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Join the [Insert Name Here] Club

Join the [Insert Name Here] Club
October 17, 2015 Ho‘oulu Staff
In Opinion

By Hannah Nakashima

It seems as if there is a common complaint among UH Maui College students: There are no fun clubs to join. The school does have several clubs, but most of them coincide with majors that the school offers, such as nursing, hospitality and sustainable technology. The school does have a few clubs that do not fall into that category, such as the TCG Club, the Music Club and Na Leo Literary Club.

These clubs are all relatively new. The oldest of them is the Music Club, which has been here for only a year. The Music Club wanted a way to make live performances available for both the campus and the community. The music students needed a venue to practice their music in front of a live audience. So the club began hosting Open Mic Night in the UHMC Student Lounge every last Thursday of the month. This gives music enthusiasts a place to perform and a place to be exposed to the new kinds of music. The club almost did not exist; it had several false starts and no students were available to be officers. The club didn’t have the support it needed to continue. But the coming of determined and music loving students saved the idea.

Students who were willing to give their time helped make the Music Club a reality. Mentored by Karryn Sarring, a music instructor for UHMC, the club was able to make Open Mic Night a monthly event. The club serves, not just the students on campus, but also the community.

“High school students come with their families and perform,” Sarring said. “It’s the only place they can perform in front of a real audience that’s not in a bar. It’s also a lot safer than a bar.”

A fairly new club on campus is the Trading Cards & Board Games Club (TCG). The club has only been around for one semester and it already has a following of at least 50 students.

The TCG Club holds “Yu-Gi-Oh”, “Vanguard” and “Magic” tournaments. These tournaments are open to all ages of the public. Their interests aren’t just in games.

“Our most advanced player is 11 years old,” said club captain Swan Kahookele. “So we offer to help him out. We’re offering tutoring to students that need any help.”

In addition, he said, “We’re also organizing a toy drive for community service…the toys all go to kids that can’t afford toys this year or even the children’s hospitals.”

The TCG Club was met with several objections when they first started to organize. The club was thought to be merely about games with no clear goals in mind.

“But when you actually come out to see what we do,” said Kahookele, “you’ll see that we’re reaching out to all members of the community.”

The club membership consists of students of varying ages from all over Maui. After seeing the turnouts that the club got, Kahookele said the school backed them fully.

“We’re just focusing on a way,” he said, “where we take what we like to do and just put it on the community to see how they will enjoy it.”

One of the club’s faculty advisors, Laurie Kimura, knows nothing about the card games that the club plays, but sees the use of the club.

“First I thought it was about just playing games, but there’s so much more involved… they all do so much to make the tournaments happen,” she said. “Plus they’re reaching out to the community. So there’s a lot more going on than just playing card games. They’re [club officers] are learning managing skills. They’re learning event coordinating skills, they’re all great at what they’re doing.”

For students whose interests don’t fall into music, card games or literature, there’s always the option of making a new club. Students are widely encouraged to visit the Student Life Office and start a club of their own.

Student Life Coordinator Francine Ching is eager to help make it happen. All it takes is the completion and submission of a club registration form. There aren’t many requirements to starting a club. Club officers must be currently enrolled students and they must be backed by a faculty advisor. Some students feel like faculty members would not be willing to invest their time in a club, but the truth is that faculty members are eager to help students.

As seen with the TCG Club, even if the advisors know nothing about what the club is promoting, they’re almost always invested in the students involved.

There have been a few pitches for new clubs like dance, video gaming and drama clubs. They have been widely supported by both faculty members and Student Life. The reason these pitches die is that the students either graduate too soon, or can’t dedicate the time.

“They [students] share with me their ideas and they normally need assistance,” Ching explained. “Some people start off and they’re really enthusiastic at the beginning of the semester. And then they just kind of dwindle, primarily because you need to find people.”

Recruiting officers for the club seems to be the biggest challenge, she said, and a club that has goals set and has the backing of the school can easily die if there are no students to run it.

Club officers needed include club captain, secretary, treasurer and even coordinator. You can’t start a club without these officers in place.

But there are several club ideas that wouldn’t need a treasurer or an event coordinator. If the club is simply meeting and sharing ideas with each other, and not doing any community work, they wouldn’t need these officers.

This flaw in the system often holds clubs back from happening.

“Campus clubs are very much on their own, clubs stand completely on the students,” Ching said. “But I am really passionate about campus clubs and I like seeing them on campus.” Involving the community in clubs like the Music Club and TCG Club is always welcome, but Ching would like to see more clubs just for students. “As long as the student is interested and they turn in the right documentation, I’m open to anything,” she said.

Even if you found the students willing to be the officers, it’s almost even harder to find the time. After asking students on campus why they haven’t started the clubs they’ve all been longing for, the most popular answer was: too busy with school, work, family, etc. Running a club is much like a running business; it takes time and effort to manage one and to make it successful. Perhaps there’s a way to make the club load a little more balanced between students and faculty members. We’re all busy with our lives, but if we work together, anything is possible.

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