Students were given a mid-year opportunity to sign up for clubs last Friday evening in the Underwood Room at the first ever Winter Club Rally. Student Body Vice President Jonathan Adler ’08 had spoken to Director of Student Activities Cynthia Efinger last winter about organizing a Winter Club Rally. He and Efinger had agreed that a winter club rally would happen this winter, Adler said. This fall, Adler brought up the idea again to Efinger, who then took over the planning. “It was a great of example of the administration working with the Student Council and helping us right when we needed them,” Adler said. Efinger said, “Students and faculty have been asking about a winter club rally for a long time, but no one has tried it before.” Efinger said that the purpose of the rally was to give new clubs a chance to promote themselves and new students a chance to sign up for clubs they did not join at the beginning of the year. “In the first weekend of school it can be very intimidating for a new student to walk up to a table and sign up for a club,” she said. Club members and students had mixed views about the necessity of hosting another club rally. According to Efinger, only about 50 percent of the clubs that rallied in the fall signed up to do so again in the winter. Rehka Auguste-Nelson ’09, who was heading up the Af-Lat-Am table, did not feel the rally was necessary, although the club did have a few new students sign up. Other students called the event a success. Chase Ebert ’09, Co-Head of the Andover Libertarian Coalition, thought the Winter Club Rally was very helpful. “I think it gives [Juniors] more options to find new clubs and it gives new clubs, like ours, the chance to be seen,” he said. Jae-Kyu Lee ’08, Co-Head of Andover Korean Society, disagreed. Lee felt that the number of people who signed up for clubs did not compensate for the time spent setting up for the rally. But other students enjoyed the extra opportunity to sign up for clubs. Michael Ma, a new Lower, took advantage of the rally to sign up for more clubs than he did in the fall. “Since I was new I didn’t know what clubs were really about back in the fall, but now I know what I want to do,” he said. Like Ma, Simone Henry ’08 enjoyed the rally. “I think this club rally is very good and I have signed up for every club that people have asked me to,” Henry said. Adler said he was impressed with the attendance and that a survey about the success of the rally would likely go out to the student body.
