In the first week of every school year, Chaminade hosts the activity fair with each club at a separate table. It was my duty to work the lunch shift for the Cardinal & White Newspaper and as I tried to recruit my fellow friends and classmates, I started to ask myself, “Will any of these kids who are signing up actually be there for our meeting next Tuesday morning?” I got a lot of people to sign up, but my suspicion was that very few of them would follow through…

In our first official meeting, out of the 44 total people who signed up and filled out the online google form, only 14 actually showed up. The next meeting after that, 17 people attended. Now, if we take out returning writers who were in the club last year, then only 12 new people signed up and filled out the form. Of those 12, only 2 new people followed through on their commitment and were added to the newspaper staff. That means that only 17% of new people who filled out the signup to join the Cardinal & White went on to attend and participate in the club. My suspicion was right.

By looking at these numbers, the next step in the process is to ask the question, “How can we make it more effective?” The 17% hit rate is just not cutting it. Now, I know I am only using a very small sample size, but it still is a statistic that needs to be considered. My idea is that these clubs add some sort of incentive to motivate students to follow through on their signed obligations. Maybe these clubs can give their new members a lunch butt pass or even make it worth house points. All I know is that something needs to change because Chaminade’s student body needs to learn how to get involved in the school community and be faithful to their commitments.