It is a Friday night. If you are sitting in Ryley, watching MTV, wondering whom Joe will pick to date after his dates with the three girls’ mothers, then you are missing out. There are only so many reruns of “Date My Mom” that you can watch and stay sane. For the many students that spend Friday nights in Ryley and Saturday nights in a dorm room or off campus, turn off that TV. The people with the daunting task of getting you off that couch is the Student Activities Board. President Jennifer Meacham ‘06, Director of Off-Campus Events Edwin Diaz ‘07, Director of On-Campus Events Rosie Raymond-Sidel ‘08, Dances Coordinator Catie Shaw ’07, Weekender Design Coordinators Caitlin Feeney ‘08 and Tobey Duble ‘06, and Movies Coordinator Jared Cheatham ’07 all contribute to the planning of these events, working closely with Director of Student Activities Cindy Efinger. “We [the Student Activities Board] plan the majority of events on- or off-campus except events planned by the Blue Key Heads or Clusters,” said Raymond-Sidel. “The goal is to get kids out of their rooms on Friday and Saturday nights.” Cheatham agrees; “attracting the students to our events is always our goal,” he said. He added, “We as a board have to do our best to get students to come to our events [which] is the hardest part of the job.” “Dances and on-campus events like laser tag are always well attended. People like going to the movies, too,” said Cheatham. Raymond-Sidel said, “The most kids come to dances, [and] the bands are usually the hardest to get and the most rewarding.” So how do they choose the events to showcase on weekends? The board meets once a week to brainstorm innovative plans for the weekends. To find bands to bring to campus, several times a year, bands play and distribute sample CDs at conferences. And in terms of the limitless Kemper movies, Cheatham said, “It’s hard to pick the right movies because it’s hard to know what everybody likes…. I usually pick movies that I would be interested in seeing, but I don’t always know what the students want to see.” He added, “An excellent showing could get up 50 or 60 kids.” “The hardest part is thinking of new things,” said Raymond-Sidel. She encourages people to come up with new ideas and present them to the Board. “If someone comes to me [with an idea] the answer is probably yes,” she added. What does the Student Activities Board have in store for Spring Term? In April, check out the PKN Video Luau, the Asian Arts Festival, and the Black and White Dance. Come May, there’s the Ice Skating Party and the Abbot Ball, not to mention Andover/Exeter. And in June there is, of course, the Prom. There are even some surprise twists coming to some old activities, including the Spring Carnival. So next time you are sitting idly in Ryley, try checking out a band, going to a dance, taking the bus to the Loop, or heading over to Kemper because the SAB works hard to make sure “Date My Mom” is a last resort.
