This year's "RELOAD" marks the revival of the club festival in KAIST. The club festival was held from November 9 to 11, an occasion where clubs of all kinds were able to get together and actively interact with students. As hardly any information about the club festival in 2008 remained, the current Clubs Union had to start from scratch. An interview with the vice president of the Clubs Union was enough to realize the hardships in organizing the club festival and the Clubs Union's expectations.

 

 

My name is Dahye Kang, and I am a junior majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Computer Science. I started working in the KAIST Undergraduate Clubs Union last year as a member in the executive branch, and since the election held in April, I have served the role of vice president along with current president Jungeun Choi.

 

In KAIST, there are no occasions where all kinds of clubs get together to hold a festival. Clubs rarely communicate and interact with each other, which is why they often go their own way when they hold performances and events. That is why the Clubs Union decided to organize a club festival where clubs can gather and display diverse club activities at once. The aim is to let the students and faculties know that there are a lot of clubs with different purposes in KAIST and encourage them to experience what those clubs actually do. This year's club festival is a revival in that there were no club festivals held in KAIST since 2008. 

 

A drama prepared by the KAIST drama club marks the start of the festival. There are street performances as well as an open debate session which students can participate in. Clubs with similar characteristics in large were grouped together and were assigned to four main events so that students can enjoy similarly related clubs at once, whether it be art, music, academic subjects or performances that they are interested in. Besides that, clubs can individually or as a group hold their own events, like the film night by Yeyoung, a movie-watching club, or open practice sessions by sports clubs. The four main events do not overlap, but individual club booths are likely to since they are installed along the road to the Creative Learning Building which is frequently crowded with students.

 

The fact that the current Clubs Union had to plan the club festival from scratch was the hardest part of all. Of course, this year's club festival is not the first of its kind at KAIST, but what remained from three years ago were only the posters. Having to obtain additional funding for the club festival from the school administration was the next hardest problem. Such funding was not included in the budget, so it was an ordeal to receive the funding and do something that was not in the original plan. Thankfully, though, all problems were solved in the end.

 

After the club festival is over, we plan to publish booklets introducing clubs in KAIST that we issue every semester. Other than that, the most we can do now is to organize and document what we have done this year, including this festival, so that the next Clubs Union can refer to those documents in organizing next year's edition. An election board has been created for the election of the president and vice president of next year's Clubs Union. The result will come out after a meeting in December, and that will mark the end of the term for this year's president and vice president. 

Are there any final comments you would like to add?

 

I would like to add that any student who is a club member is also a member of the Clubs Union in KAIST, but many people fail to realize that fact. Students seem to think that the president, vice president and executives are the only ones belonging to the Clubs Union, but just as all KAIST students are members of the Student Council, all club members in KAIST are members of the Clubs Union. In fact, there are over two thousand members in the Clubs Union. That is why the current Clubs Union aims to publicize this fact, as well as protecting and supporting the clubs in KAIST. We hope that the club festival will better the situation, and wish that more students would be interested in the Clubs Union.