Most of us are familiar with the scene: Students pour into a classroom during lunch to attend a club meeting. Instead of finding a seat, they gravitate to some free pizza, fighting for the best piece. For the rest of the lunch period, the students and club officers socialize while a video plays in the background, their backs to the projector screen. The lunch bell rings, and the “club meeting” is over without the substance of club having been discussed at all.
Last year, the school boasted approximately 70 clubs — many of which were inactive or indifferent. In order to create a vibrant club atmosphere, the ASB now wisely requires clubs to have at least 12 members present at every meeting. Clubs that fail to do so on three separate occasions will be cut.
Some people say these rules are too harsh. What they’re forgetting is that under the old, lax policy, only a handful of campus clubs were actually active. These changes can encourage the creation of clubs students will be truly invested in: something no amount of “looking the other way” has accomplished.
Nearby schools, such as Monta Vista or Cupertino High School, house some incredibly active clubs.
These clubs unite students around common interests and goals and give them a space where they can pursue their passions with other students. For example, Monta Vista’s DECA club holds study sessions at the Cupertino Library where members spend time together and develop their business plans.
In contrast, most of Saratoga High’s clubs tend to have fundraisers only every so often. Of course, simply raising funds does not cultivate passion or enthusiasm. A meaningful fundraiser requires the club to have a clear goal about where the funds will go immediately after the fundraising event.
In the past, some clubs’ only members have been the club founders and their friends. They fail to attract others interested in the general topic or theme of the club. This precludes genuine club development, and denies engaged students an enriching club experience, more so since they can not join another club with a similar purpose since ASB does not allow similar clubs to exist.
To reduce the number of clubs that have uncommitted members, ASB now asks that students proposing clubs receive 20 signatures from committed club members, not just students who “support the idea.” These guidelines force students to see if their clubs would even be successful, because if no students would be dedicated to coming, then why create the club?
The rules in ASB’s new club policy also decrease the number of clubs being added each year as another bullet point on students’ resumes.
It’s no secret that students are driven by quantitative data that sets them apart, whether it be their GPAs or SAT scores or the number of clubs they are a part of or have founded.
By making club culture about passion, not numbers, the school will have more legitimate clubs to join. The “12-person rule” and monthly ASB officer clubs visits ensure that club officers are making a genuine effort to have vital clubs. Moreover, by providing more outlets for pursuing interests such as business, photography or politics at the school, this obsession with numbers may actually decrease.
The new club policy is a step in the right direction to bettering club culture and providing students with niches where they can share their passions with others. If ASB can continue creating or enforcing rules which provoke genuine club development, such as prescribing how many time throughout the year clubs must have participated in or sponsored activities pertinent to the club’s purpose, club culture at the school will be more vibrant.