Clubs
A club is a group of students and a teacher advisor with some sort of shared interest that they engage in at Gunn.
Tiers
Tier 1
Tier 1 clubs are the lowest tier. They do not receive any funding and are technically not allowed to raise or own money, though of course money for supplies can be informally raised. Tier 1 is the only tier that is not required to submit monthly meeting "minutes" to document their actions. Tier 1 clubs are typically more informal and don't go through many technicalities. An example of this tier is Card Game Club.
Tier 2
Tier 2 clubs are allowed to spend and raise money as well as organize events. They must submit meeting minutes monthly to track their decisions.
Tier 3
Tier 3 clubs can, in addition to spend/raise money and hold events, have field trips. They are typically larger and more prestigious clubs, like the Debate Club and Math Circle.
Clubs in Theory
These are the official rules governing clubs.
Applying for a charter
A club must charter each year, and the application requirements for a club are as follows:
- 10 Charter Members, people who support the club and will ostensibly become full-time members, though this is not a requirement
- a Constitution, which provides for:
- Officers, with President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer being required positions. (The latter two may be combined in Tier 1 clubs as they don't spend money have no use for a dedicated treasurer).
- A process for choosing officers that occurs at least once a year. (These are the "term limits" referenced in the Gunn Club Bylaws; there are no actual term limits in the traditional sense.)
- A process for removing incompetent officers.
- A process to amend the constitution.
- The time during which the club meets.
Occasionally, the SEC will reach out to clubs about some deficiency in their constitution and will charter the club only if it is amended.
Running a club
To keep their charter, a club will need to:
- Meet on the days set out by their constitution,
- Meet at least twice a month under normal conditions (i.e. no no-school days),
- Maintain an average of at least 10 members per meeting and track this by filling out an attendance form of members in attendance every meeting
Clubs in practice
An ideal club as described by the SEC is quite different for a club in practice.
Firstly, many Tier 1 clubs would be better characterized as "cliques" instead of clubs, consisting of a close group for friends and a "warm body" club advisor rather than just a bunch of like-minded folk with an enthusiastic advisor. Such clubs are often created by friend groups trying to pad their college applications by becoming some club officers; consequently, they often die out soon after the members of the clique graduate. Even so, not all Tier 1 clubs follow this path. As Tier 1 clubs are easier to charter and have less restrictions (for example, meeting minutes aren't required for all meetings and secretary and treasurer positions can be combined), being a Tier 1 club is the best option for many newer general interest clubs without tons of members and thus, don't require school funding and events.
Second, the Club Constitution for Tier 1 clubs serves mainly as a ceremonial document. Many Tier 1 clubs use no formal process to make decisions since the members are already friends, and are capable of working things out by themselves without a constitution to dictate how they should act. Although the SEC stipulates that the constitution should guide how a club is run, this is impossible to enforce.
Third, in the same vein, attendance is loosely enforced. In the past, even clubs significantly underpopulated in the fall were often allowed to continue their activities in the spring. As of the fall of 2024, SEC is counting only attendance from November when deciding whether or not to allow clubs to continue.
Finally, since clubs must charter at the start of each year, a club can act basically however they like in the spring since they'll have to re-charter the following fall anyways.
Club government
Jacob Chiu posits the following principles for club government:
- A club is made for the benefit of its members, and, more generally, the student body. If a club cannot operate in such a way that it fulfills that purpose, it ought to be disbanded. As such, a club should avoid having the will of the SEC, school administrators, and students trying to harm the club forcibly imposed upon it.
- The job of a club government is to ensure the club runs smoothly. Governmental functions should not interfere significantly with the normal activities of the club.
- There are three sorts of decision-making processes: 1) informal consensus, in which all members/officers come to an agreement or compromise on decisions; 2) rules-based, in which clearly defined rules dictate how the club operates or how decisions are to be made; and 3) deadlock, when members are unable to come to a consensus and no decisions can be made. Informal consensus is better than rules because it is more adaptable, and often, more efficient. However, if a club grows too big, its members/officers aren't friendly, or a very important/controversial issue is being decided, this can lead to deadlock if there aren't clearly written rules to keep things moving. The purpose of a Club Constitution is to leave as much flexibility for the current officers while avoiding deadlock. For example, a Constitution should usually lay out how to elect and impeach club officers because those are highly contentious issues.
List of Clubs, by day (24-25)
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACS Chemistry Club | 412 GCC (Gunn Christian Club) | Ancient STEAM | Architecture Club | Aeronautics |
| Biotechnology Club | AI and Policy Club | Bike Club | Board Game Club | Best Buddies |
| Book Club | Anatomy and Physiology Club | Business Club | Botany Buddies | Black Student Union (BSU) |
| Card Game Club | Autonomous Robotics Club | Ceramics Club | Chess Club | Celebrating Female Composers |
| Civic Engagement Education Project (CEEP) | Baseball Club | Chinese Culture Club | Culture Connection Club | Data Science Club |
| Climbing Club | Bread Appreciation Club | Comedy Club | Dungeons and Dragons Club | DIY Crafts Club |
| Economic Club | Competitive Programming Club | Data Modeling in Environmental Sustainability (DMES) | Fencing Club | Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) |
| Figure Drawing | Cooking Club | Dermatology Club | Film Club | GeoPolitical Club |
| International Cinema Club | Geography Club | Dream Volunteers | French Culture Club | Girl Up |
| Joy Dance Club | Girls Tech Club | Graphic Design Club | German Club | History Club |
| RnB Music Productions | Golf Club | Intramural Sports Club | Japan Culture Club | Key Club |
| South Asian Student Association | Grapho-Psych Club | Juggling Club | Latinos Unidos | Mathematical and Computational Linguistics Club |
| Mixed Arts Club (MAC) | Green Team | LEGO Engineering and Design Club | Motorsport Club | Music Composition Club |
| Mock Trial Club | Helios Magazine Club | Math Circle | ROCK | Online Party Games Club |
| Photography Club | Improv Club | Medicine Society for Women | Science Olympiad (SciOly) | PC Development Club |
| Physics Club | Jewish Student Union | Medicine without Borders | South East Asian Student Association | Pickleball |
| Team HBV | Korean Club | Model United Nations | Spanish Club | Pokémon Club |
| The Chariot | Lifestyle Medicine | Muslim Student Association | Sports Fan Club | Polandball Club |
| The Sound of Music | National Art Honor Society | Science Bowl | Timewinder | Red Cross |
| True Crime Club | Neuroscience Club | Style Swap | United Computations | Tea Club |
| YCS Interact | Newcomer Buddy Club | TEDxGunnHighSchool | Vietnamese Culture Club | Thespian Club |
| Philosophy Club | The Breakfast Club | Tital Journal Club | ||
| Poetry Club | Voices of Unity Club | Amnesty International Club | ||
| Quiz Bowl | Weightlifting Club | HOSA | ||
| Research Club | Zine Club | Organic Garden Club | ||
| Speech and Debate Club | Pandora's Box Creative Magazine | |||
| Spikeball Club | Psychology Club | |||
| Sports Data & Analytics Club | ||||
| Title IX | ||||
| Women in STEM |
List of Clubs, alphabetical (24-25)
412 GCC (Gunn Christian Club)
ACS Chemistry Club
Aeronautics
AI and Policy Club
Amnesty International Club
Anatomy and Physiology Club
Ancient STEAM
Architecture Club
Autonomous Robotics Club
Baseball Club
Best Buddies
Bike Club
Biotechnology Club
Black Student Union
Board Game Club
Botany Buddies
Bread Appreciation Club
Business Club
Card Game Club
Celebration Female Composers
Ceramics Club
Chess Club
Chinese Culture Club
Civic Engagement Education Project
Climbing Club
Comedy Club
Competitive Programming Club
Cooking Club
Cubing Club
Culture Connection Club
Data Modeling in Environmental Sustainability (DMES)
Data Science Club
DIY Crafts Club
Dream Volunteers
Dungeons and Dragons Club
Economics Club
Fencing Club
Figure Drawing
Film Club
French Culture Club
Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
Geography Club
GeoPolitical Club
German Club
Girl Up
Girls Tech Club
Golf Club
Graphic Design Club
Grapho-Psych Club
Green Team
Helios Magazine Club
History Club
HOSA
Improv Club
International Cinema Club
Intramural Sports Club
Japan Culture Club
Jewish Student Union
Joy Dance Club
Juggling Club
Key Club
Korean Club
Latinos Unidos
Lego Engineering and Design Club
Lifestyle Medicine
Math Circle
Medicine Society for Women
Medicine without Borders
Mixed Arts Club
Mock Trial Club
Model United Nations (MUN)
Motorsport Club
Music Composition Club
Muslim Student Association (MSA)
National Art Honor Society
Neuroscience Club
Newcomer Buddy Club
Online Party Games Club
Organic Garden Club
Origami Club
Pandora's Box Creative Magazine
PC Development Club
Philosophy Club
Physics Club
Pickleball
Poetry Club
Pokémon Club
Polandball Club
Psychology Club
Quiz Bowl
Reach Out Care Know (ROCK)
Red Cross
Research Club
Science Bowl
Science Olympiad (SciOly)
South Asian Student Association
Spanish Club
Speech and Debate Club
Spikeball Club
Sports Data & Analytics Club
Tea Club
Team HBV
TEDxGunnHighSchool
The Breakfast Club
The Chariot
The Sound of Music
Thespian Club
Timewinder
Titan Journal Club
Title IX
True Crime Club
United Computations
Vietnamese Culture Club (VCC)
Voices of Unity Club
Women in STEM
Youth Community Service - Interact (YCS-I)
Zine Club