Step by Step Guide to Getting Your Quest Club Up and Running

Once you have committed to starting a Quest Club, have found a charter and purchased your membership, you are ready to get started. The steps below will walk you through the basics of getting a new Quest Club up and running.

1. Who will you invite to join?

Read through the leader handbook and familiarize yourself with our website. Then create a list of kids that wish to join your club. While our program is designed to accommodate all ages in a single club, you are more than welcome to have a club with a limited age range if this suits your purpose better. Feel free to cap your club at a number that is comfortable for you. Clubs can be all boys, all girls, or co-ed

2. Join the following forums:

The Curiosity Untamed Facebook page – Stay up to date on the most recent news.

The Curiosity Untamed/Quest Clubs Forum Facebook Group – Communicate with other leaders and parents to get ideas and support.

3. Find a Charter

If you haven’t already, find a non-profit organization to own and take responsibility for your club if at all possible. This will not only help mitigate your liability risk, but will also give you non-profit status which helps when soliciting donations. Most clubs are owned by churches, schools, homeschooling co-ops, community groups or veterans’ organizations. You are more than welcome to run your club on your own, but there is more risk and responsibility involved. Sample liability releases, permission slips, and other forms to help reduce your liability are included in the Forms section. Once you find a non-profit to take over your club (if they were not the original purchasing authority) you may transfer ownership of the club to them in writing.

4. Find Volunteers

Find a leader, an assistant leader and enough volunteers to run your club. We recommend one adult present at each meeting for every eight kids up to age 12 and one adult for every ten kids ages 12 and over. Regardless of the size of your club, you must always have at least two adults in attendance at any activity.

5. Train Your Volunteers

Have all leaders and volunteers read through the leader handbook and familiarize themselves with our website. Make sure all leaders and volunteers are fully vetted, background checked and trained according to your charter organization’s personnel policies.

6. Find a Meeting Place

Locate an adequate meeting place, if one is not being provided by your charter organization, and schedule meeting dates and times. A meeting place should be easily and safely accessible to the kids, and acceptable to the parents. It should not be a place where lively games or songs will disturb anyone, nor where the legitimate noise of other groups could ruin a club meeting. Meeting places should be safe, sanitary, with adequate lighting, ventilation, heating, and cooling. A yard, park, or outdoor play area nearby is very desirable, but not necessary. Meeting locations should be large enough for team games and allow for separations into smaller groups when necessary. Churches, schools, community centers, and personal homes can all be potential meeting locations. You may also wish to try groups like the Moose Lodge, Elks Lodge, VFW Post, or American Legion as they usually have good sized halls that they will let youth groups use at low or no cost.

7. Register for a Club Number

Register for the Caspio Badge Tracking system in order to receive an official club number. This system is housed on a differenet server than our website and requires its own username and password. Once you get logged in, register for an official club number. Club numbers are assigned numerically. You may not choose your own number. When participants in your club purchase a membership subscription to Curiosity Untamed, make sure they use your club number so they will be affiliated with your club and the leader can see what badges they are working on outside of meetings.

8. Register Participants

Unless you are running a club as an afterschool program, where the kids will only be earning badges as a group at meetings, make sure all participants have purchased a family membership to the Curiosity Untamed website so that they have access to all badge and award requirements to work on at home. When purchasing a family membership subscription, make sure they use your assigned club number so they show up on your club roster.

9. Hold a Parent Meeting

Have a planning meeting with the parents to go over costs, registration, dues, badges earned at home, uniforms, etc. Most clubs will pay for badges earned at club meetings, but badges earned at home are usually the responsibility of parents. You are welcome to fundraise as much as little as you need. All fundraisers are done at the club level and the club keeps all money earned.

10. Interests and Leadership

Get the kids together for a planning meeting to find out what their interests are and what they want to get out of Quest. Assign or vote on leadership positions for your club if you have older kids (treasurer, scribe, photographer, snack coordinator, etc.) Leadership positions are usually assigned starting in 3rd grade.

11. Plan Your First Meetings

Plan the first four to eight meetings. If you have older kids, let them help plan and implement the meetings. Regular meetings (not field trip or activity days) should include:

Pre-meeting activities to keep kids busy until the meeting starts (making cards for our soldiers or elderly is quick and simple)
Songs or Games
Club Business
Badge Work (skills, knowledge, crafts, etc.)
Snack time (optional)
Announcements and closing

12. Hold a Planning Meeting

Have a planning meeting with your volunteers and leadership team to discuss each person’s involvement and responsibilities.

13. Gather Supplies

Gather supplies for your club. Make sure to include the following items:

Financial Binder
Record Keeping Binder
Calculator
3 hole punch
Stapler
Scissors
Scotch tape
Ball Point Pens or pencils
Award Bag (a fancy bag to hold awards until they are given out)
Craft Supplies
First Aid Kit