Kevin Coriolan | News Editor

Organizations that are started at Buena Vista University (BVU) never die, which makes for easy access for students who want to reactivate them later.

One such case is the Buena Vista Marketing Association (BVMA) formerly known as the Marketing Club. Junior Amanda Kavan set out to reactivate the student organization as a freshman in the spring semester of the 2011-2012 school year. Ever since, she has been the BVMA president.

Kavan was involved with marketing classes in high school and earned a spot at nationals for a project she had done for Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), a national marketing and business education organization. Once at BVU, she searched for a group to extend her practice outside of the classroom. Her best hope was Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Scott Anderson who helped her get the club started again.

The process was long but simple enough for Kavan to handle.

She, with the help of senior Michael Boyle, recruited students to the club by leaving table tents on the dining room tables and using word-of–mouth. These strategies got the reactivation process of the organization going.

“The hardest part was trying to get people to want to stay in the club,” Kavan said. People were interested in the club, but Kavan needed a way to bring them in to a meeting at least once. The solution was to have a buddy night in which the small number of members all brought a friend during one of the last meetings of the reactivation semester. Most of those friends joined the club.

Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development Becka Neary-DeLaPorte has seen many organizations fall and rise over the past couple of years. She believes this is normal.

“There’s a lot of self-ownership. Students have to want to continue and be passionate about the organization’s purpose,” Neary-DeLaPorte said.

As interests change, clubs also change.

“Just like any culture on campus in four years it changes, because there’s a whole new set of students and traditions exist because you have to want to bring them back. In four years, people will forget that they even existed,” Neary-DeLaPorte said.

Kavan was under pressure to be a leader for this newly active group. Credit is sometimes not given where it is due. To the outside campus community, the work that a student puts into an organization may be misleading. The time and energy required is many times hidden behind the scenes.

“Obviously the first semester that we had happened and then that next year it was still a little slower, but this year we’re really getting at it. We know what we’re doing now,” Kavan said.

BVMA is organized as three subcommittees: a fundraising, a volunteering, and a career services subcommittee. Next year they plan to add another one for prospective high school recruits. This will allow the members to practice their marketing skills with little intimidation.

“It’s really going to help everyone see the bigger picture. We’re not just the Marketing Club; we’re the School of Business,” Kavan said.

Neary-DeLaPorte believes that student clubs and activities have changed over the past ten years to be more inclusive.

“The trend I see in student organizations is leadership, is becoming more collaborative and there’s a lot more ‘co’ positions. Students are either spreading themselves so thin they can’t dedicate the amount of time desired or they live in a millennial generation that is supportive of everyone having a position,” Neary-DeLaPorte said.

Some organizations become inactive because of the tendency to lose the sight of purpose.

When speaking to high school recruits, Neary-DeLaPorte tells them there are five benefits to joining campus clubs. Students are able to meet new people, learn time management, explore different interests, improve skills, and receive the campus experience.

An active organization is one that has continued to keep in contact with Neary-DeLaPorte by May 1 of the school year. There are programs like AmeriCorps and choir that are not organizations because they are run by a specific office or worth credit.

All past organizations are in the digital records of the Office of Student Activities.

Photo by Makensie Brown