Club commissioner saw problems and worked to fix them

In the 2016-17 school year, club members and even some officers recognized a lack of coordination among their own clubs. While members grew impatient from the irregularity of meetings, leadership was under constant stress from keeping track of whether clubs were meeting regularly and getting enough members to those meetings.

Some clubs did not even bother to hold meetings at all. The 12-member attendance quota put certain clubs in danger of losing their status as official clubs, while other inactive clubs went undetected and consequence-free.

This year’s club commissioners, seniors Ishana Narayanan and Elicia Ye, made it their mission to completely redesign the club system in an attempt to make it organized, efficient and accountable.

First, they shifted the club minutes from monthly printed forms to online submissions in Google Drive to better organize the huge influx of minutes. This was implemented especially when auditors stop by the school. Since this modification, clubs have had more meetings and attendance.

In addition to using digital minutes, Narayanan and Ye have implemented a new method to improve the quality of clubs. At the end of both semesters, they ask that club advisers fill out a short document summarizing what the club did. Because of this, the clubs this year have been held accountable for the content of their meetings.

This new method has allowed Narayanan and Ye to more easily monitor what clubs are doing or not doing. Additionally, it keeps the club officers communicating with their advisers and the advisers communicating with ASB.

Another rule they implemented was the online club calendar, which has helped with spread awareness of smaller clubs and raise attendance.

“We constantly get emails from parents or students themselves requesting club information, and we are able to quickly get back to them by accessing our own database, which consist of spreadsheets we made over summer and updated throughout the semester, with all the contact information with the club and club officers,” Ye said.

Ye and Narayanan’s main goal of “streamlining communication and getting the clubs more involved in the leadership activities” has drawn approval and positive feedback from parents, staff and students alike.

“After being merged with the World Health Club, the Hepatitis B Club has gotten a lot more members because of the club commissioners’ decisions,” said senior Tyler Wu. “Since the changes, I’d say that our club is definitely tighter knit than it was last year.”