After AHS ASB issued out club charter status emails to numerous clubs who applied to be chartered this year, many club officers were left confused and shocked that their club had not made the cut.

In some emails, the ASB Executive Council addressed that due “to the shrinking student body and limited staff, ASB has been more strict in chartering new clubs. Unfortunately, after much deliberation, ASB could not approve your club for the 2020-2021 school year.”

Last year, AHS ASB and the 2019-2020 club commissioner, Ashley Lin, published a series of new guidelines addressing AHS’ long-standing issue of club accountability. The new club chartering guidelines were placed into effect beginning on June 2 and were used to charter clubs this past month. These new guidelines required chartered clubs to host fundraisers and events throughout the school year, proving that these clubs are purposed for long-term existence and are active. 

An excerpt from an email sent by ASB Executive Council to club presidents and ICC representatives on June 2 reads, “As the student body decreases every year, the number of clubs and club charter applications continues to steadily increase. ASB wishes to maintain the quality of leadership and guidance given to each club by each advisory, but with multiple clubs asking for their advisorships, teachers are unable to offer their full attention and support to a given single club… In addition, ASB would like to formally state that rechartered club applications will not be considered with more leniency than new club charter applications; no existing club is guaranteed to be rechartered.”

While these new guidelines filtered out the clubs in which students are commonly created solely to add to enhance their college application, smaller clubs are now at risk and fear they will not meet these strict regulations to become officially chartered. It is noticeable that the ASB Council finds it difficult to maintain the number of clubs during previous years as these new guidelines have made it difficult for clubs with niche interests, low membership, or special circumstances to be chartered. 

With Virtual Clubs Day taking place on Oct. 23, the clubs that did not survive the regulations are unable to receive much publicity with the AHS student body. Fortunately, a new student-led organization known as, AHS Students for Club Reform (AHSSCR), are currently reaching out to unchartered clubs this year with plans to host an Unchartered Virtual Clubs Day to bring awareness to those left behind by the new club chartering guidelines. In response to the risk, small clubs have under the new guidelines, the AHSSCR organization is dedicated to “stand to protect vulnerable clubs from disenfranchisement. By encouraging productive conversation and sensible legislation between clubs and ASB.”

Senior Lawrence Sung said, “Robinson and I decided to create [AHSSCR] after 2019-2020 Clubs Commissioner, Ashley Lin, implemented a series of new stringent club regulations that we and other friends of ours feared would cause larger clubs to reign as smaller clubs gradually disappeared.”

Lawrence continued and expressed they “hold no ill feelings toward ASB—in fact, I personally interviewed [Ashley] months before school shut down, and I learned that ASB is facing a crisis: the student population is gradually falling, but the number of clubs is going the opposite way. This results in not only purposeless and inactive clubs that take up club resources, but also advisors potentially being stretched thin. Thus, ASB took drastic measures to cull the amount of clubs, which is understandable, however the way that they are going about it threatens to stifle the innovation and the aspirations of underclassmen.”

Lawrence shares that he began the AHSSCR organization alongside junior Robinson Lee because “having an autistic brother, I have always fought for the little guy, and seeing this unfold prompted me to take action. What I’m seeing here is that there is an opening for smaller clubs to face bias from ASB, since proving that they are active is harder than proving that large clubs are active. Robinson has always fought for the little guy too, and he and I have been very close friends.”

AHSSCR states on their website that they “look to support unchartered clubs who participate actively within the Arcadia club ecosystem, but unfortunately are left in the dust compared to their peers who have been officially chartered.”

They continued to elaborate that they “will do so by providing advertising opportunities and in the future strive to build a more cohesive community of unchartered clubs able to contribute more to AHS and the Arcadia community as a whole.”

Additionally, their current missions are to “encourage ASB to take into consideration the unique situation of certain clubs and reduce the requirements necessary for their longevity” and “help clubs adapt to the unique online environment with the advent of COVID-19 and continue to have lasting dialogue with ASB.”

The registration forms for unchartered clubs to be recognized in AHSSCR’s Unchartered Virtual Clubs Day are now active and open for submissions until Oct. 31 at midnight. At this moment, the set date for this event to take place is on Nov. 6, with Clubs Day introductory meetings happening from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

All in all, AHSSCR currently represents those clubs who were, unfortunately, not chartered this year because of the new set of guidelines issued at the end of the last school year. These pre-existing clubs include Gender Equity Movement, Arcadia High School Model United Nations, and Bridge the Divide: Arcadia. With only 47 chartered clubs out of over 100 club applications submitted this year, AHSSCR hopes to find more clubs joining their cause in AHS’ club reformation.

You can find more information about Unchartered Clubs Day and AHSSCR here.

Graphic courtesy of AHSSCR