Club Night

By: Nhan Phan, Anvi Bhate, Catherine Wu, Selim Kim

Music blasts from various speakers stationed on white and wood-chipped tables. New and returning Exonians run around from booth to booth, half-yelling as they find clubs that interest them. To any Exonian, this scene is one that is both familiar and welcoming. It’s Club Night: a place where coheads and members of every type of club on campus gather and seek out the next generations of their members.

           Though the start of Club Night is often representative of late nights, hoarse voices and loads of candy piled up on tables, many co-heads reflected on their different experiences from last year's entirely virtual club night. 

            “Last year, I remember, I really didn't prepare anything. I just stayed in that Zoom, me and Marco Rayner [’21],” senior and Badminton Club captain Nick Chiu said. “We just sat there and answered questions. [This year,] the fact that we're able to greet people and they can physically see stuff is nice. Human interaction tends to lead to greater outcomes in terms of participation.”

Upper and Exeter Blog co-head Cindy Su agreed and noted that part of the essence of Club Night was lost in last year’s operations. “It was different because the sign up process was more streamlined for the administration, but a little more difficult for the students, since they couldn’t sign up on the spot and had to go on Exeter Connect after.”

“Last year...we had to submit a video online, and a description of our club. If anyone knows Model UN, you can't get a full understanding of Model UN without talking to someone who's actually done Model UN or seeing what it's like,” senior and Model UN board member Alex Luque added. “I don't think anyone can give a perfect description in one go because there's just so much to explain.”

“We were only on Zoom so it wasn’t as fun or as interesting because we just sat in the room waiting for people to join,” senior and Imani co-head Marina Williams said. 

Yet, despite the difficulties encountered last year, many co-heads looked positively towards this year’s more exciting, completely in-person Club Night. Senior and Exeter Computing Club co-head Celine Tan mentioned how some changes have been made as well.  “We're really glad to be in person, first of all, to be fully present, fully here. We're also really expanding out a little bit more than previous years and trying to reach out to other organizations that could use tech help as well,” Tan said.

Upper and Exeter Forensics (EFT) board member Tina Li agreed. “It’s going to be more different this year because we'll be able to meet in-person with a bunch of potential club members and speak face-to-face, really advocate the club and be able to have the potential club members ask us questions, “ Li said. “I think we'll be able to get our passion for debate and other forms of speech across.”

Senior and Exeter Computing Club co-head Felix Zou shared how the club prepared to face and draw-in the attendees at the in-person event. “Apart from the normal video and posters and station at Club Night, before club night, we [sent] out some emails to the members who were signed up last year, as well as asking them to reach out to their friends and tell them that we are a resource, especially for the people who are taking computer science,” Zou said. “Our younger members also really helped with the poster and the video. They were super good with the video editing and they wanted to take that on.”

Upper and EFT board member Matt Dame shared EFT’s plans to best promote their own club. “This year for Club Night, we really [wanted] to reach as many prospective debaters, given that we are the coolest club on campus,” Dame said. “To do this, we made a short video explaining the club on social media and are decking out our booth with candy and a sick poster, courtesy of Anya! Essentially, everyone should join the club.”

            As members awaited eager students trickling into their booths, the co-heads shared their hopes on what many prospective club members will take away. “I hope that they will leave with a vision of themselves wanting to be on our team,” Williams said.

“I feel like when you come to Exeter, the definition of ‘club’ changes. It doesn’t have to,” lower and Party Games Alliance co-head Advay Nomula noted. “Clubs are things you do after school for fun, something that’s for the present you. I hope people will understand that some clubs like ours offer a space to just destress, after a lot of homework or a long sports game, and allow you to simply play board games.”

Upper and Chinese Language Society co-head Claire Fu shared similar thoughts and gave a sneak peek of upcoming events for the club. “I hope anyone who visits our booth during club night gets excited for the different activities and events we have planned for this year: speaking practice, games, competitions, as well as an essay competition,” she said.

Just like many co-heads had hoped, the in-person environment this year seems to have gotten students much more enthusiastic and willing to join clubs than last year’s virtual event. “It was pretty exciting,” lower Dubem Akunyili said. “I loved the candy at each booth. Advertising was very outgoing but exciting because of all the different approaches. It was certainly very busy.”

Many students also noted the upbeat environment a busy Club Night seemed to foster. “The environment was very lively and it felt easy and comfortable for those interested to talk to the club coheads about joining,” upper Jolie Ng said.

Lower Hansen Tsai agreed. “It was rowdy,” Tsai said. “Everyone was trying to get you to join. Some might even come up to you to rope you into some of the clubs.”

Some students, especially those whose first experience of Club Night was online, shared how the contrast in both environment and enticingness made for a more memorable experience. “Club night was wonderful, especially considering that my first “club night” last year was only online,” upper Bai Xue said. “I enjoyed walking around the quad and exploring the different clubs. It was nice to talk to the co-heads of clubs that I was already in.”

“This year’s club night was super fun,“ lower Temple Miles said. “Since I’m in the class of 2024, last year’s club night was very boring and lowkey, compared to this year’s. I enjoyed getting to walk around the quads with my friends and sign up for different clubs.”

Upper and EFT board member Aaron Joy expressed similar thoughts of gratitude on the types of interaction an in-person club night created. “This year, we were able to have face to face interaction with prospective members, which is something that we were unable to do last year, “ Joy said. “It was great that students had the opportunity to conveniently ask questions and have them answered right away.”

Upper and Middle Eastern Society co-head Leyla Unver agreed. “As a small cultural club, it was awesome to see so many people interested in joining,” Unver said. “The fact that Club Night was in person definitely made it easier to connect, especially because we were able to chat and teach some people who showed interest how to play backgammon.

Upper and Sailing Club co-head Tucker Gibbs agreed and noted how, though this year’s Club Night was a sign of “getting somewhere close to normalcy,” some aspects, such as that of the sign-up process, may be a cause of concern. “This Club Night was a lot like my prep year, which felt really nice. Generally, at in-person Club Nights, clubs would be responsible for soliciting their own members, but now students have to sign up through Exeter Connect. As a club head myself, I'm a bit concerned that people won't be bothered to go back and sign up, but we will see,” he said. 

Upper Ty Dierberg expressed similar thoughts. “Frankly I gravitated towards the ones with familiar faces, large signs, and aggressive marketing. As the night went on, [I went to] the clubs with type/writing sign ups and not QR codes,” Dierberg said. “Frankly most of the clubs I meant to sign up for online I no longer remember their names so that I can sign up for them now.”

Most students can agree that this year’s Club Night was a stark contrast to last year’s. Incoming club members have much to look forward to, as club night is where things are just getting started.