Del Valle, Rosa 1

Monica Del Valle, Marina Rosa

Megan Keaton
ENC 2135
7 August 2015
An Evaluation of Communication Within a Student Organization
At Florida State University there are hundreds of student organizations and clubs that
give students the opportunity to get involved on campus. Each organization has its own unique
members, goals, and terminology that separate their community from the others. One
organization in particular, C.H.I.C.S, utilizes many different forms of communication, or genres,
to interact with its members. This paper analyzes the effect these genres have on the C.H.I.C.S
community and how it functions.
What is C.H.I.C.S?
Caring and Helping in Community Service, or C.H.I.C.S, is a student-run, non-profit
organization at Florida State University (FSU). As the Vice President of the organization, Deaven
Palm stated during an interview that C.H.I.C.S was founded by a group of women who wanted
to better their community with service. It is now a co-ed organization with the same purpose.
The fact that this community was at first an all-women organization shows how volunteering in
the community offered a meaningful alternative to careers in paid work for many women
(Johnson, Foley and Elder 45).
C.H.I.C.S membership is open to all students of FSU, including graduates that are no
longer in attendance. There are different forms of membership, which are dependent on the level
of participation in the clubs activities and if a member has applied for an officer position on the
Executive Board, or Eboard. Eboard positions include the President, Vice President, Treasurer,

Del Valle, Rosa 2

Secretary, etc. These officer positions are renewed each year by election, which gives the
members the opportunity to increase their responsibilities and contribution the C.H.I.C.S
community. In order to be eligible for an Eboard position, the members must be actively
completing the required 15 hours of community service and attending the weekly meetings. At
these meetings which are held every Wednesday at 7 p.m., the members that wish to be
considered active members and have the eligibility to participate in the clubs projects must pay
dues.
The purpose of the organization is to serve the community of Tallahassee by hosting
community service projects and volunteering for local organizations. John Wilson defines
volunteering as any activity in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group, or
organization which is exactly what C.H.I.C.S does (Wilson 215). According to the Vice
President of C.H.I.C.S Deaven Palm, [members] volunteer at community cleanups, fundraisers,
the Big Event, Relay for Life, and many, many different kinds of events. The events that
C.H.I.C.S chooses to participate in require members to perform numerous tasks that range from
animal care to fundraising. Members have the freedom to choose which events they would like to
attend in order to suit their personal preferences. Although community service is the primary
purpose of the club, there are other purposes that are beneficial to the students that are members
of C.H.I.C.S. One of the additional purposes is to unite the students of FSU by encouraging
social interaction. The club holds meeting every Wednesday, which gives the members the
opportunity to meet face-to-face on a weekly basis and discuss the clubs future projects and
service opportunities. The frequent interaction among the members enables friendships to be
formed with other students that share the common interest of helping the community.

Del Valle, Rosa 3

There are many reasons why a student would like to join a club like C.H.I.C.S that
focuses primarily on community service. In an interview with the C.H.I.C.S organization advisor
Katie Grissom, she expressed why she felt students should consider joining C.H.I.C.S by stating
that the club helps students find their passion and path in life. Claims made by Susan R. Jones
and Kathleen E. Hill in a journal article support Grissoms statement because they found
evidence that college students who participated in community service were provided a unique
opportunity to reflect on [their] identity and what is important in [their] life(Hill and Jones 532).
Grissom was an active member of C.H.I.C.S before she became the advisor and felt that the club
had something for everyone and that the camaraderie made the transition to college life easier
for the students. Grissom further explained that students may be drawn to community service and
C.H.I.C.S because giving back just feels good. Alternative reasons for students involvement in
community service are described in a journal article titled A Cross-Cultural Examination of
Student Volunteering: Is It All About Rsum Building?. The author states that these reasons
include enhancing rsums [and] making contacts useful for paid employment (qtd. in
Cappellarri and Turati). This means that some of the members of C.H.I.C.S may be more focused
on using the organization as a way to improve their future careers, rather than improving
themselves by contributing to the community.
Key Terms: community service, volunteering, members, students, Eboard, Servscript.
Genres
The CHICS community is made up of about five hundred members, including active,
alumni, and inactive members. With such a large number of members, C.H.I.C.S utilizes many
different genres to ensure that the community is successfully communicating its events and
goals.

Del Valle, Rosa 4

Constitution
In an organization that requires the collaboration of many individuals, it is important to
have a comprehensive list of rules or procedures available to all of the organizations members.
C.H.I.C.S organizes its procedures in the form of a constitution. According to Karolina Milewicz,
constitutions refer to the bulk of basic legal norms organizing and institutionalizing a
[community], and therefore concern the regulation of the basic institutionsthat occupy the
center of the communitys life (Milewicz 418). By Milewiczs definition, a constitution is the
basic framework of how a community operates and is the foundation a community needs to
function on a daily basis.
Constitutions have the ability to create a formal structure within a community that is
made public with the intention of its members abiding by and understanding the constitution
thoroughly. Milewicz explains that, formal elements of a constitution imply that constitutions
have to fulfill related procedural function (Milewicz 418). The formal elements, or conventions,
of a constitution are its articles, sections, amendments, and formal language. The articles of a
constitution act as a written separation between the different ideas the community wants to
incorporate in their body of regulations. For example, in the official C.H.I.C.S constitution, there
are twelve articles, each of which deals with a different aspect of the organizations policies.
These articles are then further divided into multiple subdivisions, or sections. For instance,
article three of the C.H.I.C.S constitution is titled Article III: Membership. This article is
separated into nine sections that outline and define what membership is to the organization,
including the definitions of active membership, inactive membership, alumni membership, and
advisory membership. The sections are extremely detailed in order to ensure that there is no
confusion or disagreement among the communitys members and leaders.

Del Valle, Rosa 5

Another important element of a constitution is that it is written (Milewicz 417).
Physically writing down a constitution establishes it as a formal and rigid document that can be
seen and read by many people anytime and anywhere. The absence of a written constitution can
lead to misinterpretation or a general sense of misinformation due to the fact that the members of
that particular community have no physical copy of the regulations and procedures to refer to.
Writing down the constitution also enables the communitys leadersin C.H.I.C.S case its
executive board membersto edit the document as they see the need for a change, which gives
the constitution flexibility (Milewicz 418). The amendment is another convention of a
constitution that allows the members to add to or revise the documents present state. The
flexibility that these amendments grant is hindered by the fact that there are usually specific
approval requirements. In the C.H.I.C.S constitution, Article XII: Amendments states that an
amendments can only be made with the approval of two-thirds of the executive board and threefourths of active members. The benefit of this approval system is that it requires the involvement
of the community as a whole rather than just the leaders who write the constitution. This gives
the active members a chance to voice opinions and suggestions that the president of C.H.I.C.S
can translate into the formal language that is required when writing a constitution. The use of
formal language gives the document a professional tone and upholds its credibility.
There are many reasons that using a constitution is the most effective way to
communicate the communitys procedural functions. The format of the constitution keeps
C.H.I.C.S organized and ensures that the structure of the club is not compromised. The fact that
the constitution is written with Microsoft Word, allows it to be easily revised and saved. Having
a digital constitution uploaded onto the organizations Nole Central website increases the
members accessibility because it can viewed from anywhere that has Internet access. The

Del Valle, Rosa 6

increased accessibility benefits the organization because potential, future C.H.I.C.S members can
easily become aware of the communitys policies and use the document to make their decision
on whether to join the community or not. The C.H.I.C.S constitution helps the community
maintain the identity it has developed over the course of its existence. The constitution changes
and grows as the C.H.I.C.S community expands and improves as a community.
Servscript
C.H.I.C.S is a community service organization, so it is necessary to have a place where
the members can keep track of their contribution to the community. As stated in FSUs website,
Through the ServScript Program at Florida State University, students can record their service to
the community on their official FSU transcript, this allows students to keep track of their
community service hours and look back at events they have participated in ().Servscript is a form
provided by the Center for Leadership and Social Change that can be filled out online or on a
printed document. The form is made up of tables that are labeled with the information that should
be written in each box. Since the purpose of the form is to track a students community service
hours, the students are required to fill in information regarding the date and time of the service,
what agency they worked with, and the contact information of the agency in order to verify that
the service was completed.
One advantage of using this program over others is that Servscript is both online and a
printout. The members of C.H.I.C.S can easily transfer their community service hours from the
printed form to the online form, which automatically gets submitted into the Servscript system
for review. Once the information on the form has been verified, the students community service
hours are then transferred to their official transcript. This can only be accomplished if the
students meet the deadlines that the Servscript program has listed on the document. Another

Del Valle, Rosa 7

advantage of using Servscript is that because it is a downloadable document, the members can be
easily share their Servscript form with the executive board members that oversee the active
members community service records. The reason Servscript is an important genre to the
community is because, according to the C.H.I.C.S constitution, the active members are required
to complete fifteen hours of community service in order to take part in the C.H.I.C.S social
events.
C.H.I.C.S has the Servscript document posted on the Nole Central website and their
Facebook page. By doing so, the club is utilizing their most important communicative genres to
ensure that their community members can easily access the document. Also, by encouraging the
clubs members to use the same program enhances the organizations uniformity and structure.
Calendar
An official genre used commonly within the community of Caring and Helping in
Community Service is the calendar. This genre is used on the daily bases and it is essential to the
organization as it is the method to plan everything the community does throughout the different
semesters. The calendar is how the student organization can plan accordingly for different
events, and it is a way to keep track and record of how many events they also host and help with
during the semester. The type of calendar C.H.I.C.S uses is a digital calendar, meaning it is
through both the Nole Central website page and through C.H.I.C.S Facebook group page. The
convention of this genre is that it has a certain amount of characters and when scheduling an
event in the calendar, the date, hour, and a short description of the event appears. Since this is a
digital calendar the mediums of this genre are a bit different it is both visual and linguistic as
people can see the events on the calendar and also read the events. And due to the digital
calendar being in both the Nole Central and the Facebook group page it shows that the intended

Del Valle, Rosa 8

audience is not restricted to only members of the organization but since it is in the Nole Central
any person FSU student who logs in and searches Caring and Helping in Community Service
can get access to their calendar.
According to the C.H.I.C.S Constitution that is updated every semester the person who is
always in charge of writing in the calendar and making sure that it is always up to date is the
secretary. The purpose of this genre is to organize all the events and important dates for the
semester all in one place. It is also important to the members as it makes them aware and can
remind them of past or upcoming events. With the calendar also being on the public Nole Central
page, other FSU students who may not be members but are considering joining an organization
can have an explicit look at what events the organization takes part in during the semesters. The
community chooses the digital calendar as a genre rather than just a written calendar in order to
simplify and facilitate the planning and organizing of events for the members. The fact that the
calendar is digital allows members that could not make it to meetings also be informed of when
events are taking place and when the deadline to sign up to be volunteers is.
Facebook
Ever since its creation, the Internet and social media have become a major influences in
the life of many people, including workers and students. As Shawn Smallman mentioned
innovated technology systems have had an extreme impact in the education field, however,
C.H.I.C.S demonstrates how the field of higher education can be influenced by technology
outside of the traditional academic setting (Smallman 188).
One of the most popular social media outlets today is Facebook. Facebook has been the
way people have communicated on a daily basis for years. According to the study by Edison
Research in 2010, Approximately 41% of the U.S population has a personal Facebook page

Del Valle, Rosa 9

(qtd. King, David, and Eric Poulin 43). One of the most frequently used unofficial genres within
the community of Caring and Helping in Community Service (C.H.I.C.S) is Facebook.
The way Facebook is used in student organizations seems to vary depending on how the
organization functions and the activities they take part in, however, the conventions and
mediums of Facebook remain the same. An important and recognizable Facebook convention is
the like button. This button is used to like or express your approval of pictures, status updates,
videos, and organization pages. The like button in the CHICS community can be used as a way
for a member to signify that they are attending an event. For example, if the President of the club
posted a status update asking who was attending an event at an animal shelter, the number of
likes received from the members could give the President an idea of how many people to expect.
Using the like button is a great way to represent a persons positive feeling towards a
status or picture, but one constraint Facebook poses for its users is that there is no dislike button.
The absence of a dislike option can result in a misleading interpretation of the actual level of
approval that a status update or image received. For example, if an image garnered thirty-four
likes it may seem like an image that many people approved of. However, there is no absolute
way of knowing how many people may have disliked the image, which could have been a greater
value than thirty-four. On the other hand, the absence of a dislike button could be construed as an
advantage as well. Eliminating the act of a person being able to dislike someone elses post gets
rid of the risk of Facebook becoming associated with negative feelings and actions. In regards to
C.H.I.C.S, the absence of a dislike button is limiting the clubs ability to gauge the members
opinion on a certain topic. For instance, if a member of the Executive Board posted on Facebook
asking who would be happy with the annual banquet taking place on a Saturday, having a like
and dislike button would make the process of determining the general consensus much easier

Del Valle, Rosa 10

because the numbers would be side by side. An additional constraint of using Facebook as the
main form of communication among the members is that there are many members who may not
have a Facebook page, and therefore miss out on an extra source of information.
It is important to keep in mind that liking a persons picture is not the same as liking an
organizations page. For one to be able to like the picture of a person they must be friends with
that person, while to like an organizational page on Facebook one does not need to follow or
be friends with that person. This makes it easier for organizations to gain an audience because
there are no constraints to becoming apart of the organizations Facebook group.
One of the most frequently used conventions of Facebook is the status update box. A
status update is a written comment or thought that the Facebook user wants to share with their
friends or followers. The status update can be lengthy or short, and can include an attached
file, picture, or video. David King explains that the status update box is your main point of
connection to your local Facebook crowd(King, David, and Eric Poulin 45). Since the status
update is so valuable to Facebook, it is the most effective way to communicate with the users
audience.
It is also important to note that with the many types of social media that currently exist,
Facebook seems to be the one that is mostly used when it comes to businesses purposes as it is
not as informal as Twitter or Instagram. The conventions of Facebook also make it more formal
and a superior form of communication where as Twitter, for example, has a character limit per
post and Instagram is mostly used to post pictures. While Facebook does not have a 140character limit to posts and users are allowed to post pictures, therefore, making Facebook one of
the best resources to use. One of the mediums of Facebook that is used constantly and updated
everyday by users are pictures. Due to the amount of people that have Facebook and log in to

Del Valle, Rosa 11

their account everyday pictures go viral in a matter of hours, making them a very popular
medium of Facebook. With this in mind, most student organizations use Facebook not only as a
source of communication but to complete many other tasks.
C.H.I.C.S ensures that the accessibility of club information is of utmost importance. This
is demonstrated by their consistent reliance on Facebook as a way to fully utilize any or all of
the information generated via collaborative media (Akdere and Thomas 333). The Facebook
genre is a modern way of communication that facilitates the job of the executive board members
as well as the members of the organization (Prom, Christopher, and Ellen Swain 352). In
C.H.I.C.S Facebook is used for a variety of tasks and different members of the Executive Board
have different responsibilities when it comes to updating the Facebook group page. The main
people who update the group page tend to be the President, being the most responsible for
keeping the organizations records, and the Secretary (Prom, Christopher, and Ellen Swain 350).
However, they are not the only ones who can post updates on the group page. Members of the
community of Tallahassee and outside organizations who have been accepted to join the group
can post updates if they need volunteers for events that C.H.I.C.S was not previously aware of.
Members of the organization who are not on the Executive Board are also allowed to voice their
opinion through the Facebook group, seeing as they are allowed to comment on posts, post
pictures of events, and sign up for upcoming events.
The Facebook group benefits the organizations in many different ways, one way is that
this Facebook group serves as a very important communication instrument. It is through
Facebook that members who missed meetings, for example, can become aware of the weekly
events and how to get involved. It is a quicker way of members to get answer to questions when
needed since most people have Facebook on their phones and log into their accounts at least once

Del Valle, Rosa 12

a day. The Facebook group also promotes events, since nowadays social media is the best way to
get peoples attention on certain matters. The Facebook page also allows former members to still
follow and get updates on how the organization is doing as the current president of C.H.I.C.S
stated, Alumni members really like seeing that the club is doing well and sometimes they even
reach out to us about certain events they would like for us to help them out with (Andrade,
Liliana).
Text Messages
Social media is an important part of communication today, but texting has also proven to
be an effective and increasingly common form of communication. According to anthropologist
Gray Graffam, we are witnessing a revolution in text messaging (Graffam 157). The steady
increase in the use of text messaging as a go-to communicative method among teens and young
adults has influenced the way businesses and organizations, like C.H.I.C.S, choose to
communicate with their members.
The conventions of a text message make it more appealing to the younger demographic.
There are no strict rules requiring a particular use of language when writing a text message, so
the composer has free will to be as casual as they would like to be when sending the message.
For this reason, it is common to use abbreviations and acronyms when texting in order to keep
the message short. The format of a text message can depend on the the situation in which it is
being written and who it is being written to. For example, if an employer texted an employee
about a shift change, the message would most likely be more formal and professional than a text
message conversation between co-workers that are close friends. The relationship between the
people that are texting affects what is written and how it is interpreted. Texting proves to be an
effective form of communication for C.H.I.C.S due to the fact that the member of the community

Del Valle, Rosa 13

are teens and young adults, which, as mentioned above, is the demographic group that utilizes
text messaging the most.
Using a text message to convey information is beneficial in many ways. Texting can be a
good way for members of the CHICS community to clarify event details and quickly notify
members on unexpected changes (Graffam 157). In a community that relies heavily on
organization and planning, it is necessary to have the ability to reach members the instant a
situation arises. An example of one of these situations is if a member became ill and was unable
to attend one of the weekly meetings. They could easily send a text to an Executive Board
member or any other member that attended the meeting asking what they missed. Using a text
message would be more appropriate than an email in this situation because it is less formal and
requires a quick and simple response. This is just an example of a one-on-one benefit to text
messaging. Texts can also be utilized by the Executive Board members to contact more than one
member at a time. They could send a group text to the active members if they forgot to mention
something important at a meeting or if for some reason a scheduled meeting must be cancelled.
Email
An additional way CHICS communicates with its members is by email. Emailing is
similar to texting because it is another digital way to connect with the members quickly. The
difference between the two is that sending an email is seen as a more professional way of
communicating than sending a text message. Emails contain a subject line that lets the receiver
know what to expect when they read the email. There is also an option to add a level of
importance or urgency to the subject line in order to signal the receiver that the email has a
greater degree of importance than it usually would. The benefit of using email to communicate is
that the email can be lengthy and as detailed as the composer would like it to be. The composer

Del Valle, Rosa 14

also has the ability to attach documents, photos, or videos that may be relevant to the emails
subject. One thing that hinders an emails effectiveness is the fact that people can receive
hundreds of emails a day from companies, which might deter them from checking it frequently.
In C.H.I.C.S emails are used for a variety of purposes. They can be used for simple tasks
such as answering a quick question an outside organization might have about C.H.I.C.S, or even
answering questions members have. Emails can also be used to promote events because emails
can be more lengthy than other types of communication and promotional tools. Furthermore,
emails allow for a more descriptive explanation of what events entail. But one of the main ways
emails are used within this community is to communicate with other organizations outside of
FSU. This is because emails are a more professional way of communication rather than texting
or Facebook. And so emails are the way that C.H.I.C.S can get in touch with, for example,
nursing homes and ask them how they can assist that nursing home.
Flyers
Another very common unofficial genre used within many student organizations is the
genre of flyers. Flyers are used with the purpose to promote events, meetings, or anything else
that the organization is taking part in. For the most part flyers are used for this same purpose but
to reach slight different goals depending on the organization. The conventions of a flyer are that
they must call attention in order to serve their purpose to inform, persuade, and aware people of
the information they contain. Flyers likewise contains a title or heading that states the name of
the event and usually includes a summary of what the event is going to be about. Important
conventions of flyers also are pictures; pictures emphasize and highlight the information in the
flyers. The use of rhetoric devices such as pathos, when creating a flyer is also very important
and helpful when choosing the pictures. For example, when trying to gather volunteers to help at

Del Valle, Rosa 15

a dog shelter, a picture of a dog alone in a shelter will generate emotional responses from their
audience in the flyer therefore having a greater impact on the decision that the person makes to
either volunteer or not. And lastly the flyer will contain important information regarding the
event such as the date, address, and if needed the recommended attire and/or materials. The
medium of flyers are very basic as they are just sheets of paper, making flyers a very inexpensive
and popular way to promote an event.
Flyers within the community of C.H.I.C.S serve the purpose of promoting events and
recruiting volunteers.The flyers would not be used with the purpose of promoting anything else
but events, for example, this genre would not be used to promote a club meeting. Flyers are very
commonly used amongst this community as it is an inexpensive and great way to promote an
event or get the help needed for an event. The limitations to it are that sometimes flyers end up
being too brief and not giving enough information to convince a person to volunteer in a project.
The people in charge of writing and creating these flyers are the members of the organization
with the help of the Secretary. And the intended audience ranges from members that are a part of
C.H.I.C.S to citizens of Tallahassee depending on the project. C.H.I.C.S uses this genre over
other means of promoting due to the amount of benefits that flyers entail.
Chalking
Since C.H.I.C.S is a community service organization that hosts and takes part in many
events it is necessary to promote these events. Besides flyers, another way of promotion is
through what the community refers to as chalking. The current Vice President of the
organization, Deaven Palm, said during an interview that we [members] create chalking every
week to reach out to non-members. This unconventional genre is executed by writing with chalk
amongst sidewalks in order to not only reach out to non-members as Deaven Palm stated, but

Del Valle, Rosa 16

also to inform the FSU community of events and community service opportunities. The
conventions of chalking are that the message in the chalking is very brief, maybe only stating the
name of the event or what the event is, along with the time, date, and location. The chalk
messages tend to be colorful and written largely so that they catch the attention of passers-by.
The location of these chalk messages are usually in areas of the campus that are known for being
highly populated with students so that the messages have a greater chance of being seen by
multiple people.
The benefit of using chalking as a form of promotion is that it is very inexpensive and so
easy to do that any of the community members could do it. Additionally, the options for where
these messages are placed are quite extensive seeing as there are sidewalks all over campus. The
constraints of chalking are mainly concerned with its durability. The writing is located outside
which makes the messages highly susceptible to being washed away by rain or smudged by
students walking over them. Also, due to the length of the messages, like flyers, the chalkings
may not give enough information to convince the audience to participate in the event. However,
it is still a method that is used a lot since it calls the attention of many in the student body of
FSU. The people in charge of making these are the members with the supervision of the Public
Relations executive, as he or she is the one who chooses how the publicizing of an event will go
about. Therefore this genre helps the community meet its goals of promoting events and
community service opportunities to the intended audience in a different and interesting manner,
which is another reason why the community of C.H.I.C.S would pick this genre over different
ones.
How do the genres relate?

Del Valle, Rosa 17

The relationship between all of the genres creates a system, or ecology, that allows
C.H.I.C.S to function. One genres purpose affects how and why a different genre is used. For
example, the constitution is very important to the C.H.I.C.S organization because it contains the
bylaws that the organization must abide by. These bylaws are renewed every year by the
Executive Board members and the organization advisor on a specific date which is listed on the
communitys public calendar. Furthermore, in Article III section 3 of the Constitution in order for
a member to remain an active member within the community they are Required to provide 15
hours of service with C.H.I.C.S (Gilanis and Grissom 1). The way the members input said
community service hours is through the genre of Servscript. Much like the renewal of the
constitution, Servscript has specific deadlines that are posted on the community calendar.
Reminders for these deadlines on the calender can also be posted to the Facebook page or sent
through email and text. The connection between these three genres maintains order within the
community because they create a routine procedure that is followed by all of the members of the
community.
The flyer and chalking genres are connected because they serve the same purpose, which
is to attract volunteers and promote events. The flyer contains a short summary of what the event
entails and is usually made before the chalking, which contains a brief informative message
regarding the event. Therefore, chalkings are made based on the summarized information of
flyers. These two promotional genres are also connected to the calendar because the information
about the event is initially processed and inscribed on the calendar.
As a collaborative media Facebook allows users to share information with all of the
group members at once, and the same can be said about the use of emails and text messages
among the members of C.H.I.C.S (Akdere and Thomas 333). These three genres are the most

Del Valle, Rosa 18

interactive of all the genres because they allow information to be shared quickly among the
members. Facebook is not only connected to the digital/online genres. Facebook seems to be
connected with all the other genres because it is where members post many of the clubs
important documents such as Servscript sheets, the calendar, and event sign up sheets. Facebook
is where all the genres are able to interact and function as a whole. For example, the date and
time for meetings are posted on the Facebook page. After the meeting the weekly and monthly
events are posted on Facebook and in the digital calendar. The constitution plays a role in who
posts these events to Facebook because the constitution contains the roles of each Executive
Board member in the club. The constitution determines the duties of the Vice President which
includes finding events for the club to participate and sharing the events with the club members,
so they would most likely be the one to post updates and event dates to the Facebook page. These
dates and event descriptions are then summarized and put into flyers, which are further
simplified by being shortened to chalk messages.
What does the system say about C.H.I.C.S?
Understanding all of the genres the C.H.I.C.S community takes advantage of offers
insight about the communitys identity. One characteristic of the C.H.I.C.S community is their
dedication to helping students form bonds with each other through numerous opportunities for
interaction. The chairman of the Department of Sociology at Yale University Burton R. Clark
describes one type of social bonding as being structural, which occurs as a result of the patterns
of interaction between people and groups. The second type of social bonding explained by Clark
is normative, which results from shared beliefs, attitudes, and values (Clark 1). Both forms of
social bonding are encouraged in the C.H.I.C.S community.

Del Valle, Rosa 19

One way the structural form of social bonding occurs in the C.H.I.C.S community is
through the routine interactions the members experience when using Facebook to communicate.
Using social media as their primary communicative media exhibits the communitys desire to be
open and available to as many people as possible. The fact that anyone can join their Facebook
group or see their chalkings and flyers around campus creates a culture of acceptance and
openness in their community. The openness of the club demonstrates the importance of structural
bonding and forming relationships when becoming a member.
Community service and volunteering serve as the common denominators among the
group members of the CHICS community, which enables the normative form of social bonding.
The members and non-members who are apart of the Facebook group are constantly exposed to
new opportunities to get to know fellow students that are interested in the same things as they
are. The atmosphere created by the C.H.I.C.S Facebook page effectively removes the prevalent
sense of exclusion that social media can inhibit on its users. By creating a safe platform for
students to interact, C.H.I.C.S is taking advantage of the outreach social media has, but only
allowing the positive side of it to be affiliated with their community. This reflects the positive
attitude that C.H.I.C.S wants to pass on to all of its members. The way CHICS uses Facebook
could also influence other student organizations at Florida State University. If other clubs see the
way the CHICS Facebook page produces positive interaction and attention, they may create a
page for their club with the hope of achieving the same outcome. In this way CHICS would be
impacting the way Facebook is typically used
The C.H.I.C.S organizations primary goal is to encourage volunteering and produce a
group of selfless and giving people who value community service. They use the constitution to
enforce these values by incorporating a section in the constitution that establishes the

Del Valle, Rosa 20

requirement of fifteen community service hours. The club successfully manipulates the
constitution by using it to reflect their values while simultaneously discussing the procedures and
formalities of the group. Including this section compels the members to give back and become
accustomed to volunteering.
The value the club places upon volunteering and giving back to the community can also
be seen through name of the organization. While many community service organizations are
named after a specific service or community, very few of them really express an emotion that
they want outsiders to associate with their association. C.H.I.C.S shows their organizations
intentions and the emotions they hope to leave with their members through the name of the
organization. By having the word Caring in its name, C.H.I.C.S establishes their purpose and
the way they accomplish their community service. This allows non-members and outside
organizations to understand that C.H.I.C.S is committed not only physically to their service
events but emotionally as well. In this situation members are physically committed because they
have to take the time to go places in order to do the community service and most of the times
they also have to engage in physical activities in order to get the work done, like if they
participated in a campus cleanup event. The members are also emotionally committed to their
community service events, as they have to want to attend but also demonstrate a passion for what
they are doing. The members want the people or organizations that they help to feel that the
C.H.I.C.S community truly cares about the community and is focused on making a difference
through volunteering. This emotional connection can be seen in the clubs use of Facebook,
which they use to post pictures of the members at the events. In most of the pictures and
comments, the members seem happy and express their satisfaction with participating in the
event. As a result, Facebook becomes another way for the organization to promote themselves as

Del Valle, Rosa 21

a selfless and lighthearted club, rather than just a way for friendships to be made which is the
conventional use of Facebook.
The extensive measures C.H.I.C.S takes in order to promote their community service
events displays their passion for wanting to extend the desire to volunteer and help others. The
informality of chalking and flyers can be representative of the light hearted and fun approach
C.H.I.C.S takes when reaching out to members outside of their community. The use of chalkings
and flyers represents a part of who C.H.I.C.S is, because while other communities have much
more expensive ways to promote events, this organization chooses to find an inexpensive and
easy, yet creative method of promoting and catching the attention of potential volunteers. The
messages the community tries to spread to other students may impact how other clubs choose to
promote their agendas and events. The club successfully makes promotion and advertising a
selfless act with pure intentions through the use of social media and unconventional, yet effective
methods.
The community of C.H.I.C.S at Florida State University can be considered a discourse
community according to Swales six characteristics. Swales states that in order for a community
to be considered a discourse community a very important characteristic is that the discourse
community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of
its aims (Swales 472). C.H.I.C.S has proven its status as a discourse community through the use
of many different genres as a means of promotion and communication in order to reach its goals.
The club thrives due to its attention to structure, connectedness, and networking.

Del Valle, Rosa 22

Works Cited
Andrade, Liliana. Personal interview. 20 Jul. 2015.
"Caring and Helping in Community Service." Nole Central. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2015.
Clark, Burton R. "Belief and Loyalty in College Organization." The Journal of Higher
Education 42.6, The Invitational Seminar on Restructuring College and University
Organization and Governance (1971): 499-515. Print.
Galanis, Lauren, Katie Turman. Caring and Helping in Community Service Florida State
University Constitution. Caring and Helping in Community Service, 2013. Web.
Graffam, Gray. "Design Anthropology Meets Marketing." Anthropologica 52.1 (2010): 155-64.
Print.
Grissom, Katie. Personal interview. 23 Jul. 2015.
Handy, Femida, et al. "A Cross-Cultural Examination of Student Volunteering: Is it all about
Rsum Building?" Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 39.3 (2010): 498-523.
Web.
Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick. "Women's Community Service, 1940-1960: Insights from a
Cohort of Gifted American Women." The Sociological Quarterly 45.1 (2004): 45-66.
JSTOR. Web. 27 July 2015.
Jones, Susan R., and Kathleen E. Hill. "Understanding Patterns of Commitment: Student
Motivation for Community Service Involvement." The Journal of Higher Education 74.5
(2003): 516-39. Print.
King, David Lee. "Facebook for Libraries: It's Easy to Use Social Media's Most Popular Tool to
Connect with Your Community." American Libraries 42.5/6 (2011): 42-45. JSTOR. Web.
27 July 2015.

Del Valle, Rosa 23

Milewicz, Karolina. "Emerging Patterns of Global Constitutionalization: Toward a Conceptual
Framework." Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 16.2, Special Issue: Symposium:
Global Constitutionalism - Process and Substance; Kandersteg, Switzerland, January 1720, 2008; Guest Editors: Anne Peters and Klaus Armingeon (2009): 413-36. Print.
Palm, Deaven. Personal interview. 18 Jul. 2015.
Prom, Christopher J. "From the College Democrats to the Falling Illini: Identifying, Appraising,
and Capturing Student Organization Websites." The American Archivist 70.2 (2007): 34463. JSTOR. Web. 27 July 2015.
"ServScript Program." / The Center for Leadership & Social Change / FSU. Florida State
University, n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.
Swales, John M. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 1990. Print.
Thomas, Kristopher J., and Mesut Akdere. "Social Media as Collaborative Media in Workplace
Learning." Human resource development review 12.3 (2013): 329-44. Web.
Wilson, John. "Volunteering." Annual Review of Sociology 26.No. (2000): 215-40. JSTOR. Web.
27 July 2015.

Del Valle, Rosa 24

Genre Ecology Map

Del Valle, Rosa 25

Del Valle, Rosa 26