By Detective Henry Schmidt
An ugly, hidden truth has been buried deep beneath this school. Luckily enough, I’ve got myself a shovel.
These days, it’s a common occurrence for a bunch of CAS clubs, promising the most insightful and interesting of experiences, to disappear into the hundreds of ManageBac messages sent out on the daily. Nobody knows why some fall off the face of the Earth in a matter of weeks. If *that* isn’t a conspiracy at work, I’ll eat my hat.
Despite being the best out of all the other cigarette-chewing chums out on these streets, I couldn’t quite crack this case. It makes me wonder… Have my investigative abilities worn thin since that Missing Manatee case? Am I at the end of the line? I took a long, hard look into the mirror and realized that if I couldn’t uncover this mystery, I’d be about as useful as a glass hammer.
I started out with well-known clubs. What did they do well? What could they have done better? We take their external appearance for granted, but I question these staples of the CIS community. I received no comment from the representative I contacted about the Mosaic, nor the one with the Green Machine. A deterrence in my investigation, but I’ve long since accepted that’s the cruel and indifferent nature of this job.
I had to dig deeper– put that shovel to work. Detective Henry Schmidt is the unstoppable force, but he needs to find *moveable* objects.
An underlying issue I found is the recycling of CAS club ideas. Take the Chess Club, for example; there’s a new one in the works now, but during the early weeks of the first semester, one was run by a student, by the name of Sidhanth Singh…
“What was the name of the CAS experience and what was it about?”
Canadian International School Competitive Chess Club. It was a club meant to construct a team that would play tournaments recognized by the Singapore Chess Federation or FIDE.
“How many members are/were in the Chess Club?”
There were 10 members.
“What was the attendance like in the CAS experience?”
Very poor. After the first 2 sessions, only 2 or 3 people would show up, hence, the club was disbanded.
“What were the successes and shortcomings of the club?”
It is difficult to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the club, as it was active for a very short period of time.
“What would be your proposal for how to formulate an effective CAS experience?”
It is imperative that the CAS experience or project is properly planned, prior to its execution. A poorly-planned experience will often be far less valuable than one which is well thought-out. Furthermore, if a project is large, it should be collaborative, so responsibilities can be divided. This ensures that all the necessary tasks are fully completed, as each individual has a manageable workload. Lastly, one should only commit to an experience if they are sure that they will not lose interest.
Poor planning and attendance, are silent and deadly killers for any club. This experience withered away quickly. I recall a larger club that had a similar issue with planning and attendance; the Law Club, which held a Mock Trial. It had *seventeen* members. I contacted the leader of the club for an interview, with the following response:
I never heard from them again, but this was no issue at all; I held a case file containing important evidence that can explain what led to the dissolution of this specific club.
Exhibit A: The Club Leaders had Forgotten to Host the Meeting Entirely
Exhibit B: The members were largely unavailable on the day of the rescheduled meetings, whilst one of the leaders was unwell…
Exhibit C: Their dying words; the final email sent out to the participants
Finally, after a line of questioning with an anonymous Grade 11 student, I received this comment on the issue: “To improve CAS attendance, I think students need more motivation, and clubs need to be able to provide that motivation, like, you know, pizza parties, or certificates. They need more motivation than just a check on Managebac for service and action, or CAS.”
Although I suspect another wave of killings next semester, my findings have struck a match to keep this case from going cold. I say that a well-thought-out CAS club experience, paired with a captivating incentive, is any club’s best bet to not fall victim to the CAS club conspiracy…