Senior Uday Singh, lost in an inundation of junior-year school work last spring, forgot to turn in the club minutes form for the club he was in charge of, Photography Club.
“I didn’t stay on top of it as much as I probably should have, so then everything just started falling behind,” Singh said.
The absence of the form forced Singh to restart the club this year. According to ASB Clubs Commissioner Meera Rachamallu, though, the Photography Club is not alone; around 15 other clubs also failed to turn in the club minutes form and have a chance to recover their spot by presenting to ASB once again.
Though seemingly discouraging, Singh said, the tedious procedure of reintroduction of the club proved to be a gift in disguise, as it gave him the opportunity to reorganize the its structure.
“We’re going to be more about actually going on photo trips and learning by doing instead of learning by teaching,” Singh said.
Singh hopes restructuring the club’s meetings will increase participation as well as fostering a passion in photography in the club’s members.
The lack of publicity last year contributed heavily to the almost nonexistent membership, as the club utilized only one platform — Facebook — to send its reminders and updates. This year, Singh plans to place posters around the school and advertise during ASB’s morning announcements.
“If people know when and where the meetings are, more people will actually come,” Singh said. “They won’t be like ‘Oh there was a meeting? I forgot.’”
When Singh became president last year, he received little guidance, as the previous leaders had left for college.
“When I joined, I was kind of just inheriting what [the previous leaders] had done before, and there really wasn’t that much left for me to take,” Singh said.
Now that Singh has had time to rethink how to run the club, the club’s future looks fairly bright.
Currently, Singh has acquired all the necessary signatures, but has yet to present and turn in the forms to ASB. With a clean start, Singh is ready to take on the task of sharing his knowledge in photography with anyone who is willing to give it a chance.
“This year, we want to get more people involved in photography and more people doing photography,” Singh said. “It’s a really good way for people to express art.”