Story by Mark Graven
Staff Reporter
The Executive Council of Students (ECOS) met with Dean of Students Chris Cavazos to discuss the number of members and officers need to charter, or renew, a club at its June 18th on-line meeting.
Currently, CNM requires that clubs have at least eight active members, with four of them serving as officers.
ECOS members and Cavazos discussed a proposal whereby five active members and two officers would be sufficient to charter a club.
“Five (members) would be great,” said Cavazos, adding that it would represent an effort by the college and ECOS to get students more engaged.
When students are more engaged, they are more successful, he said.
CNM had more than 25 clubs and organizations in operation before the Covid pandemic shut down in-person activities on campus. Some clubs were able to stay active but others have fallen off over the last year and a half.
ECOS, which is in charge of allocating funds for the clubs, which comes out of student registration fees, last year decided to allocate funds at 50 percent of previous levels, until the campus returned to normal operations.
The ECOS board members discussed with Cavozos, the problem of club continuity, and officers being able to know the proper procedures in obtaining, and using, funds.
Kristofer Gaussoin, CNM director of student conduct and responsibilities and the official advisor to ECOS, noted that the college is working on an on-line training program for club officers, which could help overcome the problem of getting officers to in-person training.
ECOS President Alex Crossland said that at a community college, there can be more frequent turnover among officers, so clubs might need to lean more on faculty advisors to help maintain continuity.
Colin Stapleton, ECOS outreach officer, noted that faculty advisors tend to have a wide range of involvement.
Cavazos said that the role of faculty advisors in maintaining club continuity was a factor to consider in deciding how to proceed. ECOS is expected to revisit the question at its next meeting.
ECOS is meeting every other Friday at 2 p.m. during Summer Semester.