Amidst the hurried bustle of the RBHS schedule pickups last week, RBRO presidents, seniors Kelsey Harper, Sophi Farid and Katy Shi, were recruiting members to their organization. Besides having a booth set up at the events, the presidents passed out flyers and presented helpful information to inquisitive students and parents.
Aside from schedule pickups, RBRO plans to participate in SID, or ‘Student Involvement Day,’ to present the organization and its mission for the year to prospective members. Farid explains that the basic information presented at SID will include introductions from the leaders of each core, as well as a description about the core group and its meeting dates.
“The key point we want to acknowledge at SID is that all members are really needed,” Farid said. “If you want to help, but can’t be 100 percent committed, that’s okay. We still want you to feel welcome at RBRO.”
From SID to the schedule pickups, Harper said all the planning and presentations are taking place in an effort to exhibit all the new changes to take place in the club this school year.
“People can look forward to new cores this year. We are looking at three big changes really. We will be volunteering with the Humane Society, Big Brothers and Big Sisters and Relay for Life,” Harper said. “Hopefully we will have many more participants in our new various core groups.”
With the influx of freshman and sophomores that will be new attendees at RBHS, Shi strongly believes that in addition to new core groups, the number of RBRO members is also bound to increase. Though a larger group may sound challenging, Shi suggests the benefits will be far more prevalent.
“With more people, I think RBRO will become much more inclusive and really allow anyone to be involved,” Shi said. “With a bigger age gap comes a greater opportunity to mentor the underclassmen and develop a passion for volunteering early on.”
However, with the possibility of more members, Farid explains that one of the main goals of RBRO must include maintaining membership throughout the year. Farid hopes the club will strive to keep a larger group of students in RBRO actively volunteering.
“The main goal this year is to incorporate as many students as possible into the program. We don’t want another year where a million students sign up at the informational meeting, and then we never hear from them again,” Farid said. “We are going to do our best to encourage as many students to join and continue participating.”
Despite all the changes and new goals taking shape, RBRO hopes to keep its guiding purpose and mission a consistent and prominent reminder, as it has been in years past, always reminding members why they are a part of the organization, according to Shi.
“The main purpose of RBRO will always stay the same,” Shi said. “We’ll still have different volunteering cores meeting with the goal of positively influencing the community and others while having fun and growing closer to one another.”
The RBRO informational meeting will be Aug. 29 for those interested in signing up or learning more.
By Manal Salim