Annual clubs week returns

By Babur Ilchi, September 17 2015 — 

Clubs week is running from September 14–18 in the north and south courtyards of MacHall. The week showcases the variety of extracurricular organizations available for students to join.

Students’ Union vice-president student life Kirsty McGowan is responsible for managing the clubs system.

“It’s my favourite week because clubs are one of the best ways for students to engage on campus,” McGowan said. “Clubs week is where we get to showcase amazing clubs and the diverse amount of clubs that we have.”

This year’s clubs week features two new SU initiatives. The first is clubs open house, which allows executives and members to talk to both McGowan and the clubs coordinator. New students are also able to ask questions about forming clubs.

The second initiative is the junior executive program, which 115 clubs have joined.

“The junior executive program is an initiative that I’ve been working on all summer and we’re really excited,” McGowan said. “Clubs are recruiting younger students to become junior executives to learn the ropes of running their clubs in the hopes they’ll eventually take over.”

The SU will host a series of junior executive workshops covering aspects of running a club from financial planning to booking space for club events.

“It’s very different from being a volunteer where you just follow what the executive team is asking you to do, as opposed to getting hands-on leadership experience,” McGowan said. “There’s never been a way for first years to do that before, so I’m really excited this program allows first- and second-year students to really engage in executive teams within clubs.”

First-year psychology student Komal Tariq checked out clubs week with a friend. Tariq said she joined the Muslim Students’ Association and is looking to get involved with more clubs.

“This is my first year so I don’t know how this goes exactly. I just like what I see,” Tariq said.