New interest club’s approval comes to a halt
For students eager to create a club, it has recently become more difficult for clubs to gain approval from administrators.
In order to start a club, the student has to have it approved by the Assistant Principal of Administration, Lauren Otero in the main office.
According to Otero, there have been approximately 25 prospective clubs this year that were put on a wait list due to multiple reasons and limitations.
“Right now, there is not enough time in a day to have more club meetings on club day. There are already too many interest clubs,” Otero said.
As a result of limited time for club meetings, students have resorted to other ways of following through with their club ideas.
The Welcome Wagon, started by Macey Young, is a group of students who work together to welcome transfer students that the school receives throughout the year. Macey’s original intent was to have it approved. “There aren’t any clubs being approved, so instead we had to make it a ‘committee’,” Young said.
“I have been explaining to students that if they wanted to “find a sponsor that would meet with them after school versus on club day they could do that,”
— Otero
No official date has been made for when the clubs on the wait list will be promoted to “official status” Otero said. “In order for there to be more space available, a current club has to be cancelled. If not enough people join then it will be replaced with one of the clubs on the waitlist.”
Why Define Us, started in January 2013 by two recently graduated seniors Rachel DiBenedetto and Jaclyn Ancona, is a group of junior and senior girls who meet with seventh and eighth grade girls to help mentally prepare them for high school. It was also supposed to be a club but had to be called an organization due to lack of room.
The organization’s president this year is senior Sarah Emond and the sponsor is Kristina Renaud.
Instead of meeting on club day, the members meet up every month on their own time, usually on a Sunday, to plan their meetings with the middle school girls they mentor.
Other students have decided to skip the hassle and just start an unofficial club themselves.
Seniors Rachel Goding and Sam Fowler, in the beginning of the school year, put together Hodgepodge Sports. It is a group of students that meet up to play random fun sports such as wiffle ball, kick ball, tag, etc.
However, not much has been done with the club Fowler said. “We played wiffle ball once with only four people and we haven’t talked about it in a while.”
There are many steps a student must go through to make an official club. Once it is complete, the added structure can help the club from dying out.
