Like many other schools, Ruamrudee International School has a wide variety of clubs, and for each of them, a team of executives who work hard to direct it. Many challenges come with having a leadership position, and many of you may be unsure about having one. Gavin from EducatoryX and our very own Editor-in-Chief of The Union International (currently independently-run), Pear, have answered some questions relating to their experience in leading a club.
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What club are you a part of and how have you contributed to it as a member (not necessarily as club president)?
“I started The Union International, Thailand’s 1st Interscholastic Student-run Newspaper, in my sophomore year of high school. As Editor-in-Chief, I work closely with our executive board and wonderful team of over 140 staffers from 50 schools and 25 nationalities. We write articles ranging from taboo issues like menstruation, abortions, and mental health to social issues around politics, human rights, and activism. We also report on the ongoing of schools in Thailand and Southeast Asia.” – Pear, Editor-in-Chief of The Union International
“I head the EducatoryX club, which supports underprivileged students in Myanmar through the provision of educational materials whilst locally raising awareness about educational inequality. After joining the club just one year after its conception in my sophomore year, I had the privilege of observing the evolution of EducatoryX through the lens of a member, treasurer, and now, president. As a member, what I appreciated most about the club was that everyone was given the opportunity to be involved and could voice their opinions [regarding] the planning process of every event. We would have entire meetings dedicated to discussion, where everyone would sit in a circle and throw out ideas, and the room would be filled with inspiration and laughter. In the second semester, when members voted to host an Easter Egg Hunt for the elementary schoolers, each person from the club voluntarily committed their time to take shifts, set up boards, make relevant purchases, and pack countless bags of candy. My experiences in the club have allowed me to bond with all of our long-time members, as well as empathize with new members who have only recently become a part of it.” – Gavin, Club President of EducatoryX
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What responsibilities do you have as a club president? How do you feel about them? Do you feel pressured by them?
“As Editor-in-Chief, I oversee all operations of The Union Newspaper, from our editors, writers, content creators, business liaisons, and our production, podcast, and community outreach teams. I genuinely enjoy working with all our departments and team members because each person is incredibly talented and a significant part of our organization, and without them, we would not have grown into this movement of over 140 staff. I do put slight pressure on myself when it comes to content and articles being published, however, it is my responsibility to make sure our staff’s efforts don’t go unrecognized, [so] they receive timely feedback.” – Pear
“Becoming the president of the club this year has opened my eyes to the huge increase in responsibilities that come with the position. I lead each executive and member meeting, which often entails that I always have to be on top of things such as important dates, what each committee has to do during the meeting, and the management of a room [is] often filled to the brim with (productive) chaos. The background work is what I find perhaps the most challenging, as the club maintains significant relations with both the high school and elementary school sections in our pen-pal program. Each event requires a lot of setups, and I feel largely responsible for whether each one succeeds. Thankfully, I have a wonderful team of executives who I work with, as well as a club full of members who are willing to volunteer for various duties. Kan, Alex, Maera, and Ananya do amazing work for EducatoryX and in part share these responsibilities with me. As such, I feel privileged to bear the role of president, despite the pressure that it entails, and am glad to be a part of each of our projects, whether they ultimately come to fruition or otherwise.” – Gavin
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What have you learned from being a club president or being a part of a club in general? Has anything surprised you?
“I learned that simplicity and communication [are] key. The less time our writers waste signing up for articles, waiting for topics to be approved, and going back and forth between editing sessions means more time they can spend writing and perfecting their articles.” – Pear
“As trite as it is to say, I feel that on a personal level, becoming a club president has developed my time-management skills to a great degree. I am not the type of person who can stick to a tight schedule, and am quite honestly a pretty laid back (definitely not a euphemism for lazy) individual, satisfied to let pressing assignments run their courses over deadlines. However, becoming a club president has introduced me to the guilt of letting down 30 other people due to my poor work ethic, which has in turn motivated me to keep up with ongoing events and initiate new proposals to keep the club running, a trait which has translated somewhat into my other work.
What surprised me most after having joined EducatoryX was honestly how fun it would be. I had the perception that most clubs in general were pretty lame and only joined initially because my friends had urged me to. What I found, however, was that EducatoryX was an environment that allowed me to meet and talk to new people, see my contributions tangibly, and ingrained in me a passion for education. I could not imagine how much I would be missing out on if I hadn’t joined the club in my sophomore year, and desire to pass on at least some of the passion that the club has [offered] to me in the past three years.” – Gavin
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What do you think is unique about being a club president, rather than another leadership position like student council?
“I think The Union is very unique because I get to work with people from different schools, countries, and backgrounds. We’re truly a diverse community, and I’m so honored and fortunate to be leading it.” – Pear
“Because I have never been a part of the student council, and as such do not feel entirely justified in offering a comparison based on presumption, I feel that I can at least speak on the part of the former section of this question. I feel that what differentiates the role of being a club president from other leadership roles is the closeness [with] which we have the opportunity to interact with the people we are supposed to lead. In EducatoryX, [there are] only around 20-something people present during every meeting, so every question or concern can be discussed with the [executive] team and me in person. The size works to our benefit, as I am able to get to know each member of the club to a significant degree, and am comfortable working with them all. In RIS, there [is] a myriad of clubs for every interest the mind can fathom, and within each club is sort of a community. I feel that my role as a leader in my community is to guide the flow of projects through moderating [discussions] and allocating resources, whilst it is the members who take the ideas and bring them to fruition.” – Gavin
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Have you experienced any challenges while coming up with and organizing club projects (like fundraisers)? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?
“The Union has an annual conference we started a year ago, which is our Raise Your Voice conference. Some challenges I faced while organizing was communicating with all our 130 participants and making sure all submissions are viewed and judged on time. [Additionally, the] university panel was our first event ever [and it] was on-site, which required huge amounts of planning and promoting. Thanks to our incredible team, we were able to make sure both were successful.” – Pear
“Coming up with successful ideas for projects is probably the most difficult thing that we do in EducatoryX. Good ideas should engage the heavily jaded high school demographic, which was especially difficult in COVID times when severe restrictions were in place. Food items, social gatherings, and after-school events were all limited, which eliminated many of the main events that had been available before. What got us through that period and made us successful as a club was incorporating a wider demographic of people into our events. For example, we found opportunities to aid the janitorial staff in procuring affordable, useful items that would otherwise go to waste in a rummage sale, involved the elementary school in easter egg hunts, and asked for the participation of teachers to tell meaningful stories and bond with their students in another event. The most important thing in the process of organizing club projects is to value the ideas of the members as well as the executives. In my view, clubs are not meant to simply be dictated by the ideas of the executives which are passed on to members to complete but should be an environment where passionate voices can be heard. So many of our successful ideas came from the members themselves, which were combined with other ideas and improved upon to produce valuable events that represent the collective efforts of the entire club.” – Gavin
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How do you strive to become a better leader and lead the club toward achieving the goals it has?
“I strive to become a better leader by listening to my team. I try my best to lead with an open mind. Everyone’s opinion and voice [are] valued here at The Union. As a news platform, it is our job to amplify the voice of our staff and community and to [also] give young people a platform to engage in responsible and meaningful discourse. For me, this means always working to be a better listener, problem solver, and leader who constantly gives our staff opportunities to grow as journalists.” – Pear
“I think that communication is the most essential trait that a leader should always be trying to improve upon. At the end of the day, clubs are extracurriculars that take up a significant amount of time for everyone involved, which means that optimizing the productivity of our efforts is essential. Communication is a key part of this, as it is far easier to be motivated in work when goals are clearly defined and the task is coherent and simple. This also aids in my ideal of a club where explanation and directives from the executives [are] minimized whilst discussion and actually doing is prioritized.” – Gavin
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Do you have any tips on staying motivated through all of your responsibilities? What would you like to say to other students who want to have leadership/executive roles in the future?
“I think the best thing you can do for yourself is [to] remember why you started. When I started The Union, I envisioned a place young people can come together to shine [a] light on taboo topics. But today, it has grown into a community of youths empowering one another to break through the silence. The most essential thing is to never forget the ‘why’.” – Pear
“My biggest recommendation for students who wish to undertake leadership roles in the future is to find an issue or a problem that you are trying to solve that you [genuinely] care about. It is very difficult to stay motivated when you simply do not care about the goals that you are trying to achieve— clubs are far less enjoyable when they serve the sole purpose of being college application fodder. I am lucky enough to have found a cause that I am truly passionate about, which makes leading each meeting and organizing events feel far more worthwhile. Building connections with the people that you are trying to help is also incredibly important. It is an entirely noble pursuit to fundraise for a cause, but I feel that you may become far more motivated when you [truly] see and interact with the people that you are trying to help, and a realization may be made that the fruits of your labor are so, so valuable.” – Gavin
I’d like to end off with a big thank you to both Gavin and Pear for taking the time to answer these questions and providing insight on something hopefully many students were curious about!
— Writer Jia Lee can be reached at jial26@rism.ac.th.
— Editor Sirichada Wattansiritanawong can be reached at sirichada.w@gmail.com.
Follow them on Instagram @sirisaysnya
