As MVHS faces the spam of profile pictures changing to images of food on Facebook, clubs look to gather as many new recruits as they can. However, this year’s clubs are left only with Club Grub Day, the sight of freshmen pushing through massive crowds of upperclassmen, club officers rapidly exchanging green bills and a basketball court looking like the ending scene from “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” .

Despite Club Grub Day’s upcoming return on April 8, Club Promo Day was canceled this semester, with Club Commission citing that too few clubs actually need it.

While the average student wouldn’t turn down an In-N-Out Burger or Tpumps, Club Promo Day cannot be overlooked as it offers an extra opportunity for promotion. According to California Scholarship Federation co-president junior Elliot Ryu, a common joke around campus is that students only remember what food they got —  not which club they got it from. Not to mention that the lack of another promo day leaves clubs dependent on individual promotion with fewer chances to increase membership.

One of these clubs is the CSF. As members of CSF must be in their second semester of freshman year or older, officers are forced to turn down most prospective members during the first Club Promo Day. Ryu describes his experience manning the CSF stall during first semester Club Promo day.

“The best thing I could think of [to say to freshmen was] ‘All you have to do this semester is nothing, and you can come back later!’” Ryu said. “To a freshman who wants to start volunteering now, it was not an effective means of trying to promote our club.”

Despite the unsuccessful nature of first semester Club Promo Day, second semester Club Promo Day has been beneficial for CSF in the past; Ryu believes that a majority of their members come from it. The re-implementation of Promo Day would allow CSF to continue recruiting at this event as well as any individual strategies they wish to use.

CSF is not alone. Numerous clubs with second semester events, such as CSF, Model United Nations, and WiStem, find an increase in membership halfway through the year useful.

It’s understandable that not every club on campus needs another Club Promo Day. For instance, FBLA has a limited need for second semester Club Promo Day, as the majority of freshmen they recruit for the year come from Business classes or first semester Club Promo Day.

“It’s another way for people to promote to [students],” FBLA’s executive vice president senior Sunaya Krishnapura said. “especially freshmen, who [were] still getting their feet wet and [are] now… ready to start joining some clubs after getting settled academically in the year.”

Yet the lack of Club Promo Day has forced some clubs to find more unconventional ways to snag new members. Along with their annual Facebook promotion events, CSF hosted a weeklong membership drive in the Rally Court to convince more freshmen to join.  

If clubs really don’t think Club Promo Day is necessary, then they don’t have to participate —  but it is the role of Club Commission to help clubs as best they can. By not having second semester Club Promo Day, they are inadvertently harming some MVHS clubs by canceling a huge promotion opportunity, and limiting a chance for freshmen to easily scout and join new clubs.