CHS IBM San Ramon logo
The Calendar

Schedule

Everything happening at IBM this year — competitions, volunteer events, and guest speakers.

🍬 Food and candy available at all meetings!
September

📌 Goal: Kick off the year and set expectations.

Introductory Meeting

  • Shared club goals (volunteer hours, guest speakers, stock challenge, competitions)
  • Explained leadership opportunities and expectations
  • Preview of upcoming events
October

📌 Goal: Grow the club and launch major initiatives.

Club Kickoff & Recruitment (Session #1)

  • Interest meeting for new members
  • Overview of club goals (competitions, stock challenge, guest speakers)

Stock Market Challenge Begins (10/10–11/10)

  • Members track and compete virtually
  • Winner announced mid-November

Guest Speaker #1: Local Business Owner (Session #2)

  • A local entrepreneur shares how they started, grew, and run their business day to day
  • Real talk on challenges, lessons learned, and advice for students interested in business
  • Live Q&A with members
November

📌 Goal: Launch a new competition and keep members active in the community.

Startup Pitch Deck Challenge

  • Teams of 2–3 invent an original startup and build an investor-style pitch deck
  • Decks cover the problem, solution, target market, business model, competitors, and how the startup makes money
  • Goal: Practice thinking like a founder and pitching like one

Stock Market Challenge Finale (11/10)

  • Winners announced, cash prize awarded

Volunteer Event #1: Small Business Customer Feedback Analysis

  • Help a local small business by collecting and analyzing customer feedback. Create a simple survey, summarize results, and provide recommendations to improve customer experience or sales.

Volunteer Event #2: Local Social Media Boost

  • Help a small business create or improve social media posts for one week (Instagram/TikTok/Facebook) with captions, hashtags, and posting schedules.
December

📌 Goal: Continue the Startup Pitch Deck Challenge and wrap up the semester.

Startup Pitch Deck Challenge

  • Teams finalize and submit their pitch decks
  • Top team wins prizes
  • Goal: Practice critical thinking, business modeling, and persuasive presentation

Winter Break

  • No meetings over break. See you in January!
January

📌 Goal: Introduce the Company Comeback Challenge and learn from business failures.

Company Comeback Challenge

  • Teams of 2–3 choose a real company that failed or declined (e.g., Blockbuster, Toys "R" Us, Kodak)
  • Teams analyze what went wrong and present a strategy for how the company could have been saved
  • Goal: Practice strategic thinking, business analysis, and learning from real-world mistakes

Volunteer Event #1: Business Menu Review

  • Review a local café or restaurant's menu, pricing, and product positioning and suggest improvements.

Volunteer Event #2: Financial Literacy Workshop

  • Create presentations for middle schoolers about saving, budgeting, or entrepreneurship basics.
February

📌 Goal: Introduce the Business Rivalry Challenge and hear from a founder.

Business Rivalry Challenge

  • Teams of 2–3 choose a famous business rivalry (e.g., Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, McDonald's vs. Burger King)
  • Teams break down why one company leads and propose a strategy for the underdog to win
  • Goal: Practice competitive analysis, market research, and strategic decision-making

Guest Speaker #2: Startup Founder

  • A founder shares what it takes to go from idea to company, including funding, early customers, and setbacks

Volunteer Event #1: Local Business Website & Online Presence Review

  • Review a local business's website or online presence and suggest improvements in clarity, credibility, and customer engagement.
March

📌 Goal: Introduce the Ad Campaign Challenge and explore marketing.

Ad Campaign Challenge

  • Teams create a full marketing campaign for a real, existing brand's new product or promotion, including the campaign concept, slogan, target audience, and 3–5 sample ads or social posts

Volunteer Event #1: LinkedIn Optimization Guide Creation

  • Build a student-friendly guide teaching how to use LinkedIn effectively.

Volunteer Event #2: Community Resource Awareness Flyer

  • Design a flyer highlighting important local community resources for students or families.
April

📌 Goal: Welcome our final guest speaker and give back to local businesses.

Guest Speaker #3: To Be Announced

  • Speaker details coming soon

Volunteer Event #1: Google Business Profile Refresh

  • Help local businesses update their Google Business profiles with accurate hours, stronger descriptions, and better photos so customers can find them.

Volunteer Event #2: Small Business Product Photo Day

  • Take clean, professional-looking product photos that small businesses can use on their website and social media.

Board Interns

  • Applications open for underclassmen to shadow current board members and learn how the club runs behind the scenes
  • A great first step toward an officer role next year
May

📌 Goal: Celebrate club members' achievements and plan for the future.

Club Awards & Recognition

  • Awards for best business idea, most improved member, best IBM competitor, etc.

New Club Officer Roles

  • Applications open for next year's President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer
  • Additional board member roles also available
  • Details and application info to be shared at the meeting