The ASB Interclub Committee launched a new Canvas page, Feb. 3. Kai Synder (11), Alexia Johnson (9), Valerie Hsu (11), and Landan Karetny (9) put together the system in an attempt to better manage the weekly Saturday submission of club meeting minutes and the overall organization of clubs at Westview.
Having joined ASB at the beginning of her freshman year, Johnson sought to implement a new system where clubs could better communicate with the Interclub Committee, as well as upgrade the current Google Drive submission of meeting minutes. Working with ASB advisor DJ Sosnowski, Johnson formulated the idea of the Canvas page.
“It was really inefficient and a lot of work for ASB because we had to check each Google folder manually,” Johnson said.
Johnson worked with other members of the Interclub Committee to bring this to life. With the new Canvas page, ASB hopes club monitoring will be more practical for both ASB and club leaders. Synder explained how it will better inform clubs on upcoming Interclub meetings, ASB guidelines, advertisement opportunities, and financial logistics.
“Through this Canvas page, we hope to solve the problem of communication with clubs,” Synder said. “It’s important that ASB is always in contact with the students who are running them, so this [Canvas page] should be a central hub to push out notifications and assignments, one of the most important ones [being the submission box] for meeting minutes.”
Synder said that meeting minutes are essential to club functioning and communication.
“Meeting minutes are basically a way to make sure clubs are actively meeting,” Synder said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a way of enforcing or checking on the 107 clubs at Westview. This new system will differentiate clubs that are actually committed and contributing to Westview culture.”
The Interclub Committee wants clubs to be aware of the strike system as well, which though has been implemented for years, hasn’t been put into effect much. This year ASB seeks to have it taken more seriously.
“Three strikes will result in your club being removed from the roster,” Johnson said. “One of the main [reasons for a strike] is not submitting the [weekly] meeting minutes, even if you don’t meet. Having flyers up for a week after the event is also a strike because then it’s left for ASB to clean up. Not following the handbook rules and keeping up to date with the ASB club guidelines and announcements could also result in one. We expect the clubs to know these rules and be responsible for following ASB regulations.”
If a club gets three strikes, they are still able to reapply and prove to ASB that they will be committed in the future.
“If you want to renew a club, you have to show that you will care about it,” Synder said. “As long as you can put in the time and effort and not give us trouble keeping track of you again, you are welcome to submit another application.”
Synder, Johnson, Hsu, and Karetny will all work to manage the new Canvas page as well as the community of clubs at Westview in the Interclub Committee. Having 107 clubs split between the four of them, Synder said it’s quite a challenge, but all the while fulfilling.
“Clubs are a very influential part of Westview,” Synder said. “[Being] responsible for all of them is a huge task, but I have a lot of trust in [my] committee and the hands we have on deck, so it gives me a lot of motivation to keep doing this work.”
