Starting or Revitalizing a Student Chapter

Starting a new INFORMS Student Chapter 

If a student or faculty advisor is interested in starting a new INFORMS Student Chapter at their university, a New Student Chapter Application can be completed online. 

The requirements set by INFORMS for student chapter formation are as follows:

  1. A faculty advisor who is a member of INFORMS and recognized to provide secure intellectual leadership.
  2. A slate of officers (interim or full term) and the provision of their names, email addresses and INFORMS Member ID.  
  3. A petition signed by 10 or more interested INFORMS members in good standing. The letter of petition should be signed by the faculty advisor and the petitioning officers.
  4. A set of Chapter Bylaws adopted by the interested members to be approved by the Chapters/Fora Committee of the Subdivisions Council of INFORMS.

Once the new chapter application has been verified and approved by the INFORMS Membership & Communities Department, your team may move forward with completing the above requirements. Once you have the documents in place, submit them to the INFORMS Membership & Communities Department and we will forward them on to the Chapters/Fora Committee, which is the body that oversees INFORMS chapters. They review and vote electronically on new petitions over a period of several weeks. Sometimes they request a change to the bylaws before they vote. Once they have voted, we send the documents on to the Subdivisions Council, which is one step higher than the committee. They too review and vote on the petition. They typically approve if the Committee does, although they also have the right to request changes if they think it’s necessary. The entire process may take about 10-12 weeks after the point when you submit the bylaws, slate of officers, and petition with signatures.

Revitalizing a Student Chapter

Sometimes chartered student chapters fall into inactivity. Provided the Subdivisions Council and the Board of Directors have not deactivated the chapter, revitalizing it is a fairly simple process organizationally.

If a student or faculty advisor is interested in starting a new INFORMS Student Chapter at their university, a Revitalization Student Chapter Application can be completed online. 

The requirements set by INFORMS for student chapter reactivation are as follows:

  1. A faculty advisor who is a member of INFORMS and recognized to provide secure intellectual leadership.
  2. A reactivation petition signed by 10 or more interested INFORMS members in good standing. The letter of petition should be signed by the faculty advisor and the petitioning officers.
  3. A slate of officers (interim or full term) and the provision of their names, email addresses, and INFORMS Member ID.

Once the revitalization student chapter application has been verified and approved by the Membership & Communities Department, your team may move forward with completing the above requirements. Once you have the documents in place, submit them to the INFORMS Membership & Communities Department for review. This process should take 2-3 weeks. Once approved for revitalization, we will send the student chapter officers onboarding materials.