Nerds With Athletic Capability: An Unregistered Student Organization

In this paper, I discuss the results of an ethnographic project about an Unregistered Student Organization (club) which plays games of Capture the Flag on the quad of Illinois State University twice a week and how the club is used by members for personal and social purposes. I show that members use the group to get enjoyment from the physical and mental exercise required in the game, gaining fame among a group of peers, and as a social reservoir from which can be drawn a variety of social wants or needs. Based on these preliminary findings the only conclusion I can think of is that the group is important to the people associated with it and I have several recommendations to the university. Create a common space for students to congregate such as a student union, use the universities Resident Assistants to bring in new members to CtF which would also give the RAs an easy program to attend, and to provide some form of counseling service for organizations that are having internal problems.unpublishe