Campus leaders strive to unite clubs
Durgin McCue
News Editor
The first all-clubs meeting of the semester was held on Monday, Nov. 1 in an effort to connect clubs on campus. The meeting was initiated by Student Senate treasurer Josiah Dillon at 4 p.m., and ran for about an hour.
The Senate sent out a message requesting that one representative from each club be present at the meeting. However, only nine clubs were spoken for at the meeting. “I’m going to try my very best to get a lot of people here next time. It kind of takes a while seeing as it is mostly through word of mouth,” said Dillon at the meeting.
One of the focuses of the meeting was limiting inefficiencies and competition between clubs. “Oftentimes, teaming up is a much better way to go about that than just trying to compete against each other,” said Dillon. He cited incidences of competition between bake sales in the Campus Center.
The floor was then opened for clubs to voice concerns and their plans for the coming semester. “These can be set-in-stone things, these can just be ideas, this is just a platform to get it out,” said Dillon.
According to Dillon, student initiative is more important in this regard than that of advisors. “It’s really the advisor who is supposed to reach out to the interested students, but I think it’s better if a student does,” he said.
Several clubs present at the meeting had plans for upcoming fundraisers, such as the equinox fundraiser being held by the Pride Alliance. Pride Alliance president Madison Hernandez expressed a desire to work with other clubs on campus to help collect food and clothing to donate to a homeless shelter.
Chad Albright, a student senator, suggested that the Student Senate sponsor an event where free food would be offered to bring students in and clubs could be represented at tables. Dillon expressed his agreement, “People love free food, we at the student senate are very aware of that.”
Club interest lists were given out to new students at orientation this year which the clubs could then use to contact the new students. “For Investment Club, we had about 175 people interested, and I personally called all of them and we had a good turn out from that, so that is something we will continue to do. You should be getting those like once or twice a semester,” Dillon said.
Jefri Nazri, a member of the tour guide club, suggested that clubs have a presence at the college’s open house on Nov. 14. Currently no club related promotions are listed on the itinerary for the open house. “I don’t know too much about that, but I think it would be a phenomenal opportunity,” said Dillon.
The meeting was well received by some of the clubs at the meeting. “I feel like there is no disadvantage to going to the all-clubs meeting. We get to know people from different clubs, and what we can do to improve ours. It’s a way we can all share our thoughts and improve Hudson Valley,” said Foreign Language and Culture Club president Shreshta Kota.
She hopes that the All-Club Meeting will help her to promote the diverse cultures at Hudson Valley. So far, the Foreign Languages and Culture Club has not had any cooperative initiatives with other clubs, but Kota hopes to change that. She hopes to find ways to bring the Russian Club and her club closer because they are both focused on foreign cultures.
Kota is optimistic about the future of the all-clubs meeting. “In the first meeting I really learned a lot, and I feel like if we do it every other week it will grow a lot. It is going to succeed,”she said.
Despite the first meeting being considered a success by both Dillon and Kota, others still see room for improvement. Audrey McKee, secretary of the Public Speaking Club, said, “I would like to see more people there from the different clubs, and possibly other students who are maybe even not involved in the clubs come to the meeting so they can learn about it.”