Every year over 4,000 undergraduate students take Economics 101 and 102 at Iowa State. Among those thousands of students are a handful of Economics majors and many dozen Agricultural Business majors. How do Econ majors find each other in such a crowd? One answer: in the Econ Club.

The earliest evidence we could locate shows that there has been a club for undergraduates majoring in Economics at Iowa State on and off since the early 1980s. The current Econ Club was revitalized in 2001 by a sophomore named Jake Short. Jake spoke with Prof. Terry Alexander in the spring. He described the interest that a handful of econ majors had in forming a student club. As Jake says, "We wanted a club that would help us meet like-minded people, to learn more about economists and what economists do, and to develop a community. We needed it. We wanted it." Terry encouraged Jake to organize a meeting. Almost a dozen students showed up, and "the rest is history."

Each semester the Econ Club has organized a variety of successful events. They invite ISU Economics Department professors to speak on their favorite topic. For example, the first invited lecture was on Public Choice by Prof. Oscar Volij. The club hosts tailgate parties at football home games. Also during the fall, the Econ Club hosts at least three presentations for juniors and seniors planning for their future. One is about careers and internships in the private sector, another is about jobs for economists in the public sector, and the third is about economics graduate study. In December, the club holds a Christmas Party. The party usually consists of dinner including club members, friends and guests at a local restaurant, with a random-match gift exchange.

In spring the club elects new officers, hosts invited speakers, and organizes at least one field trip. In 2002 the club spent three days in Chicago, visiting the Fed, the CBOT, and the MERC. They also had a great time. In 2004, the club attended the Minneapolis Fed's Spring Conference. They were the only undergraduate students at the sessions, and made good impressions on the faculty and professional economists at the conference. They also got to hear Prof. Ed Prescott "speak." A couple months later, Dr. Prescott won the Nobel Prize in Economics!

In the eighties, the club was organized on an academic year basis, according to the traditional pattern for student organizations at Iowa State. That meant that every fall, the task of organizing the first meeting of the year fell to the faculty advisor. Without an energetic and responsible faculty advisor, there would be no officers elected in the fall, and no club for the rest of a year. That's probably why the club lacked staying power.

The current club made a simple change to help ensure continuity over the summer, and year-to-year. Econ Club officers are now elected for a calendar year. Candidates for office are often identified at the annual Christmas Party. And elections are held very quickly at the beginning of the spring semester. This way, outgoing club officers overlap with and can assist the new officers each spring. The Econ Club executive is always ready-to-roll the very first week of each fall semester. The Econ Club is probably the most self-actualized student organization on campus. They do not depend on their faculty advisor at all.

The current By-Laws of the Econ Club are short yet comprehensive. They were inspired by two ideas. One is the idea that the task of an economist is to identify the minimum set of institutions needed to help society achieve it s goals. The other was the original by-laws of the Midwest Econometric Society (now the Midwest Econometrics Group). According to the faculty advisor of the club at that time, Prof. Maureen Kilkenny, those by-laws stated in four sentences that the purpose of the society was to promote econometrics; any interested economist was welcome to be a member; there would be one meeting per year hosted by a member's institution, and there was to be no further by-laws. "We like to keep it simple."

Econ Club members have actively participated in expanding the number of Economics majors at ISU. Four years ago there were 30 economics majors. In 2005 there are over 110 economics majors. One of the most important ways the club promotes the major is by meeting for pizza and soft drinks regularly. It provides a venue where nerds can meet other nerds, feel at home, and have a good time. Everyone is welcome. Club members have also hosted prospective majors and their families.

They also designed and produced attractive club shirts. An "Old Cy" and the words ECON CLUB are embroidered in cardinal, gold, and black on navy, white, or yellow short-sleeved polo shirts. There are still shirts available (see Arne Hallam) for $15 each. The Econ Club's attitude is "Economics is Cool. Economics is fun. Economics is interesting." This is very attractive. One can now safely say that it is cool to be an Econ major at Iowa State.

The Econ Club also promotes the study of economics in general. Since the current Econ Club has been active, the proportion of ISU Econ majors who have gone on to do graduate work in Economics has also risen. After the club's first full calendar year, ISU graduates went into PhD programs at, for example, Northwestern and Stanford. At least a half dozen of the 2005 graduating Econ Club members started PhD programs in Economics. For example, Econ Club's founding President Jake Short is currently in his first year of the PhD program at the University of Minnesota. Founding Econ Club Treasurer Becky Heller is in her first year of the PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin; and so on. The 2004 President, Trevor Plett (BS 2005), has joined the Peace Corps. Trevor is likely to be posted on the front lines of American diplomacy, helping to develop markets in a Central Asian republic such as Uzbekistan or Tajikistan.

And the Econ Club also promotes individuals. It provides a context for ISU's Gamma Chapter of the Economics Honor Society Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE). Hundreds of ISU students have been inducted into ODE since 2002. This honor shows up on transcripts. Econ Club founding president Jake Short was the recipient of the ODE Gold Key Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student in 2003. Econ Club members practice developing their portfolios by submitting their papers to the ODE journal "The American Economist." One student won Honorable Mention in the 2003 Tiebout Prize competition for outstanding undergraduate research paper.

Prof. Joydeep Bhattacharya is the new faculty advisor for the Econ Club, and Prof. Brent Krieder is the faculty advisor of the Gamma Chapter of ODE. The club is always interested in hearing from economists in the private sector, in government, or in academia who are willing to discuss what economists do. Please contact any of them if you have something to share.