Club me ’til I’m week

By Dean Hetherington

The booths are back in town.

From Sept. 18-Sept. 21, club kiosks will be in full display in MacEwan Student Centre. As new students enter the university, clubs hope to promote themselves and recruit additional members.

"This clubs week is not going to differ that much from the last," said Students’ Union Vice-President Operations and Finance Natasha Dhillon. "Where we put the booths won’t really change much. What is different this year is the seminars that we are holding for club survival and alcohol awareness."

Seminars aimed at clubs focus on event planning, conference planning and finances. The seminars also provide clubs with tips on staying organized and avoiding de-sanctioning.

"There are times we revoke a club’s status for screwing up royally," said Clubs Committee Chair Greg Hovdebo. "What usually happens is that clubs will forget to fill out their annual report which puts them into a suspended status, and after a while, if we don’t receive any notification from the club they may be de-sanctioned. Basically what the seminars run down to is how to avoid that."

Dhillon noted that there have been some problems in obtaining space for each event due to delays in MacEwan Hall expansion.

"Because we don’t have meeting rooms ready it is hard to have [the seminars]," she said. "For this year we’re kind of at a loss and that’s very unfortunate."

Booths are located in the North and South Courtyards of MSC, Science Theatres and Scurfield Hall.

The range of clubs on display vary from Amnesty International and the Free Tibet organization to the Snowboard club and the Pro Wrestling club. New clubs include Doctors without Borders, Women in Law and the Esperanto club.

"For new students I would put joining a club up there with U of C 101," said Dhillon. "This is where you find people with the same interests to socialize, make friends or network. This is as important as the academic portion of university."

Student reaction was positive.

"Everybody loves the clubs," said Elaine Huybers, a third-year Management student. "In our first hour we’ve gotten at least 50 people to sign up, that’s insane."

"A lot of people are trying to find us during the rest of the year but during clubs week the students can come right here to find us and sign up," added fourth-year Engineering student Jen Massig.

Clubs Week will end on Friday with a Club Executive barbecue in the MacEwan Hall Ballroom patio.