1. Be passionate!
The first step to having a successful club at Berkeley High School is being passionate about your club’s activities. If the topic isn’t interesting to you, it’s not going to come across as interesting to your audience. “Your club might not have the biggest member count, but it’s more important to care about what you’re talking about,” BHS junior Ruza Martinac-Isaacson, who does social media for Berkeley Aid Initiative, said. Martinac-Isaacson emphasized passion and engagement from both club members and leaders as a key aspect of Berkeley Aid Initiative that has led to it becoming successful. “The people who run (Berkeley Aid Initiative) and the people who are involved are very … involved, they care a lot about the cause, they care a lot about the club,” Martinac-Isaacson said. Before attempting to grow membership in your club, cultivate passion and engagement in your members and leaders as the first step to success.
2. Advertise well
While it is vital to have passionate club members, it is equally important that non-members know that it exists. Advertising your club is a foundational task to having a thriving club, especially with the large number of students and clubs at BHS. Having a regularly updated social media account is important and can help recruit members while bringing awareness of your club. Other ways to advertise your club include “Getting yourself out there on the bulletin, or at the club fair, really making a name for yourself,” Martinac-Isaacson said. Themed bulletin segments are an easy and fun way to shine a spotlight on your club. For example, the Black Student Union (BSU) highlighted prominent black current and historical figures in the bulletin during Black History Month in February. It’s important to remember that while you want to gain a substantial following of your club, you don’t have to be the most well known club at BHS in order to be successful. “Thinking about what kind of visibility you want because some clubs … aren’t trying to be the best known club at (BHS), they have other goals in mind,” Eve Eyal, co-president of the Women’s Student Union (WSU) said. Your club doesn’t need to be famous to be successful, but advertising your club can be helpful in garnering positive attention to your club.
3. Engage
Once you have enough members and have found a passionate community, focusing on keeping your club members coming back again and again is essential. Engage your audience through creative club meetings and fun activities. Eyal and her co-president of WSU, Sophia Koshland, emphasized finding a good balance between teaching and doing things as a club. In WSU meetings, they try to teach about current, relevant topics that relate to the club. For instance, “at the beginning of the year, we had a series of meetings about reproductive rights and ... the defunding of Planned Parenthood. We had a meeting where we had information about that,” Eyal said. Following their educational meetings, the club had “a meeting where (they) made posters and bulletins to promote a big sale … to raise money for Planned Parenthood,” Eyal said. The leaders of WSU ensured that they had a good balance in this section of their meetings. “Put a lot more work into our meetings and making each meeting interesting instead of just having some meetings where we didn’t really do anything,” Eyal said.
4. Put in effort
Running a club well isn’t an achievable task immediately. It requires time, effort, and organization as club leaders. The best clubs are started because it’s something that the leaders are passionate and care about, not as something performative that looks good on your resume or college applications. Additionally, you need to be willing to sacrifice some of your free time and energy into making your club a fun, engaging, and valuable space. A key factor into making sure your time and effort into your club doesn’t go to waste is setting clear and realistic goals. “Having a clear goal as club leaders, having a clear ‘What this club is’ ... is really important because a lot of people don’t really know what they’re getting themselves into a lot of the time,” Martinac-Isaacson said. Part of having clear goals and ideas is putting in the effort to communicate effectively with your club members about what they want to see for the club. If you don’t know what’s going on, neither will they, and having a disorganized club isn’t very attractive. “Be honest with the other members of the club about plans and letting them know plans in advance so even if they are unable to attend they still can participate in future activities,” Nikhil Gomez, president of the BHS Backpacking club, said. Putting in time and effort is what makes you able to have engaging meetings and successful advertising; clear goals and focus will keep your club organized and running as smoothly as possible.