Whether it’s hosting a fundraising event to support club competitions or providing school materials for advertisements, communication with ASB is necessary for many club processes. While ASB’s presence is crucial, the system of confirming all club needs with ASB creates a major vulnerability for clubs. Facing delays and a lack of timely updates from ASB compounded with inexperienced club leadership, clubs can struggle to manage their workload. To fix this issue, ASB needs to provide clear, accessible rules and timelines, and club leaders must simultaneously take initiative and fulfill their responsibilities.

Advisers bear a great measure of responsibility because they receive more constant updates than club officers. However, expecting advisers to be solely responsible for relaying information to their clubs is flawed. Advisers who manage multiple clubs or teach multiple classes can easily get caught up juggling several tasks. It’s also important to consider that teachers are already accepting an extra workload for the students in their club. To distribute responsibility, club executives should be provided with the same resources and updates that advisers receive. Not only does this help balance the already busy schedules of advisers but also gives club officers the ability to be true leaders of a club, teaching them valuable skills in the process.

ASB’s failure to provide club leadership with budget updates, deadline announcements and easily available information such as the required processes for fundraisers, deadline updates and potential changes to ASB rules has only made club executives’ jobs harder. Multiple clubs reported encountering difficulties or issues when setting up a fundraiser, with a common reason being unclear expectations for requesting one. Furthermore, ASB’s lack of easily accessible resources explaining their rules and regulations creates confusion in clubs. Since most clubs change officers every year, inconsistent rules and regulations only increase the challenge of running a club.

15 club executives reported that communication with ASB was efficient when they knew exactly what to ask for and who to ask; a common complaint was the lack of involvement from ASB. This required students to bounce around between teachers and ASB members in an attempt to gather as much information as they could. The solution to this could be as simple as providing written answers to commonly asked questions and exemplars of commonly filled out forms.  Not only does this ensure that students are presenting a fully fleshed-out idea, but it creates a standard for ASB to go off of. This is beneficial to new executive members who may be unfamiliar with ASB regulations. The confusion and lack of guidance from ASB can cause clubs to stagnate and lose valuable time. By expanding the accessibility of exemplar materials, ASB simultaneously reduces frustrations and improves efficiency of club approvals.

Moreover, the responsibility does not lie solely on ASB — club leaders should remain proactive and engaged. Even if resources aren’t easily available, active communication is part of the responsibility of the club leaders who signed up for their position. Executives should be amenable when working with ASB. For example, club executives reported that ASB enforced deadlines for budget and fundraisers more strongly this year. While this change was sudden for officers who were used to a more leisurely system, it is important to understand the necessity of these rules. When ASB builds a system where club executives can understand ASB guidelines, they simultaneously create a foundation to help executives solve their own problems in the future.

Another issue arises in the process of establishing new clubs. While the IHS website provides adequate information to explain the overall process, it fails to touch on a few key factors that strongly influence a new club’s chances of success. For example, the official guidelines fail to mention that new clubs must be approved by a teacher committee before they are able to be presented to ASB executives, and further omit that the applicant isn’t able to present to the committee themselves. Therefore, students wishing to build community at IHS lack the information necessary to build a case for their club.

Currently, the IHS website only lists two periods of time during which a student can create a club: August 19 – September 30 and January 13 – February 7. An important distinction between these dates that isn’t easily available on the website is that if someone submits their application during the August period, their club will be unavailable for club exploration day — a vital step in attracting members — and will only be established after.

These issues with communication and preparation can’t be solved instantly, but ASB can help by being more proactive and open about its rules and the way the club system works. One way to start would be working on creating clear, concise and easily accessible rule documentation and guides for accessing  important club resources like fundraising paperwork, quarterly budget reports and more. With such resources available on the IHS website, clubs could easily check if they’re complying with current ASB rules and — more importantly — not feel as if a new rule has just sprung up on them. If no one can find the rules, then they won’t know how to follow them. Active and readily available documentation will not only ensure smooth communication, but it will also allow clubs to give more accurate input to ASB.

ASB isn’t without its own merit. After receiving feedback from a variety of student and teacher groups, they have made plans to meet with clubs during the first week of next year to help explain the technical processes that most clubs will participate in. Whether it’s thoroughly explaining budgeting for Viking clubs or outlining the structure for requesting various supplies for Gold clubs, ASB plans to be there in person  to help answer questions and provide in- person assistance for all clubs. It is vital  that this support continues throughout the school year, though. ASB’s active support of student organizations should not be limited to the early school year — it should be built upon to strengthen the relationship between clubs and ASB.

ASB’s future communication with clubs shouldn’t remain full of uncertainty. Implementing easily accessible contact sheets on the IHS website so that clubs know exactly who to contact for each situation and establishing clear expectations throughout that both clubs and ASB need to follow are necessary steps to improve next year’s club experience. While transitioning to a new system may not be smooth for ASB, especially with a large number of its members graduating this year, leaving behind a blueprint will always benefit future leaders. However, maintaining an organized club system also comes with the expectation of executive members staying on top of their duties. Most importantly, a positive, constructive relationship between ASB and clubs will always depend on proper communication and transparency.

What we want to see in the future:

• Clear documentation of club duties, form explanations and FaQ for new club executives

• Active communication between club leaders and ASB

• Easily accessible ASB rules and documentation for convenient viewing