Warren Cook, the president of ASW.Clubs, browses the internet in the office of Westminster College’s Associated Students of Westminster. “I really love talking with students who care about Westminster and want to make a difference,” Cook said. “It’s very rewarding to be in that type of environment.” Photo by Craig Knight.
At the start of the 2016 fall semester, Westminster College approved 14 organizations for club status. At the same time, seven clubs became inactive due to a lack of communication, according to ASW.Clubs president Warren Cook.
“The transition from president to president isn’t always that smooth and the transition isn’t always the cleanest,” said Nathaniel McDonald, a senior and member of the ASW.Clubs board. “When that happens, you lose the information to fulfil the requirements necessary to maintain club status.”
Cook said ASW.Clubs is looking to help the current 53 clubs from losing club status by creating a revamped transition document and becoming less bureaucratic
“It can be discouraging for club leaders or whoever gets tasked with continuing the club,” Cook said. “One of our initiatives as a clubs board this year is to make that transition process easier.”
Westminster’s V-Day club, which promotes the end of violence against women and girls, went through the process earlier this year.
“I knew that the transition was coming and I had some time over the summer to prepare,” said Carissa Christensen, V-Day’s president. “I was vice president last year, and the previous president was able to get me up to speed.”
Christensen said she received support from ASW.Clubs during the process of becoming club president, which made the transition easier.
“ASW did a really good job with addressing issues,” Christensen said. “When you know what your resources are and the steps you need to go through, then it makes executing those steps easier rather than not knowing what you were supposed to do.”
While V-Day was able to maintain a clean transition, ASW.Clubs board member Elaine Sheehan said this isn’t normally the case.
“A lot of the issues that we’ve had with clubs not maintaining club status is miscommunication, and a lot of that happens when club leaders graduate and leave,” Sheehan said.
Cook said he is looking to improve that problem by helping prevent miscommunication.
“I want to create an experience with club leaders that is meaningful,” Cook said. “I want to facilitate dialogue with club leaders that gets to why they are doing this in the first place and what we can do to help.
