Don’t be surprised if you see a water-skiing boat in the middle of Central Campus next week.

The ISU Water-ski Club is increasing its efforts to recruit new members in the following weeks and is using creative tactics to grab attention.

Aside from beaching a Nautique boat similar to the ones used for practice and tournaments, the club plans on setting up a booth outside of the Hub and Parks Library complete with posters, flyers and an informational video. Other members plan to help by making dinner announcements in the greek community.

Outside of the Lied Recreation Center, the club will have members dressed in full water-ski equipment handing out flyers for its informational meeting, to be held at 7:30 p.m. March 30 in room 2055 of Hoover Hall.

The club decided to also try using Thefacebook.com to recruit new members.

“We composed a short e-mail for distribution on facebook,” said Water-ski Club vice president Brett Mommer. “We are planning to send it to our friends, have them send it to theirs and so on to reach as much of the ISU community as possible.”

The posters and flyers were made possible by Red Bull energy drink, one of the club’s major sponsors. D3 Custom Skis, a high-end water ski manufacturer, also sponsors the club.

“We received a response from D3 water-skis in that they were willing to donate a high performance slalom ski in exchange for their logo appearing on our poster,” said Christian Noon, the club’s president.

Robert Shuman, senior in mechanical engineering, has been a member of the club for four years. As a senior in high school, he registered on a Web site that allowed for his information and skills to be accessed by various college clubs around the country.

He received an e-mail from the Water-ski Club president at the time, Clint Anderson, and was effectively recruited to Iowa State.

“I love it. If it wasn’t for the ski team, I’m not sure if I would have stayed at Iowa State,” Shuman said. “I think this drive should get our name out there and what we’re doing, and the boat will really help grab people’s attention.”

Shuman said recruiting new members doesn’t happen every year. The past few years the club has focused on the competitive end, but now it’s back to a push for building more of a club base.

“The main purpose behind our recruitment drive is to build a bigger, stronger team that is even more competitive than it already is in the world of collegiate water-skiing,” Mommer said.

“In 2004, the ISU Water-ski Team qualified and competed in Louisiana at the National Collegiate Water Ski Championships in Division I.

“It was the first time in [school] history Iowa State has ever qualified for nationals.”

The club placed 10th at nationals out of approximately 100 teams.Most competitions in which the club participates in are collegiate, with a few members opting to travel to non-collegiate tournaments during the summer.

On April 16 and 17, the club will host the only collegiate tournament in Iowa at Dream Lake Estates, located a mile and a half northeast of Huxley.

Dream Lake Estates is comprised of two man-made lakes built by the founder of the ISU Water-ski Club in 1988, Scott Thompson.

The club practices at Dream Lake Estates and rents boats from Thompson.