Lessons in Organization (Jun 2023)
Last summer I had an idea to start a club at my high school. I knew that several of my friends from the BioMedical Academy were interested in clubs that would let them explore career options after high school. In order to keep it targeted, I decided that it would be a PreMed club. I was excited about the possibilities - organizing talks with doctors, medical students, and building deeper connections with my school community.
Starting the club itself was not too hard. A lot of my classmates signed on quickly. I found a supportive teacher, and bingo, our club was born! The first real task was to select the executive board to assist with club activities. I decided to solicit interest from students to see if they wanted to join theExecutive Board. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and I eventually selected a group of 5 students to join the Board. So far so good!
We organized a few exciting virtual speaker events. We had incredible doctors and medical school students address us and answer our questions. Feeling increasingly confident, we decided to organize a field trip. We got the requisite permission from teachers and received our principals approval. Next, we shared the exciting plans with our club members and people quickly began signing up! Unfortunately, just 3 days before the field trip, it got canceled. Apparently there was an issue with timing. It was very disappointing for us!
All in all, we had a successful inaugural year for our PreMed club, but I understand now that planning events requires more than just good ideas. There’s a lot of small details that can easily be overlooked if you’re not careful - like confirming a speaker is still available, scheduling a classroom to be used after school, or making sure members are getting proper updates. As I worked with my team to plan our first event, I learned the importance of delegating tasks and following up regularly. I had to trust my fellow club board members to complete their assigned tasks on time, but also keep track of things myself to ensure that nothing fell through the cracks. Through time and practice, we became more efficient at planning events and were able to attract many speakers and new members to our club. We grew stronger as a team and learned so much from the experts who spoke to us.
Next year, I know we’ll be ready for even bigger successes with this club. My vice president and I have already created potential schedules for each week of the first four months of the school year, having discussed several possibilities for the club. We have also recruited our publicist team from the executive board to help convince freshmen to consider signing up next year for the club, as we started meetings later this school year. I also plan to appoint certain tasks to people with the needed specific capability or strength. I’m hoping to connect with the field trip liaison earlier in the school year and have her join our team to facilitate more amazing events and field trips in the future!
