Open-campus Club Fair to span two days

September 25, 2018 — by Amanda Zhu and Sandhya Sundaram

Club commisioners hope to draw in underclassmen with two day Club Fair.

Armed with tri-fold posters and bowls of candy, club officers shout from their tables, attempting to lure in students to join the numerous clubs stationed in the quad for the annual Club Fair. Like last year, the event will fall on the Wednesday and Thursday after Homecoming, Sept. 26 and 27. Officers from various academic, service, cultural and art clubs will showcase their club’s purpose, previous accomplishments and opportunities to attract new members.

Senior clubs commissioners Cameron Lin and Samyu Iyer decided to have the event extend over two days, as opposed to the three-day event last year. The first day will be for academic clubs such as Science Club, and the second for service and culture clubs, such as Korean Club and Interact. The two days serve to give students a chance to get an in-depth view of many clubs and make informed decisions based on their interests.

“We wanted to make sure that people are able to see all the clubs just because there are so many clubs at our school,” Lin said.

For many students, the event itself is often chaotic and confusing, with enthusiastic officers recruiting at every corner and a crowd of people standing in the quad. To aid in finding specific clubs, the leadership team will put up posters around the school to make it easier to navigate the event.

In addition, Lin and Iyer decided to make both days an open campus, meaning that as usual, upperclassmen will be permitted to leave campus during lunch. The club commissioners did not want to limit students’ freedom for two days by closing the campus and knew it would also be beneficial in terms of overcrowding.  

“We felt that the people who wanted to stay and check out the clubs would stay,” Lin said. “So we didn’t need to make it mandatory for the whole student body to stay.”

Senior TedX club officer Rachel Bakke said that TedX is having a fundraiser prior to Club Fair to help cover costs. Bakke will also set up posters and a laptop for people to sign up for the club.

“I think we might have a video of stuff to make it easier for people to know what we actually do,” Bakke said. “We want to be able to explain our club really simply to get other people to join.”

Lin hopes that the event will draw in freshmen to get involved with the school community and school activities with the changes made. As the event has been split into two days, it will be easier for students to browse the variety of options and select the best club for their interests.

“The goal is to have especially the underclassmen, even if they’re just joining one club, to really find a club that they’re passionate about and that they feel comfortable in,” Lin said. “I think that with the wide variety that we do have at our school, hopefully they can find something.”

 
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