Davis High clubs combat funding issues

By Breana Lee,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Student run clubs at Davis High combat financial difficulties through donations, fundraisers, and Student Government’s club grant.

Interact, a club that started three years ago, was able to raise $500 from registration fees, working with Sunset Rotary Club in providing movies at the park and through the transfer of money found in an old Interact club’s account.

Their prospective projects include building planter boxes at different schools for gardening and an international project where they want to send soccer balls to other countries. The club needs $500 for the soccer ball project, which they can now fund, but club president Christopher Sorter worries that the expense will leave next year’s officers with no money.

Key Club also gets funding from donations and fundraisers.

“Donations come from members as well as local organizations that Key Clubbers volunteer with through our club,” treasurer Chathuri Gunasekera said.

Key Club organizes fundraisers throughout the school year by contacting local businesses and scheduling days when they can receive a certain percentage of that day’s profits. They also run concessions for the Men’s Basketball team. 

Key Club’s biggest cost each year is the District Convention, DCON.

“We always have trouble coming up with funds to cover hotel and event fees, but this year we plan on tackling the fundraising early so that we can send as many members as possible,” Gunasekera said.

Although members who attend DCON may donate, the club covers most of the cost. Besides DCON, the club spends money for graduation cords, which is often paid for by seniors who want one.

“Because we use our funds mainly on one event, our annual budget is determined completely on how much DCON costs per year,” Gunasekera said.  

Unlike Interact and Key Club, Quiz Bowl is a club that typically gets funding through parents paying for tournaments. They have also received money through a Student Government grant to hold an event at DHS to raise money from other teams’ registration for their tournament.The team plans on holding the Quiz Bowl regional tournament in December, but they also have to spend money for other people to write questions and to pay the school district to rent the site.

“The tournament that we are planning on holding in December should be the biggest fundraiser of the year,” club president James Snell said.

They expect teams to come from around Northern California to participate. The money they earn from registration will be put into the club’s account to go towards future tournaments.

“Going to nationals is definitely the biggest expenditure that we have this year. […] An average tournament is like $70 a team and we usually send three or four teams. Each team is about four people” Snell said. “We have about 10 tournaments a year so it’s quite a bit of money.”

Nationals usually costs about $1000 per person for flights, hotels and team registration. About eight people total per year attend the two national tournaments. To Snell’s knowledge, the club has always been self-funded. The club grant is the first time they have ever had funding outside of students paying for their own tournaments.

“We basically pay on a tournament to tournament basis. We spend our money almost solely on tournaments,” Snell said.

Snell believes many clubs at DHS do not have enough funding, and that the administration has not shown much support for his club.

“I don’t think our administration, apart from student government, has ever really ever supported our club at all,” Snell said.

ASB offers the club grant which started last year where the ASB Executive Board gave away about $3,000 to $4,000 which was spent on Feminism club’s feminine hygiene dispensers in the women’s bathrooms, Friendship day pizza and bagels, and the Quiz Bowl tournament that will be held at DHS.

Clubs Commissioner Jake Goidell believes that because clubs are not necessary for the school to function day to day, and because they are student run and led, administration does not value them on a high priority.

Goidell adds that ASB is also student run, which is why they started the Student Government grant program.

However, Goidell believes that the majority of clubs do not need funding.

“The majority of our clubs, I would say, just meet their room, have discussions or do what they do, and they need very minimal funding which can be provided through fundraisers and donations,” Goidell said.

However, Goidell believes that ASB should help fund clubs such as Quiz Bowl that participate in costly events.

The deadline for the first wave of club grants is the end of the first quarter.