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What is JCL?
How do I start a JCL chapter?
How do I decide what dues should be?
How do I actually register my chapter?
All right, so now that I have a chapter, what do I DO with them?
What kind of competitions can we do?
All right, what else is there?
How do I set up membership numbers?
JCL is an organization to promote classics that exists on a state and national level. In order to be in good standing, a school JCL chapter must pay dues to BOTH its state chapter and the national one. In addition, the sponsor of a school JCL must be a member of the American Classical League (ACL).
In North Carolina, chapters send their state dues to one of the North Carolina state chairs, and their national dues directly to National JCL (www.njcl.org).
Have an interest meeting in your school. The kids that are in JCL must have taken either some Latin or Greek. They do not have to be currently enrolled in either. Once you find out who is interested, decide what your dues will be.
How do I decide what dues should be?
Personally, I think dues depend on how active your chapter is going to be. In North Carolina, there are many opportunities for your kids to do things with other JCLs in the state, but not every JCL participates. I take into account the costs of the things that I know we are going to participate in throughout the year and whether or not we want to fundraise.
Let's look at a few costs which I base my own dues upon: membership (approx. $6 per student for state) ($2 per student nationals); Fall Forum (approx. $10 per student); state convention (varies, but count on $10 per student); National Latin Exam ($4 per student); National Latin Honor Society ($2 per student); Certamen registration ($5 per team).
There you have at least $33 per student for the year, which does not take into account anything your JCL does by itself, like initiations, ice cream socials, pizza nights, movie nights, etc. It also does not take into account the cost of hotel rooms, food and activity buses for spring convention. We also buy two t-shirts a year ($6 each) This number does not take into account materials needed for contests that your club might enter like costumes for skit, props, scrapbook materials, chariot materials, etc.
One approach is to just pick a random number and hope that the kids can come up with the money for things as they arise. So say, $20, but each kid has to pay registration fees each time an event comes up. Personally this year, I am going to have my kids vote on whether they want to fundraise or not. If they vote no, then I am going to set the dues at $100, payable in four installments of $25 each. That should cover us for the year.
You should also be sensitive to the financial situations of your students. I teach at a Title I school, and I know I have students who cannot afford anything we do. I talk to them individually and tell them to do what they can, but to not worry if they cannot bring in money and I make sure that we cover their costs for things.
How do I actually register my chapter?
You send state dues in with the registration form on this website. You also email a spreadsheet of your members with their ID numbers (if you are a new chapter, your school's ID number will be given to you when you register) to the same person who receives your check.
For national registration, you send the dues and a membership list in the mail. Their form is at www.njcl.org. Their membership form includes the fee to join the ACL, which you need to do, if you are not already a member.
All right, so now that I have a chapter, what do I DO with them?
I have found that there are hundreds of activities that a local JCL can do. Some chapters have initiations that range from silly to very serious and full of gravitas. I had one initiation one year and decided that we didn't need to do it every year.
We have a cookie party every year, and a pizza night. We also have movie night, which we either have at school in the afternoon or we go out to the movies if there is something relevant in the theatres. My kids also like to get together and go bowling sometimes. My JCL is rather divided. When we do our *own* activities, they don't necessarily involve classics, but rather they are social situations where we get together because the kids enjoy each other's company. Most of the classics things we do involve competitions, or preparing for competitions.
What kind of competitions can we do?
For this question, I will refer you to the handbook, also accessible at this website. It lists all the possible contests. And also on this website you will find a list of dates and deadlines for those contests.
I am a highly competitive person, and as a result, I always make my students enter every competition. This is by no means required, nor do all chapters do so. For the first couple of years I didn't have any certamen teams, because I had no idea how to coach or start or train a certamen team. I started slowly and built each year. Each year we do more than the year before. There are some schools who join only so their students can do certamen, or only for their students to be in the National Latin Honor Society.
All right, what else is there?
One of the things I like most about JCL is the other sponsors I have met over the past six years I have had a chapter. They have become trusted and cherished colleagues and confidants. I have never met a sponsor who was unwilling to answer a question for me, or to give me guidance with my JCL. Once you register, you will receive emails from time to time, reminders about deadlines and the like. You can get all the sponsor emails from those emails, and any time you have a question you can email me, or another sponsor and get help. If you are looking for a fun activity for your JCL, clarification about a contest, or just some moral support, the sponsors of the North Carolina JCL are as good as gold.
So how do I set up membership numbers?
Here is a sample membership list for your chapter.
You should use an Excel worksheet like the one posted below. In fact, you can use this one, just delete the sample information. Your chapter will not have a membership number unless you were registered last year with the NCJCL. Please use the same numbers you have used in the past. Below you will soon find a list of previously registered schools and their numbers, in case you have forgotten yours. If you are a school that is new to JCL, please email Erin Guzman at the_guz_loves_latin@yahoo.com and she will assign you a chapter number. The student ID numbers that you will create should all begin with your chapter number and be five digits long. For example, if your chapter number is 22, then your first student will be 22001 and the next will be 22002, etc.
Once you have your membership list complete, or if there are any changes throughout the year that need to be made, please email it to Erin Guzman. In the spring, if your chapter does spring registration, please do not change student numbers, but add the new members to the end of your list. For example, if your last student was 22034, your first new student in the spring will be 22035, even if they cannot be in alphabetical order. The information you provide us about your students will be used all year in helping us register students for events and contests. If the information is incomplete in some way, then your registration might be delayed. Please feel free to email me any time with any questions concerning JCL. I will not claim to know everything, but I can certainly steer you in the direction of someone who does. Bonam Fortunam with your new JCL chapter and welcome to the best JCL in the country!
Shara Packman State Co-Chair, Certamen sharapackman@earthlink.net
* Page last updated: Sunday, June 1, 2008, Dillon Crockett, NCJCL Webmaster
