If a student wants to join a club at Hagerty, there is no shortage of options. And if they want to take a leadership position, the election process for most clubs—as well as the steps to create a new organization—are relatively straightforward.
But once the year starts, the task of actually running a club becomes anything but clear.
New club presidents are essentially thrown out into the wilderness of extracurricular authority and have to figure out how to plan and manage their organization without much guidance.While this could end up being a helpful lesson in independence, all of the requirements to simply keep the club alive and functioning ensure that such self-sufficiency usually just diminishes the club’s overall potential. It becomes way more stressful than necessary and takes away from time to actually do what the club is intended for.
Additionally, when it comes to getting guidance from more experienced students, the monthly half-hour Interclub Council (ICC) meetings simply do not cut it.
The environment does not really foster interactions between leaders or any sort of conversation with a focus on the everyday activities of individual clubs. If they need advice or have questions outside of the meeting time, there are no directions for a convenient, easy way to get feedback or help.
To be fair, there have been improvements.
Administration has revised the club formation process since last year to make it clearer for students and allow the school more knowledge of each club’s purpose. The fact that the ICC exists in the first place is also a step in the right direction. Efforts have been made to improve relations between organizations and provide some level of structure.
This includes a system that designates clubs as either black, blue or silver, depending upon student attendance and the scale of their influence (i.e. whether they are involved with larger schoolwide or nationwide events or programs). This idea had potential, but it seems that the only purpose is to limit the number of clubs a student can lead.
Starting next school year, one person can only act as president of one black club, and two blue clubs, but an unlimited number of silver ones—meaning that someone could run eight different little groups and not give much attention to any, but a hardworking student might have to choose between two honor societies that they really care about.
It also takes away some of the choice from the members who vote for their president; if someone is elected by other students, haven’t they earned that position? The problem is easy to see. As long as a student receives their position fairly and follows the rules established by their club, there should be no reason why they cannot run as many as they are qualified for.
Problems do not only exist with club leadership, however. All clubs have to complete a service project each semester. Even the silver clubs, which are by definition interest groups.
What the administration and school leaders need to understand is that not every club is an honor society with a focus on community service. Sometimes students just want a group of people with similar interests that they can talk to and do activities with. Sometimes a club is just for fun.
If required projects keep piling up, it just adds to the crushing stress that most high schoolers already face. Clubs whose only purpose is to have fun should be allowed to do just that—especially when they barely have enough members to complete any sort of volunteer work.
The school has a great diversity of clubs, and the fact that the ICC has become a place for them to work together is commendable, even if there is much room for improvement. But it is a rough draft, and they need to keep editing.
