Here we are at roughly a quarter of the way into the fall semester and it is time to check on how our student organizations have fared getting back into the swing of things.

According to a press release from Student Life OCCC has 31 active clubs, 26 of which were represented at the Leadership Retreat before the start of the semester, 23 at the Student Organization Fair at the beginning of this month and two “new” clubs.These are the Gamer Guild of OCCC and the newly re-formed College Republicans.

The general outlook of progress this semester from those interviewed is positive; however, some clubs have had a slow launch.

One problem that seems to be common among some is member, and especially officer, retention.

“It started out a little hectic,” said Chris Camacho, vice president of the Engineering Club and physics major. “We figured that when the new semester started we had a full set of officers, but our president quit over the summer.”

Other clubs on campus seem to agree with Camacho.

“We have had a little bit of that,” said Candice Parker, president of the Native American Student Association and music major. “We are so fortunate for our club being able to pull together, pull from our resources, and make up for that – that little bit of an issue there.”

Some key factors in coming off the dormant period in the summer seem to be: doing elections before entering the summer, having at least one meeting in the summer having representation at the leadership retreat, and participating at the organization fair.

“At the end of last semester we started preparing for the transition,” said Jorge Krzyzaniak, vice president of the Advocates of Peace, and diversified studies major.

“We were able to get some new faces in there and more importantly those new people are rearing to go.

“The leadership retreat … gave our club a lot of visibility to other clubs, it helped the other clubs figure out what we’re all about and helped us reach out to these other clubs so that we can all work together for some positive action.”

Nikki McKiel, co-president for the Gay Straight Alliance and pre-pharmacy/biology major said, “We were pretty organized with the things we want to do and how we want to go about doing them.”

GSA had representation in the retreat, and the Organization Fair as well as the summer project of having a float in the Gay Pride parade.

Other clubs had summer activities as well. For instance Kappa Beta Delta had a Business Barbecue over the summer that President Michael Southerland said contributed to how well the club has done so far.

Overall student organizations are in a healthy position, with the average of those asked giving their club a B for the start of the semester.

For more information about any of the clubs, contact the Student Life Office at 405-682-7523 or check www.occc.edu/StudentLife and click join a club.

To contact Michael Wormley,

email communitywriter@occc.edu