Well, what we do at Meade is talk to the coaches of whatever sports or other activities are affected and ask if those students that need to can be allowed time near the beginning of practice, say Thursday, to go to the meetings. You may also want to talk to your principle or the administrator in charge of extracurriculars and see about getting a set time before any sports teams practice so students have time to study and do any other runnign around they need to do. At our school, no practices start before 3 because that time is designated as "study hall," and those students can also get a pass to go to whatever other activity they need to. Try it, I hope that helps.

my brother plays football here at sphs, and he's already gone through ordeals. once, he had an honors society meeting after school on thursday (instead of wednesday like it was supposed to be) and if he missed the meeting he'd get demerits. however, he had football practice and he talked to the coach, but the man told him if he was late to practice he wouldn't play in the game that saturday. the coaches think they are doing enough to support involvement in other extracurriculars by starting a half-hour later on wednesdays, but they don't realize the hard decisions their players have to make. it's practically impossible to be involved in anything else if you are already involved in sports. i suppose i could try talking to the principal, but i doubt it would get me anywhere!! i think that system you have at meade is a good one. it encourages involvement in more than just sports, and kids need that.

It may be hard to get the support of some students, but some teachers are willing to do extra help sessions and even detentions before school, and then practices wouldnt be an issue...just a suggestion if your advisor would be willing

yeah but you can't exactly hold clubs before school. i think that i will have to have my club occur on, for example, one thursday a month and hope that once (whatever sport) season is over, a person can join. since each season there are sports, it will be like all the (whatever sport) people can join, and all the existing members that have to quit for (whatever sport) can quit, and the numbers will be even. although the kind of club that i'm starting probably won't have that many athletes in it, although there will be some, i hope. but does that plan make sense? do people have suggestions, or things about clubs at their schools that need attention?

if you don't mind my asking, what kind of club are you trying to start...there may be a way that, if you have trouble meeting at school, you could have independant meetings somewhere else...also, depending on the type of organization, you may be able to get help from similar organizations at other schools...

i am starting a young democrats club at sphs, and i have gotten a lot of help from the young dems of the county, but i'm pretty sure that meetings have to be held at the school (it's also more convenient for me.) since i'm only holding meetings once a month, i'm sure that people that want to join will be able to work me into my schedule.

How do we get our principals to approve club ideas? My principal tends to be very uptight and sometimes he is not open to some of our ideas. I mean we are the SGA right? don't we get to come up with ideas to improve the school? But, how are we going to improve clubs if we cannot get our ideas approved?

Things might be different at your school, but our Principal has a policy in which we write a coherent proposal, think out all of the logistics and structuring details, set an appointment with her secretary, then go in and talk to her about it. If you approach your school heads from that decisive, professional stance, it may have some bearing on the result.

Same thing at Old Mill. We tried to get a Spring Spirit week ,pep rally and dance that way and got 2/3. She rejected the pep rally. btu the proffesinal approach had an effect.