High membership, Low participation, The struggle of the post-covid clubs.
By Gatlin Edwards
For The Current
AUBURN, Wash. — The current largest club at Green River College, The Rotaract Club, has seen an increase in members throughout the pandemic, but less active participation in club activities.
The club has struggled to get members to attend online meetings and the few in-person events they have held.
The club president, Isaiah English, attributes this to “a lack of communication because [the club] can’t meet in person to plan events. People just don’t check or aren’t motivated enough by announcements online.”
However, despite the lack of participation, the new ways of club communication have actually increased the club’s “membership.”
“We started communicating through Snapchat to reach more people than the school e-mails,” English said. “Then when we saw people start to get more involved we started a Discord and posted more on the club’s Instagram.”
English claims there are currently over 50 “members” involved in the online platforms, but only half of them show up to the Zoom meetings. And only half of those attend the in-person events. With just over 250 followers on Instagram, English expected more participation from those interested in the club’s remaining event opportunities.
The club is in a unique position. Unlike the other Green River clubs, their ties to the city Rotary Club have allowed them to continue limited in-person activities unaffiliated with the school even after restrictions are put in place on campus. Food drives, cleaning up roads and trails and other community service activities were able to continue.
However, because the club is community-service based, even having some events isn’t enough.
“Most of the new members have no idea what the club is supposed to do,” English says, “Most of the people involved were just referred by a friend but never attend something official to get the full club experience.”
But English is hopeful that the club will make a resurgence after the pandemic restrictions are lifted, and may even become more active than ever due to their new ways to reach out to students who may want to join.
“The changes we made won’t go away, but hopefully when [the club] meets in person again our members will get more motivated to be involved.”
