At the start of any school year, students recall walking through the gym, listening to the energetic sound of the band while running into a Roman Gladiator carrying an Italian Flag, or seeing a Border Collie spin around on command. The club fair marks a right of passage for many students, selecting the clubs they will take part in for the next few years; but for the Inter-Club Council, it marks the start of what they strive to be an organized and successful year for Miami Palmetto Senior High’s 60 clubs.
The ICC, a sub-group within Student Council, takes responsibility for the club’s organization and ensures sponsors and boards receive information about upcoming events and the required materials. To guarantee club productivity, all liaisons must deliver information on scheduled meeting dates, RSVP’s for school events and club reports, as well as making sure every club has the ICC contact at hand in case they need assistance. In order for the ICC to function at its best, clubs must exchange the communication and send out their responses and recent meeting updates every month.
“We have to make sure that clubs are submitting their minutes, their constitutions and we help organize certain scheduling or any information that needs to go out to the clubs. We’re in charge of sending that out and just making sure that the clubs are up to date,” senior and ICC Chair Catalina Forwood said.
To manage the clubs, ICC strategizes and creates methods of organization to work efficiently, including a group Google Spreadsheet that tracks each club’s completed or incomplete assignments. Every individual ICC member creates their own ways of organization corresponding to their assigned clubs as well.
“[To stay organized] I make a list of all the clubs that I have, and then the people in charge like the Secretary, the President, the sponsor; then I email them on a group email and just let them know and then I check my email to make sure they understand what I sent them,” sophomore and ICC Liaison Danielle Martinez said.
Club boards usually consist of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Historian. Each position is in charge of their own tasks, but as a unit, the board has a goal of running meetings smoothly and attracting as many passionate students who will attend and participate. Vice Presidents are in charge of ensuring ICC receives all the material and reports back to their club on announcements. Secretaries have the fundamental job of creating a report after their monthly meetings. These reports allow ICC to track club participation and focus on clubs that need a boost in engagement.
This year, ICC members have emphasized the significance of club constitutions, ensuring all clubs follow through with their written laws, keep power checked and store all essential information in one place. With the new Academic Integrity Policy, ICC advised all clubs to add an amendment that states their support of the cheating clause.
“The Constitution basically sets rules down, so no one tries to overtake the club; it just makes sure everything is balanced. And it’s really important to keep it and maintain it, because it just helps the club in their meetings. They know what to do and they know what rules they have to follow, like the cheating clause. If they put [the Academic Integrity Policy] in, people aren’t going to cheat because if they do they get kicked out of the club; and if it’s not in the Constitution, people are not going to [follow] it,” Martinez said.
Another group in Student Council, the Parliamentarians, work closely with the ICC and must attend club meetings whenever the board hopes to amend a constitution or implement new policies. Three Parliamentarians, sophomore Jared Olster, junior Zachary Bales and senior Julius Talas, divide clubs amongst themselves to ensure each one has a parliamentarian in attendance to guarantee fair changing of club rules.
“Parliamentarians should be present so that clubs can’t just pass any stupid law, they have to make sure, okay, this makes sense, this should be passed, and that [the clubs] have the authority to pass it,” Olster said. “I ratified the SWAT club’s Constitution… It went smoothly, they just needed me to be present, and once it passed, [I clarified] with them to make it stick.”
With 60 clubs within MPSH’s four walls, there is a club for everyone — whether they take regular, Honors or Advanced Placement courses. Ranging from hosting blood drives in Leo Club to having lunch with students in the Special Education program with the National Honor Society, there is a club that will pique anyone’s interest. ICC prioritizes inclusivity and seeks to promote and advertise clubs in order to maximize participation.
“I think the principal goal for the clubs in ICC is just to have everything running smoothly and to make sure that everybody is engaged in clubs. That’s why we do club demographics, and that’s why we go into each minutes and we see how the attendance is because we really want to make sure that all students are participating in clubs, regardless of what type of classes they’re taking or what demographic they’re from. So it’s just to make sure that everybody is involved in the clubs and finding something outside of school they’re passionate about,” Forwood said.
Along with creating club calendars and keeping all clubs on track, ICC takes the initiative in organizing events that unite the student body and involve a variety of clubs, such as Fun Fridays alongside the Student Involvement branch of Student Council. Every Friday, a club or clubs, organize a courtyard event promoting the club’s message and student involvement.
On Oct. 20, Forwood organized an event in collaboration with multiple student organizations and members of Student Council to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month. To prepare for the show, Forwood ran a rehearsal to ensure everything would run smoothly on the day of the event, which she says was one of the highlights of her time in ICC.
“I think my favorite moment was probably yesterday. We did a dress rehearsal before the Hispanic Heritage main event and just seeing everything come together and all the different moving parts that always felt so distant finally coming together and being one event that was right in front of me. And then even the contributions of the ICC liaisons giving fun facts that we could post to TVP and the door decorating help from Spanish and Social Studies [Honor Societies] and when I see somebody dressing up in their Hispanic attire, it’s just like a whole week coming together,” Forwood said.
The show included performances by the Variations dance team, jazz band, cheerleaders, American Sign Language Club and a presentation from producer and creative Lex Borrero. Borrero spoke about his career and gave advice to students. Forwood was satisfied with the outcome of the event, and enjoyed the way Hispanic culture was portrayed through performing arts, which won her praise from Borrero.
“It came together really well and I was really happy, and he even told me ‘I love how on top you are of everything, you could tell that you did a lot for it.’ So it just felt really good,” Forwood said.
With the role of an ICC liaison comes responsibility, but it also creates meaningful connections with students and staff. ICC members value working behind the scenes to ensure clubs are well-run and coordinated, as well as creating a foundation for student groups to leave their legacies at MPSH.
“I like being able to organize and I’m very passionate about clubs and I’m in a lot of clubs, so I really like to be able to see the other aspect of the clubs, instead of just being in it. Seeing that overview of how the clubs work. Because I feel like a lot of people just think the minutes go to somebody and then nothing happens to them. It’s cool to see the background [of] what’s going on… It’s just good to be able to branch out and help in the clubs and in student council,” Forwood said.
