Clubs week– the crowds, the clubs, the candy. A time for finding new people to hang out with, new interests you didn’t know you had, new parties to fill your weekends, and new things to put on your resume.
If you’re a seasoned club executive, it’s a time for recruiting new members, chatting up other clubs, planning new events and getting new members excited for the new school year. Clubs week is a great time to see what’s available on campus, and most of all, find your niche.
The organization of clubs week was slightly different this year.
“Last year there were a lot more tables in the north courtyard. There were a lot of clubs and not much room for foot traffic,” said SU vice-president student life Matt Diteljan. “We decided to go with fewer tables and get clubs more quality exposure.”
Due to the reduction in tables, clubs only received a table on three out of the five days.
“We went for quality over quantity,” said Diteljan.
“It’s pretty much the only way we get members on a regular basis,” said Historical Students’ Association’s vice-president finance Laura Buckholz. “It was really unfortunate that they couldn’t manage to find a way to have us here every day. And you didn’t get a choice over which days you were given.”
She also commented that some days of the week were better than others– Wednesday is usually a good day for recruiting and Friday is generally the slowest day, she said.
“Even if you’re not a first-year student, university is a really difficult place to meet people and especially people who have the same interests as you. Every year you’re going to meet people at clubs week who are willing to talk to you and remember you,” said the Historical Students’ Association’s VP administration Carla Joubert.
The GIG club had a lot of success on Monday, signing up 67 new people.
“We actually didn’t get a table. There were a lot of clubs who wanted tables this year, so we shared with one of the clubs we worked with in the past, and it has been working okay,” said the GIG club’s vp public relations Jonathan Carpino.
Carpino said he liked this year’s set up better than last year’s. “There’s a lot more room to walk around now, instead of last year where there was just rows and rows of tables.”
The GIG club makes sure to set up for clubs week every year.
“We came five minutes late and our table got taken,” said fourth-year psychology major and volunteer with the Orphan Sponsorship Program Layla Taha. “After noon anyone is entitled to take it, so we came five minutes late and someone was already there.”
She found clubs week a bit more crowded than usual.
“There are more clubs than tables,” Taha commented.
There were 93 table spaces available for clubs each day. Over 165 clubs signed up to participate in clubs week.
“At the end of the day we’re just trying to do what’s best for clubs,” said Diteljan.