Krispy Kreme donuts, Market O brownies and cheese balls in Ziploc bags: these are some of the products sold in bake sales held by clubs and the HSSC food cart. Bake sales are the typical get-rich-quick method of fundraising for money at SIS; recently, more clubs have been collaborating to organize events larger than the typical weekly bake sale. Overall, such teamwork and collaboration between large numbers of students can bring positive changes to both the student body and the clubs themselves by allowing more fundraising opportunities and events.
Inter-club cooperation provides solutions to a lot of the problems that accompany individual clubs’ initiatives, such as financial feasibility and time availability. Smaller clubs have fewer resources and have a harder time communicating with the administration. HSSC, a club unhindered by these problems, is able to host large-scale events such as Snowball and Prom because it is backed by year-round sales that concentrate simply on generating enough profit to put the events in place. Since smaller clubs lack the resources to produce such events, it is essential for them to collaborate together to reach the same result.
The larger scale of such collaborative efforts also generates greater profit and encourages student participation for these clubs. For example, last year’s first Halloween Carnival, hosted by middle and high school Global Issues Network (GIN), Community Service Club (CSC) and National Arts Honor Society (NAHS) led to a large turnout of elementary to high school students. A single club alone could not have earned such a high profit and level of student participation. Granted, problems, such as miscommunication and disorganization may arise when many people work together. However, these problems can be easily managed through a responsible and organized leadership team, and the cons are outweighed by the benefits. By making sure that there are more resources available for such fundraising opportunities, inter-club cooperation shifts the focus to projects students are actually interested in and passionate about.
Cooperation and collaboration between clubs provides an opportunity for them to start projects that are both larger and more unique. The changes brought about by inter-club cooperation will create improved events and better fundraising opportunities that lead to a more active community, both in the perspective of the student body and the participating club members.