If Your Campus Has No SNMA Chapter: Starting One Without Burning Out

The worst way to start an SNMA chapter is to try to be the entire organization by yourself.

If your campus has no SNMA chapter and you feel that itch—frustration, isolation, and the urge to build something—this is for you. You can absolutely start a chapter. You can also absolutely burn yourself out, tank your grades, and start resenting the very people you wanted to support if you do it wrong.

Let’s not do it wrong.

This is a play-by-play for two specific situations:

• You’re a premed on a college campus with no SNMA or MAPS chapter
• You’re a medical student on a campus with no SNMA chapter

Different details, same core problem: you want community and structure that does not currently exist. Here’s how to build it in a way that protects your time, your mental health, and your long-term goals.

(See also: Managing Student Org Conflict: Protecting Your Reputation With Faculty for insights on navigating challenges.)

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Step 1: Get Clear on Why You’re Doing This (So You Don’t Overbuild)

You don’t start an SNMA chapter because it “would look good on your application.” That’s how people end up with a logo, an Instagram account, and no actual members.

You start a chapter because there’s a specific gap you’re trying to fill on your campus. Your first task is to define that gap in one sentence.

Examples:

• “Black premeds here have zero structured mentorship from medical students or physicians.”
• “Our med school has less than 5% Black students and no formal community; incoming students feel isolated and unsupported.”
• “We’re in a rural area with no pipeline for local Black high school students to see medicine as an option.”

Write your sentence down. That’s your north star.

Then answer three brutally honest questions:

1. If I did nothing, what would actually happen?

   • Maybe the isolation continues. Maybe students drop premed quietly. Maybe nothing changes. This reminds you that the problem is real, not imaginary.

2. What’s the smallest, lowest-effort version of a solution?

   • Not a conference. Not a massive health fair.
   • Think: one mentorship program, one monthly support meeting, one MCAT study circle.

3. What’s my realistic time/energy budget per week?

   • Premed: 2–3 hours/week is usually the max during the semester if you want competitive grades and MCAT prep.
   • Med student: 1–2 hours/week on average is realistic during pre-clinicals; 1 hour or less on rotations.

If your plan requires more than that on a regular week, it’s not a plan, it’s a fantasy.

You are not starting “National SNMA 2.0 – Campus Edition.” You’re launching a minimum viable chapter that:

• Meets a clear need
• Has 1–3 sustainable core activities
• Can survive if you disappear for 2–3 weeks around exams or Step/MCAT prep

That’s your target.

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Step 2: Understand What SNMA Actually Is (and What You’re Signing Up For)

Before you make big moves, you need to know what SNMA is structurally. That shapes how you start.

Very quick context:

• SNMA (Student National Medical Association) is the largest organization focused on supporting underrepresented minority medical students, especially Black students.
• MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-medical Students) is SNMA’s undergraduate arm. Premeds usually create a MAPS chapter that’s affiliated with a local SNMA medical school chapter.

Your situation dictates your approach:

• If you’re a premed and there’s a med school nearby with SNMA:
  You probably want to create a MAPS chapter and officially affiliate with that SNMA chapter. They become your “parent” chapter.

• If you’re a premed and there is no SNMA chapter anywhere near you:
  You may still form a MAPS chapter, but you’ll work directly with regional/national SNMA to get some structure.

• If you’re a med student and your school has no SNMA chapter at all:
  You’re starting an SNMA chapter from scratch. Later, local colleges can form MAPS chapters linked to you.

What you don’t have to do right away:

• Build a full executive board with 10 positions
• Run every official SNMA national program out the gate
• Host huge events to “prove” you’re legit

Your first phase is about:

• Basic recognition (campus + SNMA)
• Core leadership group
• Simple, recurring activities that directly help students

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Step 3: Quiet Recon – Who’s Already Doing Similar Work?

Before you plant a flag, you need to know the terrain. You don’t want to duplicate another org’s function, and you definitely don’t want political turf wars when you’re just trying to build community.

Your scouting list:

• Premed level:

  • Black Student Union or African/Caribbean student org
  • Pre-health/pre-medical society
  • Any existing MAPS chapter at a nearby campus
  • Diversity office / Office of Multicultural Affairs
  • Premed advisor who knows which students are struggling or isolated

• Med student level:

  • LMSA (Latino Medical Student Association)
  • APAMSA or other affinity groups
  • General Student Government or Medical Student Council
  • Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)
  • Admissions or pipeline programs office

Your job in this phase:

1. Talk to real people, not just websites. Ask:

   • “What’s missing here for Black premeds/med students?”
   • “Have people ever tried to start SNMA/MAPS before? What happened?”
   • “Who should I talk to if I want to explore this idea further?”

2. Identify 3–5 students who:

   • Are consistently mentioned as leaders or “go-to” people
   • Actually show up for things (very different from people who talk big)
   • Seem burned out already (you’ll need to protect them from overcommitting)

Write down names. You’re building your short list of potential co-founders.

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Step 4: Find 2–3 Co-Founders (Not 10 Officers)

You don’t need a 9-person executive board. You need two or three people who will actually do things.

When you approach them, don’t lead with, “Do you want to be Vice President of…”
Lead with honesty:

“There’s no SNMA/MAPS here and people are falling through the cracks. I’m thinking small and sustainable: one or two core programs, max. I’m looking for 2–3 people to build it with me in a way that won’t wreck anyone’s GPA or mental health.”

Set the tone early:

• Say explicitly: “We will design this chapter around our bandwidth, not guilt or perfection.”
• Clarify that titles come last. Function comes first.
• Ask what each person realistically can give per week during a normal term and during exams.

If someone says:

• “I could maybe help when I’m free, but I don’t want responsibility.”
  Good. That’s a member, not a co-founder.

• “I love planning big events and I want to host a conference.”
  Good energy, but you need to ground it:
  “First semester we’re not doing anything that big. Let’s prove we can run one small, recurring program consistently.”

Co-founders you actually want:

• One person who’s good with logistics and deadlines
• One person who’s a connector and knows a lot of people
• One person who’s comfortable communicating with faculty/admin

You can be more than one of those, but you cannot be all three forever.

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Step 5: Get Right With Your Calendar Before You Commit

This is the part most people skip. That’s why burnout hits around midterms.

Take 20–30 minutes and do this, literally:

1. Pull out your actual calendar (Google Calendar or paper).

2. Block off:

   • All classes, labs, clinical time
   • Study blocks you truly need each week
   • MCAT/Step dedicated prep (if applicable)
   • Major exam weeks, OSCEs, big assignment due dates

3. Look at what’s left. Circle or highlight:

   • One weekday evening block (e.g., Tuesdays 6–8 pm)
   • One weekend block (e.g., Saturdays 10–12)

Those are your only allowable times for SNMA/MAPS work. If a task cannot fit into one of those blocks, it doesn’t fit your life. That might mean:

• You don’t respond to non-urgent emails daily
• You don’t say yes to every collaboration request
• You schedule events far in advance and keep them small

Then have each co-founder do the same. Compare. Pick:

• One weekly or biweekly meeting time
• One “work block” time for planning or events

If you can’t find overlap? That’s a sign. Either you:

• Keep the chapter extremely minimal at first
• Or you delay launch until at least 2–3 of you have compatible schedules

Starting “officially” when you can’t even meet is how things die.

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Step 6: Decide on Your Chapter’s First-Year Focus (No More Than 2 Pillars)

You will be tempted to make a long list of programs. Don’t.

Pick one or two pillars for Year 1. That’s it.

Examples based on common needs:

If you’re a premed starting MAPS

Possible pillars:

1. Mentorship & Guidance

   • MCAT study groups
   • Application workshops
   • Panel with medical students and physicians 2–3x per year

2. Community & Support

   • Monthly “Black Premed Check-In” sessions
   • Group accountability for studying
   • Safe space to debrief experiences with advisors, professors, or microaggressions

If you’re a med student starting SNMA

Possible pillars:

1. Internal Community & Wellness

   • Monthly SNMA lunch or dinner discussion
   • Group Step/COMLEX/board support resources sharing
   • Peer mentorship across M1–M4

2. Pipeline Engagement (light)

   • One local high school or college partnership for the year
   • Maybe 1–2 outreach events, not a full-blown pipeline program

Your filter for every idea:

• Does this directly serve our defined gap?
• Can we do this repeatedly without wrecking exam weeks?
• If all but 1 leader vanished, could this still happen?

If the answer is no, it’s a Year 2 idea.

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Step 7: Make It Official Without Making It Complicated

You usually need two levels of recognition:

1. Campus Recognition (Student Org Status)
   This often requires:

   • A basic constitution/bylaws
   • A minimum number of members (sometimes as few as 5–10)
   • A faculty or staff advisor
   • Officer roles listed (President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer at minimum)

   To avoid burnout:

   • Write the shortest constitution possible that still gets approved. Use SNMA/MAPS sample docs if available.
   • Keep officer roles broad. Everyone can help with events and planning.
   • Pick an advisor who actually answers emails and gets the mission, not just a random name.

2. SNMA/MAPS Affiliation
   Check the national SNMA website or contact your regional director for:

   • Chapter application or interest form
   • Membership requirements and dues
   • Regional or national support available for new chapters

Again, minimum viable:

• Get your core officers registered
• Make sure at least your leaders are national SNMA members
• Don’t force every student to become a dues-paying member on day one. Let them experience value first.

If paperwork is dragging on for months?

• Operate informally as an “SNMA/MAPS interest group” while the forms crawl through bureaucracy.
• Keep your activities going. Paperwork should never be the main event.

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Step 8: Build in Burnout Protection From Day One

You’re in medicine or trying to get there. Which means your baseline stress is already high. SNMA should support you, not drain you.

Concrete burnout protections:

1. No-Guilt Exam Blackout Policy

   • Decide as a group: during exam weeks/Step dedicated/MCAT month, SNMA activities pause or scale down drastically.
   • Put these blackout weeks on your calendar at the start of the semester. Communicate them to members.

2. 2-Hour Rule for Events

   • Planning any event (workshop, panel, outreach) takes work.
   • Cap individual time: no one should spend more than 2–3 hours per week on a single event, including emails.
   • If it requires more, either simplify or bring in more help.

3. Role Rotation and “Soft Landing” Clause

   • In your internal agreements, say:
     “Any officer can step back to a lighter role with 2–4 weeks’ notice if life hits hard (family issues, illness, Step/MCAT crisis).”
   • Better to redistribute than force someone to white-knuckle it and then ghost.

4. Quarterly Reality Check Meetings

   • Once a quarter:
     • Did we overcommit?
     • Are events actually attended and helpful?
     • Are grades or mental health taking a hit?
   • If yes, cut something. You’re allowed to downsize.

5. Say No to “One More Thing” Requests
   When admin or other orgs say, “Can SNMA do X?” here’s a script:

   • “We’d love to support, but our focus this semester is [Pillar 1] and [Pillar 2]. We don’t have capacity for additional programs right now without compromising what we’ve started.”

   You don’t need to sound apologetic. You’re protecting your core mission.

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Step 9: Launch Small, Then Layer Slowly

When you’re ready to “go live,” don’t announce a packed calendar. Launch with one clear offering students can rely on.

Examples:

For MAPS (Premeds)

• “We host a Black Premed Support & Strategy Session on the first Wednesday of every month at 6 pm. Every month. Same time, same place.”
• “We run MCAT accountability sessions on Sundays at 3 pm—quiet work time + quick check-in.”

For SNMA (Med Students)

• “We host a monthly SNMA Dinner/Discussion on the second Thursday of each month. Food + real talk + quick resource share.”
• “We match M1s with M2/M3 mentors and check in once a quarter.”

Once that rhythm is consistent and not crushing you, then you can consider adding:

• One outreach event per semester
• One collaboration with another org
• One larger info session or physician panel

But only after the basics feel easy.

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Step 10: Plan for Succession So Your Work Doesn’t Die With You

The most common SNMA/MAPS story: fired-up founder graduates, chapter collapses.

Prevent that in year one.

Concrete moves:

• Recruit underclassmen or early M1s intentionally

  • Pair them with officers so they learn how things work.
  • Give them real tasks, not just “help set up chairs.”

• Document the basics in a shared Google Drive:

  • Sample email templates to faculty, speakers, admin
  • Event checklists
  • Login info for social media (stored securely, transferred each year)
  • A 1-page “How Our Chapter Actually Works”

• Hold a clear elections/transition timeline

  • Decide early when new officers are chosen (e.g., March/April).
  • Overlap period where old and new boards run one event together.

Your goal: by the time you leave, someone can pick up your notes and run the chapter without having to reinvent everything.

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If You’re Already Tired But Still Feel This Needs to Exist

Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “I barely have energy to manage my own life. But this campus really needs SNMA/MAPS.”

You have options other than “start full chapter or do nothing”:

• Start an SNMA/MAPS Interest Group with:

  • One monthly meeting
  • Group chat for support and info
  • Occasional collaboration with DEI or a local physician

• Partner with a nearby campus that already has a chapter:

  • Join some of their events virtually
  • Ask if they can include your students in their mentorship pipelines

• Focus on one strong program instead of a formal chapter:

  • A mentorship chain between classes
  • A recurring safe-space discussion group

You can also decide:

• “I will help identify and encourage someone else to lead, but I won’t be the founder.”
  That’s still leadership. That’s still impact.

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Three Things to Remember

1. Start a minimum viable chapter, not the “perfect” one. One or two focused, sustainable programs beat a bloated calendar and exhausted leaders.
2. Protect your bandwidth openly and early—exam blackouts, strict time blocks, and saying “no” are part of running a healthy SNMA/MAPS chapter.
3. If you build with co-founders, clear roles, and documented systems, your chapter can outlive you without costing you your grades, test scores, or peace of mind.