The ISU Ski and Snowboarding Club functions to give students chances to participate in trips and events that they would not normally get the chance to do on their own.

“We give people to an opportunity to go places and do things that they wouldn’t be able to do by themselves on a college budget,” said Matt Geren, sophomore in aerospace engineering.

The club holds three major trips — one over Thanksgiving break, one over winter break, and one over spring break — along with other biweekly events hosted by the club.

“It’s a place where people can go to learn about the sport,” said senior Ryan Kramme, club president. “We bring them on trips, do events around the year and do lessons.”

Rail Jam has been one of the club’s biggest events. There have been complications in the past, but the club has everything figured out since for this year’s event runs smoothly.

“We have approval from the school to shut down [Union Drive],” Kramme said. “It’s a competition between 50 different people. We’ll close down the street, cover it with snow and put rails and jumps out and each person will do three rounds and be judged.”

Rail Jam will be held on Union Drive on Feb. 4. In previous years, it was held on Chamberlain Street, but due to concerns from the city, the contest was moved toward the center of the ISU campus.

“In the past, we’ve had quite a few spectators as well,” said junior Dan Collier, club treasurer. “We had a ton of people come out two years ago — close to 2,000.”

Attracting that many spectators is not too difficult since it is one of the largest clubs on campus and continues to grow throughout the year.

“We have roughly 285 members, and we’ll grow to around 350 to 400 as we get into the season,” Kramme said.

Funding is not a problem for the club with that many members either.

“We have membership dues which are $35 per member,” Collier said. “We also have sponsorships from many ski industry companies.”

In terms of membership for the club in a future, Kramme and Collier like where it is headed.

“We’ve grown a lot faster than we have in the past years,” Kramme said. “We’ve sold our trips out faster than ever, faster than I’ve ever seen before.”

Collier also commented on the club’s future.

“The club has a lot of freshmen and sophomores, which we believe is good for a strong club base,” Collier said.

Collier stressed that those who are interested in joining do not have to be an expert to do so. They welcome everyone of all skill sets.