Colorful poster boards, club members crowding the Pavilion and little treats to entice students during a typical club week were all replaced by a spreadsheet of pre-recorded videos in the world of COVID-19.

Club week for 2020 was held online in accordance with distance learning protocols. Rather than meeting physically at school to recruit students, each club made a video advertising their club’s activities and features. The videos and sign-up sheets were then organized into a master spreadsheet by junior Nikita Manyak.

The spreadsheet was released on ParentSquare and StudentSquare on Aug. 31. It includes the club name, president, president’s email address, adviser, video link and sign-up sheet via Google Forms. 

Despite possible technological difficulties, Manyak stated that help and resources are available.

“I’m guessing that there is going to be a bit of a struggle for people to access videos at times,” Manyak said. “But they’ll have the [club] presidents’ emails so, if they have any extra questions, they’ll be able to ask.”

As all school activities go virtual, many clubs made substantial changes to their agenda and proceedings beyond club week. One of these clubs is Future Business Leaders of America, which will turn to online conferences and study sessions, among other events.

“Being that FBLA is the school’s largest club and that we never want to bring down our club’s engagement and enjoyable activities, the board and I are planning on hosting many virtual guest speakers/workshops this semester, as well as just having fun online socials where everyone can get to know each other!” FBLA co-president and senior Krisha Thakur wrote to the Talon.

As with any major change, Thakur anticipates there may be some disadvantages as club events go online.

“The biggest downfall is that we don’t get to travel together,” Thakur wrote. “This is something that most club members love about FBLA because all of our conferences involve spending the weekend with your friends in a new city and attending so many fun FBLA events.”

Along with adjustment comes innovation. With clubs running virtually, new opportunities may arise as members explore this new medium.

“Because FBLA is virtual we have the time to implement a lot of fun changes this year for FBLA! We are establishing a point reward system to incentivize participation, and members will definitely be able to gain some cool benefits with that!” Thakur wrote. 

According to junior Ganesh Koka, club week went beyond his expectations, especially in learning about and signing up for clubs.

“People signed up at their own will for clubs they were interested in. There was no like ‘begging for sign ups’ you could say,” Koka wrote to the Talon. “The video was a great idea, trying to keep it short and simple rather than having kids going through an informational slideshow or document which is generally quite boring. Google forms were a really good idea too, made things simpler and easier to organize and manage.”

Manyak stated that overall, club week of 2020 went smoothly, thanks to Associated Student Body’s efforts in advertising and creating a club website compiled of each club’s year-round activities.

“I do know that a lot of people have been signing up for clubs and taking advantage of this opportunity,” Manyak said. “This has been a very successful club week and I’m really excited to see how the rest of the year will go.”