Club Participation Declines at Kickoff

Caitlyn Kim, Staff Writer 

Participation in club kickoff is declining among clubs, while the per club profits from kickoff has increased. This year, about 45 clubs participated which is a significant decline from the 78 clubs that participated last year. 
Many clubs find it no longer worth it to participate in Club Kickoff due to the extensive planning required and minimal profits gained. Model United Nations (MUN), one of the larger clubs on campus, did not participate in club kickoff this year and has not participated for the past two years now. 
“It’s not worth the amount of time and energy that goes into it because we get fairly small revenue,” senior Carolyn Wang, MUN club president said. “We used to sell In-N-Out burgers, but it’s just that a lot of the popular foods, you’ll get five, six clubs selling them all at once, so you really don’t make a lot of profit.”
Club Kickoff has also declined in popularity due to the occupied students who don’t have time to get ready for kickoff.
Wang is also a leading member of the Access to Art Club and said their club did not participate this year either because “[many members are] busy as seniors.. .and it takes a long time to coordinate stuff like this.”
According to senior Anthony Liang, who is the Clubs Commissioner for ASB, although the club participation has declined, the clubs that did participate had greater profits than last year, due to a lesser amount of clubs selling goods at kickoff.
While the amount of club participants has declined, the number of clubs on campus has remained very similar to prior years.
“There’s around the same number of clubs this year versus last year, maybe a little less this year.” Liang said.
However, other club [leaders], such as junior Daniel Zand, who is the Spanish Club President, found Club Kickoff to be helpful in raising revenue and promoting attendance.
“We sold nachos which were in bags of Fritos and Takis and we put cheese sauce on it.” Zand said. “[We sold them] for two tickets each and I think we got about 50 tickets.”
The overall profits declined from last year with less total tickets sold, with about 7,500 tickets were sold in total throughout the clubs that participated.clubkickoffpic.gif
“It’s definitely one of the years with a lower number of clubs participating.” Liang said.