My response was based off my experience in student affairs . I am a former member of a student org Eboard , been members of multiple orgs , and now a graduate student working with other student orgs , and studying higher education and student affairs leadership which includes development of student leaders . This isn ' t just an LGBTQ thing . I mentioned all the LGBTQ questions , because that is what this student org would tailor to , and those are questions anyone starting an organization should be asking . As someone outside of the community starting the organization , there are a differentadditional set of questions and concerns that have to be addressed . It ' s the same for starting other student orgs . So many student orgs have started because students just wanted to do it , and next semester they fold . I ' ve seen people try to start orgs supporting communities that they themselves were not a part of , and they simply were not ready for how much work it actually is , and or the org gained never gained any traction . Students those orgs support mostly credit the lack of support to a lack of representation in leadership . It ' s a common higher education problem with minoritized populations . That doesn ' t mean we should reject people outside the community trying to help . That is not at all what I want . This is based on what the students , the people we are trying to serve , are saying , and I think there is some merit to that argument as does all the literature in student affairs . Starting student orgs is very easy , but to maintain them , keep numbers up , support the community properly , educating the rest of the student population , and the other tasks that come with leading a student org are much harder than many think . It ' s a lot of work , and if you ' re a president of a student org , especially one that serves such a significant minoritized population so many social , political , and health issues that the community faces , that ' s an easy ten hours a week of work along with school and other jobs the student may have . Sometimes it ' s as high as 20 hours . EDIT These communities are very challenging as well , in that they will push its leaders in a very wide range of topics and tasks . These could include student ran protests , speaking at professional development meetings , developing educational programming , working with other social orgs to put on programs and collaboration to improve inclusion and address intersectionality , providing safe meetings that are ran properly and include everyone , political campus issues such as problems with housing , faculty , staff , other students , etc . There is no war to be had here .