Every time I walk towards the music suite or the cafeteria, I glance at the stars adorning the wall, each star symbolizing a life lost in the Iraqi war. Then the stars abruptly stop as if the project was simply unfinished, a reminder of yet another club that failed to continue on for the next generation of WJ students.

Once upon a time, belonging to a club meant something special to high school students; it was a place to mingle with like-minded peers, unify for a specific cause or make new friends. A student now can belong to 10 clubs without forming any sort of commitment, without finding something to be passionate about.

With over 80 clubs available at WJ, it seems there are limitless possibilities. From Amnesty International to Young Investors Club, there is a club to fit everyone’s unique interests. But every year the list is tweaked as clubs are formed and then diminished once their founders graduate. At this point, some students are forming clubs just for the sake of forming a club. With obscure clubs like the Gamerz Club and the Yo-Yo Club, the integrity of legitimate organizations like Amnesty International is lessened.

Today’s students are driven to fill their resumés with clubs, sports and positions of leadership. But how much commitment can one have to the Burrito Club? Do these obscure clubs make any difference in a student’s life?

There are clubs like Debate Team which require serious commitment, with practices twice a week after school along with monthly tournaments, but also reward members with invaluable knowledge and experiences. What does the Horology Club (the study of watches) offer its members? What does Ginger Club, for redheads, do on a monthly basis? Yearly?

However, we must consider the importance of a club to each member.

“Those clubs [like Horology Club and Yo-Yo Club] may be just as important to an individual as the National Honors Society is to another individual,” said junior Allie Daniere, a member of the WJ Quidditch Club and Ginger Club.

But it is a practice that must stop. A student looks at his or her high school transcript and realizes he or she needs a leadership position, and so the planning begins. I admit, I myself am guilty of these seductive thoughts; I’ve always wanted to be the girl who was the president and founder of the WJ Swing Dancing Club.

Initial support can be overwhelming, an exhilarating feeling of starting something new, but the truth of the matter is that after the founders graduate, it is unlikely these clubs will survive the ever-changing atmosphere of WJ. Beyond this, clubs take up teachers’ valuable time during lunch or after school, thus taking away resources from students. So if a teacher agrees to sponsor a club, then the club should use the teacher’s lunch period or afterschool time for serious assemblage.

I am in no way stating that students be denied the opportunity to form clubs, but there need to be certain guidelines to ensure that the clubs don’t fold. There are two simple solutions to ensure clubs prosper well past their founding:

1. Create a constitution that states the purpose of the club, what the officers hope to change or bring awareness to in the community, responsibilities of club officers and how membership will be retained. This practice will not only make the process more legitimate, but will create an opportunity for students to delve beyond specious reasoning deeper into what they want to get out of the club.

2. Put greater emphasis on officership. Some club officers can gain positions by merely attending a few meetings whilst others have to go through a lengthy interview and presentation process such as that for National Honors Society. If more clubs made more serious processes to gain leadership positions, the clubs would be more centered and directed, therefore having an easier time organizing, recruiting and retaining members.

Upon taking these few actions, we can come back to WJ after graduation to find clubs, built through commitment and leadership, prospering and growing under the guidelines that ensures clubs’ futures for generations to come.