BY SABRINE BRISMEUR
Cooper City High School’s clubs, honor societies and publications have some new rules and regulations to follow for the 2017-2018 school year, after the first Inter-Organization Council (IOC) meeting of the year outlined some key changes.
“We want to create a cohesive community with our club representatives,” Student Government Association (SGA) sponsor Natalie Flaten said. “So we’re definitely going to be enforcing some stricter policies. As a group, we want to know what’s going on so we can support each other. The whole idea of IOC is so we can make a community instead of just going through the motions.”
The Inter-Organization Council, held on the third Wednesday of every month, is organized by the Student Government Association and is meant to keep tabs on extracurricular activities. All fundraisers and project approvals must go through the council, where representatives vote on certain motions such as a club’s creation.
This year, all clubs are required to stand one representative to the meeting. This member cannot represent any other clubs, meaning no longer can one student represent four different organizations, a frequent occurrence in the past years. The decision was handed down by the district in order to encourage club cooperation.
“We’re changing to accommodate to this new Broward County vision of having clubs at the forefront of the school,” Isabella Tocci, first vice president of SGA, said.
Flaten added that the policy change should help with club-wide initiatives, where all IOC representatives work together to organize a large project. One such example was the Feeding Children Everywhere event, which packed 76,000 bags for low income families last year across dozens of CCHS clubs.
Additionally, it is now mandatory that all representatives submit a monthly club report at the IOC meetings. All forms pertaining to club organization can be found, printed or filled out on the SGA website.
As opposed to last year’s flat fee of $25 in dues for each club at the beginning of the year, a new policy states that clubs looking to contract SGA to create banners or use their supplies must transfer funds to SGA each time.
Each banner now costs $5, and supplies such as paper cost $2 per roll.
“Usually, the $25 dues were to cover everything clubs might need from us, but then some began to demand very intricate banners without having paid,” added Flaten. “It just got to be where their expectations were unrealistic. Just to make it fair and equitable to everybody, we decided it would be on an as-needed basis.”
While some of the policies are not necessarily new, they had not been enforced or taken heed of prior to this year.
Besides discussion of the new approach to IOC meetings, school bookkeeper Kathy Marimon explained procedures for project approval and purchase order paperwork. After a school year of missed financial report deadlines from various clubs, SGA has begun to crack down on extracurricular organizations with a habit of late paperwork.
“It’s much easier to keep track of things as they happen,” Marimon said. “Don’t wait until the last minute to fill out all your paperwork for the year.”
Clubs looking to fundraise also received a visit from a sales representative of Big Chee$e Fundraising in Oakland Park. Those who purchase fundraising items such as chocolate-covered pretzel sticks, chips and cookies receive up to 50% profit, delivery at no cost and hassle-free returns. A 2% discount is also offered on all purchases for clubs who pay their bill within ten days.
“We’re never going to leave you in a corner,” the representative said. “Though, you must always do your paperwork. It keeps everyone happy and everyone out of trouble.”
Featured photo by Sabrine Brismeur
