By Yetnaleci Maya, Oct. 26, 2021
After more than a year of virtual events and Zoom meetups, clubs and campus organizations are now able to host in-person events, game nights and fundraisers while exercising health and safety measures, which student organizations needed to submit acknowledgement for by Oct. 13.
The policies were first communicated to organizations through a September announcement from the Office of Student Life & Cultural Centers. As student organizations seek to engage the student body and allow many to absorb the campus culture for the first time, they are encouraged to practice social distancing and use outdoor venues, and they are required to use online reservations and the campus’ health screener for events.
ASI BEAT has held three in-person events so far: Picnic by the Plaza, Voting Registration Day and Paint by Numbers. It will be holding its latest event, Cemetery Cinema, on Oct. 29 where it will be streaming “A Quiet Place” on campus and providing individuals who have registered for the event through MyBar with a free blanket, popcorn and candy.
Destiny Boyer, special projects assistant with ASI BEAT, said the organization has mainly held events under the 200-person mark. According to regulations, events that surpass 200 participants must receive Los Angeles County approval and meet with the university’s Events Task Force when event planning.
“For on-campus events, the time it takes to plan varies but it would be at least three months in advance,” said Boyer. “That is because if you’re working with vendors there are contracts, there’s marketing, confirming with everyone that is involved and it all takes time.”
Keeping events under the 200-person mark saves organizations time to get events up and running.
Barkada, a Filipino-American club, has also been successful at involving students on campus. According to Isaiah Pagdanganan, the club’s secretary, general body meetings consist of 80-100 students on average.
The club recently hosted a Filipino Street Games event, taking inspiration from the Netflix series “Squid Game” on Oct. 20. The club had about 30 people RSVP to the event and participate in games like Pepsi 7 Up, which resembles the red light, green light game from “Squid Game,” and “patintero” which is similar to the game tag, but the difference is the taggers were only allowed to move from side to side, specified Pagdanganan.
In the past, clubs and organizations would have to fill out a physical form and turn it in to reserve a space on campus; now, the process is handled through the software 25Live.
Pagdanganan said the new online software has been easing his first year as the club’s secretary.
“You can cross-reference which venues are booked for which days, so they aren’t double booked and then you don’t have trouble finding something else in short notice,” said Pagdanganan. “Before you would have to turn in these forms three weeks in advance, but we’ve been doing them one to two weeks now, so it’s a faster process overall.”
Clubs and organizations have also been prohibited from selling food and beverages for fundraisers due to health and safety measures.
Hermanas Unidas, a Latinx club, held its first fundraiser with Krispy Kreme, taking orders from Sept. 29 to Oct. 13. Club supporters would Venmo the club, fill out a short form and would then receive a link, which they would show at any Krispy Kreme to get a dozen donuts for $12.
In efforts to steer away from selling food and beverages like they have in the past, Hermanas Unidas’ Fundraising Chair Emily Nuñez has plans for a variety of different fundraisers in the future.
“We definitely want to try and have a sticker fundraiser where I create the stickers,” said Nuñez. “There’s also raffles we want to plan, and we want to try to have an in-person fundraiser with a food restaurant where people show up, show them a flier and we get a cut of the proceeds.”
Tari Hunter, director of the Office of Student Life & Cultural Centers, explained the Bronco Student Center, which was mainly staffed by students, is not currently available for booking due to lack of staffing. The BSC was the most used space by clubs and organizations on campus to hold events and meetings.
Hunter expressed her hope for its availability soon, “Yes some of the bigger spaces we are used to hosting at are not available for booking online (through the 25Live software) but we are really looking forward to every space being online hopefully by the spring semester.”
For more information on students organization events best practices, visit the Safer Return at Cal Poly Pomona website.
