Correction: 8/27/18 at 5:42 pm. Fourth graf, fifth line: “month” to “semester”

No longer will clubs fill out minutes and meeting schedules with pen and paper – this school year, everything will be digitized. Each future club president will be required to attend an informational meeting in the SBO. The next information meeting will be held on September 6 and will cover the rules and regulations of having a club as well as keeping track of club activities through Google Drive.

The new procedure, according to ASB President Sofia Kritikopoulos, is to ensure each club is active and welcoming to students. Additionally, Kritikopoulos believes it will prevent students from starting a club without a clear purpose.

“A big problem with our school is we have over 90 clubs, but we don’t know if they’re active because nothing happens if they don’t turn in minutes,” Kritikopoulos said.

ASB Vice President Jonathan Vergonio created the Google Sheets each club will be required to complete. Vergonio made these spreadsheets for personal use last year when he was the co-president of Acts of Random Kindness (ARK) and wanted to make them available for all club officers this year. Now, if a club does not record their minutes on the provided sheet and submit them at least once per semester, the club will be marked as inactive and their charter will be revoked, Kritikopoulos said.

As a club president, Kritikopoulos felt that club guidelines were not clear.

“We had to build from the ground up, and it’s something that taught us a lot of important leadership skills and tech skills that we think kids should learn when they start a club,” Kritikopoulos said. “We want to help people learn those things as well rather than being thrown into a club not knowing what to do.”

Some future club presidents like junior Areiah Malonzo, co-president of the Florist Club, already see value in the new Google Sheets.

“I feel like it’s going to take a while to adjust, but I think after we learn and master how to use it, it will be more efficient than using a pencil for everything,” Malonzo said.

Kritikopoulos hopes that the new procedure will be beneficial to students looking to start their own clubs so they can have the same opportunity she had to grow.

“One of the best parts of high school was starting my own club and getting to learn so much from it. I really grew as a person,” Kritikopoulos said. “I hope this new procedure encourages clubs to grow.