It started with a simple observation. There was virtually no online presence for most of the clubs at our school. There was perhaps a social media page somewhat maintained by the club, a few sentences of description on the school's website, and that was it. Trying to find out what a club did would require a lot of effort.
So I decided to do something about it, and I started with Key Club by running for webmaster. From the beginning the goal was simple: give Key Club a real website of its own. Every time I set out to build and maintain one, though, I ran into the same wall. No club had a webmaster, Key Club included, which made me the first person the club had ever elected to the role. If Key Club had gone this long without one, the other clubs had too, so I ran for their webmaster positions as well, and I won those too.
Here I saw a different problem. It would be too difficult to build and maintain individual websites for every club and, even worse, who knew if a person who succeeded me would know anything about web development? Thus, I decided to look into this question in a different manner: what if there was a single platform where any club could choose its webmaster and create its own website, requiring no coding skills whatsoever?
I really liked this concept, but there still was a certain lack of some sort of online community at our school. Therefore, during one of my Boys State presentations, I proposed the idea of a Spartan Synergy Network, where the students can discuss things and collaborate on school-related projects, because who knew Spartans better than Spartans themselves?
This brought me to another conclusion. I wanted our school to have a unique online space. Not several websites, but one platform that constantly grows to accommodate new needs of our school. Right now that means websites for clubs and personal use, a campus wiki, a library for student writing, and a place to ask the whole school for help, with art and video coming next, and whatever Spartans ask for after that.
One more thing, because I would rather be straight about it. The platform is free to use for the whole campus. Nobody gets turned away and there are no ads. Not now, not ever. Right now I pay every bill myself to keep it running. The plan is simple: the clubs that join split the hosting costs evenly, and paying stays optional, so a club can sign up and use everything without paying a cent. Those contributions are just what keeps the platform alive over time.