who are in Los Angeles, on a call to brainstorm a name. Word choice. Not my forte in life--hence the uber creative friends involved. Our call made me appreciate all over again the talents we each have. There are just types of creativity that amaze me. Word choice is once of them.

One of the thoughts was to name the club after someone historical from BYU. So today I took an adventure into BYU's special collections and found the guru of all BYU history. I learned a few new things! BYU Academy started about 1875 and was a K-12 education. It wasn't until 1925 that BYU was an accredited college. Clubs really made a stronger presence on campus in the mid 1980's.

The kind gentle man pointed me to a four volume history of the first 100 years on BYU campus. You can find online copies at lib.byu.edu/digital/byuhistory. I searched for the word "marriage" in these volumes and found in volume two this fabulous quote:



This quote was from 1949, and 60 years later BYU's President Samuelson has a slightly different message! A bit more focus now on education, but regardless the strong social element across campus is felt. This club will create the opportunity for this social aspect to actually occur among the nearly 1,300 single BYU graduate students!

My prayers now all include that inspiration will come with the help of others for this name. I need 4-5 strong ones ideally by Saturday! Miracles do happen.

Mission Statement

The mission of the BYU Graduate Singles Club is to provide opportunity for single BYU graduate students to improve communication and connection across all university graduate programs, thus strengthening professional networks and enhancing social opportunity with like-minded, educated, active members of the LDS church.

The application for official BYUSA club status has been turned in. Thanks for all those who helped in editing the document-- Chelsea Wixom and Dr. William Baker. Here is for hoping all goes well!

The BYU Theater

This last school year I worked as an event planner for the Ballard Center in the Marriott School at BYU. I did not look for the job, it kind of came to me. I knew it would be a lot of stress, but I felt impressed to take it. One reason being because of the connections I would have the chance to make. Sure enough, in planning BYU's first ever TEDxBYU has played a fun role in creating this club.

One of the connections I made was the BYU Theater. I came back to them this summer and asked about getting a block of tickets to some of their events this school year for the single grad students. The answer was YES! ...this will be a great addition to the list of events!

The Idea

About two or three years ago, while I was living in Los Angeles, I had a good friend of mine going through BYU's social work graduate program. I remember asking her if she has met other single grad students on campus. She told me there really was't a way to do that. It kind of stopped me in my tracks. This was BYU? Was that really possible?

A year ago I stepped foot back on BYU campus after a four and a half year leave. I am back to continue my education and launch another into another career direction. In my experience, my friend was right. There is no way on BYU campus to really meet other single graduate students. The thought was pretty clear then, I need to start a club. After that thought, school attacked me like a title wave. I spent a whole year talking about it with other students. It was agreed it would be a fun idea.

This summer I had the chance to live and work in Uganda for six weeks. When I returned, I came back to a job on BYU campus for the summer. I did not expect to be in Provo this summer. Turns out it was necessary if the Lord was really going to have me move forward on this inspired idea. Turns out so many of the contacts I made in the last year at the University will play a key roles in making this club actually happen. I think of all the times I was super stressed doing school and putting on TEDxBYU--there were some specific reasons for it all. I love how the Lord provides opportunities in life, allowing us the opportunity to exercise faith in His plan for us. I am always left speechless.