Organizations gain student awareness at Activities Mart

More than 80 groups hoped to attract new members.

By Megan Donohue

Published Feb. 5, 2010

The Activities Mart, sponsored by the Missouri Students Association and Graduate Professional Council Department of Student Services and the Organization Research Group took place Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Leadership Lounge, giving students a chance to find out about 80 different organizations on campus.

"They send out an e-mail and you have to respond pretty quickly because the spots go really fast," LOST at Mizzou President Brittany Barr said. "You have to do it pretty quickly and then they will notify you and you just come set up on the day of."

Forty tables were originally available, but the number was doubled due to the amount of responses.

LOST at Mizzou, a group of students who are fans of the TV show LOST and gather to discuss the more academic aspects of the show and play trivia, among other activities, was hoping to gather more members at the Activities Mart, Barr said.

"Last night was the premiere so we are hoping more people are a little more excited about it right now, because last semester they might have been like, 'The show's not even on so what are we going to talk about?'" Barr said. "So, that's just our main goal is to have some more people come to the meetings."

Although LOST at Mizzou is relatively new, it is the only group of its kind. A similar group, centered on the show House M.D., almost started last year, but fell through, Barr said.

Target H.O.P.E. was also at the Activities Mart to raise awareness and gain members.

"Here our mission is to develop a support system to increase the retention rates of our chapter members," Target H.O.P.E. President JaNee C. Harrell said. "We are here for support, so we like to have a family sense like people come to us, come to one another and speak and talk and get advice, cry, whatever you need, vent, it's nothing, we are here for support."

Another organization at the Activities Mart was the Griffiths Leadership Society for Women, which is a mentor program exclusively at MU.

"(We want) to provide information for juniors, seniors and graduate students," College Membership Committee Vice Chairwoman Suzanne Flanegin said. "We like to have a mix of undergraduate and graduate students."

Flanegin said the Griffiths Leadership Society for Women hopes to raise awareness of their organization on campus.

"I am hoping that we have a presence on campus and we can achieve that a number of ways," Flanegin said. "We do have a Web site that students can go to and check out. We have conferences two times a year and they are a wonderful way for our students to connect with alumnae throughout the United States. Hopefully we are increasing our profile, we've been around for about five years."

Lost at Mizzou and Target H.O.P.E. were also at Fall Fest last semester.

"In the beginning of the school year we did Fall Fest, which is basically the same thing as Activities Mart," Harrell said. "We had increased interest I should say, and actually out of everyone who signed up close to half actually came to the organization."

Barr said the fall event helped raise membership of its Facebook group but was less effective due to the outdoor setting.

"That was outside though and we had more food but all of these bees kept coming over," Barr said. "It was just crazy. I think this one will be a little more low key because it's inside."