FILE PHOTO/ Arizona Daily Wildcat Leo Powell, anthropology sophomore and Street Performance and Incendiary Arts Club president, practices the art of fire-chain spinning.

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The UA has 305 campus clubs and organizations, and we're not just talking chess and glee club.

You could start a club to appreciate ring-tailed lemurs, be in a society for pink-haired people and three-eyed women or climb Mt. Everest in a Speedo. Those clubs aren't already on campus, but if you want to start them, go ahead. Good luck finding a vice president, though.

But UA already has its share of non-conventional, sometimes even weird clubs.

Playing with fire

"Pyromaniacs unite. Make your mothers faint and your eyebrows fall off," should be the motto of the Street Performance and Incendiary Arts Club, one of the smaller clubs on campus, with a membership of only four.

The club plays with fire.

"We practice our fire-chain spinning, fire juggling and contact juggling," SPIA President Leo Powell said via e-mail. Think David Bowie's crystal ball in Labyrinth.

The club is making plans with risk management to perform on the UA Mall in the future.

However, other performance clubs, not involving fire, are also always willing to accept new members.

Left feet welcome

Here's the scene: a junior high dance, the lights are dimmed just enough that the glow-in-the-dark rubberbands on the braces of pre-pubescent teens are visible.

The odor of old man cologne wafts through the air (hey, his dad wore it, where else was he going to get cologne?)

Distant cries of "ouch" can be heard as yet another clumsy boy steps on another dainty foot. Suzy Cheddarcorn and Bobby Jockey gaze into each other's eyes as "Endless Love" plays in the background.

And the poor fools on the bleachers afraid to shake their groove thang wait it out on the sidelines.

Sound familiar?

The solution: the Ballroom Dance Club.

The club is open to all students, experienced and · not so experienced.

"Anyone can come. It doesn't matter if they have two or five left feet," said club president Matt Klein.

Professional instructors teach levels of East and West Coast Swing, Latin dances ÷ Cha-cha, Rumba, Samba and Mambo ÷ and smooth dances such as The Waltz, Tango and Foxtrot, every Monday. A $5 fee will be applied for each of the remaining meetings this semester.

The club also competes in various competitions throughout the country.

As lessons go by, it is guaranteed that the painful memories of pants splitting during the "funky chicken dance" will be erased from the time we called junior high.

Grass skirts wanted

Ahh, yes. Hawaii, the island of love, Elvis and Stitch. Who hasn't dreamt of lying on a Hawaiian beach, sipping a pi–a colada as the strums of the ukulele sing them to sleep?

Everyone, right?

Let's be serious, people do that every day. But how many visitors to the island really know about the culture, or can get up, put on a grass skirt and coconut bra and do the hula?

The Hawaii club does, at a luau held every year.

The 40-member club meets every Thursday to discuss Hawaiian culture and social events.

"Anyone can join. You don't even have to be Hawaiian, all you gotta have is an open mind about the people, the language and the culture," said club president Ray White.

Due to a lack of funds, a trip to Hawaii is not included with membership.

DEREKH FROUDE/ Arizona Daily Wildcat Mike Paul, electrical engineering senior, scans the radio waves in the Amateur Radio Club's room in the Engineering building yesterday afternoon.

Hamming it up

Internet schminternet. This is the original way to meet people without ever having to shower and change your underwear.

For students who prefer to be heard and not seen, the Amateur Radio Club meets every Monday.

Most of the club's 15 members have amateur radio licenses, however, anyone with an interest in radios, antennas and shortwave listening is welcome to join, said ARC secretary Mike Paul.

The club is also part of an emergency network that traffics communication during times when TV and radio stations can't, like Sept. 11.

Some members of the club are preparing their electrical engineering senior project in which they will send a HAM radio in a balloon 80,000-100,000 thousand feet in the air. A tracking device will also be assembled on the project that will allow communication among states.

The balloon is scheduled to lift off Dec. 7.

To infinity and beyond

I've seen a bird fly, I've seen a superfly, remember Dumbo the elephant, yeah he flies too. One day, it's possible will pigs fly. But here at the UA, robots fly.

"Our primary goal is to design a flying robot that flies all by itself, controlled entirely by computer with no human intervention," said club vice president of the Aerial Robotics Club Jess Dooley.

The club receives sponsorship from Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

Test flights are conducted on Saturdays in preparation for the International Aerial Robotics Competition.

Eventually the group hopes that the robot will be able to locate a marked building from a group of buildings, identify all windows and doors on the building and then launch a smaller robot inside the building to see what's inside.

The group also works on helicopters and airplanes.

Not just for lunatics

Lazy? Don't want to commit to actually having to go to a meeting? Not a lot of time?

The UA Campus Recreation Center also offers non-conventional classes, especially for those who cannot commit to a club.

Underwater Basket Weaving is available twice a year.

It's a real activity. People actually do it. They go under water, with a snorkel ÷ come on people, they're basket weavers, not fish ÷ and weave baskets.

The class costs $20 and will be offered again during the spring.

Do-it-yourself

Anyone can have a club. That guy who spends his afternoon sailing paper boats in the fountain at Old Main. Yep, he can start a club. And that woman who paints her nails in class, making you wonder how she can possibly smell those fumes and risk losing the few brain cells she has left. You got it, she can start a club.

Recent additions to the club list are the Corndog Appreciation Club (currently on hiatus) and the Home Brewers, who specialize in brewing beer at home.

Students may start their own club as long as at least one other person signs a paper saying they support the club. Each club must also have an adviser who is a full-time faculty or staff member, as well as a constitution. Further information is available in the UA Organization Handbook at http://www.union.arizona.edu/csil/clubs/StudentOrgHandbook2001.pdf.