A.C.T. Officer Applications 2015-2016

Applicants for President

Bobby Kleiman

Catherine Verveniotis

1. What are your past experiences in A.C.T.?

I have been an active member of this club since my freshman year. in those years I have performed in 8 main stage shows as well as 5 little theater shows and 7 showcases.

Well, I’ve been in A.C.T. since my freshman year, and I’ve loved being a part of A.C.T. since then. I’ve done almost every aspect of club; from acting to building. Personally, I consider myself more of an actor, so of course over the years I’ve auditioned for and been in the One Acts, student directed shows, and the mainstages. However, sometimes I didn’t get into shows or I just couldn’t take the time to be in them. This gave me the wonderful opportunities to be an usher, a costume crew member and of course, whether I was in a show or not, helping out with building the set. I had nothing but good experiences working in all of these components of bringing a show together, and I did all of them just because I loved being a part of A.C.T.

2. In which A.C.T. commitees have you been a contributing member? What was your role in that commitee?

Also in my 3 years with this club I’ve been an active member in the morale committee. This year I was fortunate to be the co-head for the morale committee along with the committee head, Perry Feinstein. I feel that the experience I’ve gained from helping to organize morale events will help me make the committee, and events, the best they could possibly be.

My first two years I was just a member of the advertisement committee. So I pretty much did my best hanging up posters around the school and advertising the shows on my social medias (follow me on twitter @CatherineVerven I’m really funny) Which obviously I still do these things being that they’re pretty standard. This year though, this year I have been co-head of community service, which really isn’t a committee, more like Jacqui and I running around doing stuff. Really though, since Community Service Coordinator is a fairly new position, Jacqui and I have done a lot to make it organized and sustainable. Basically, what I’ve done this year is brainstorm with at the beginning of the year about how we were going to go about running assassins and each community service event we were going to have throughout the year. Along with brainstorming, I also keep track of assassins with all the rules, whether someone is out or not or whatever questions that needed to be answered. Of course I went along with Jacqui to deliver food cans and sandwiches to the Inn and getting our receipts from each charity we donated to with the assassins’ money. So it was a pretty wild busy position but I think it really helped with my leadership skills and working with responsibility.

• Other committees/clubs?

I’m not a member of another club in the school but I am very involved with my church’s Greek Orthodox Youth Association. I’m also an officer in the group, I am the co-vice president. Basically, I organize events that are just meant for us to chill out, which I do a really rad job at, and I also organize community service events for us to do.

4. What do you feel is the most important change that needs to take place in A.C.T.?

As a whole this club is a great place to be. However, I do think that we as a club could do a better job with welcoming in new comers. Don’t get me wrong, many new members have come into this club being welcomed with open arms, myself included. Unfortunately though, many people who come to the first meeting of the year do not attend the last, which is unfortunate because they are missing out on a great experience, which is this club. We want every new member to feel like they belong, to feel like they’ve found a home, to feel like they’ve found a family. All it takes is that one person to convince them that they belong in this club. Being in this club has changed my life forever and I want other new members to have the same experience I’ve been fortunate enough to have. The way that I believe we can accomplish this is to have a meet and greet separate from the mixer. If we give new members the time to talk to the veterans of this club it could leave a lasting impression on them and convince them to join the club. This also gives the possibility of not only establishing connections for the new comers, but for the veterans as well.

I do really love the club and I personally feel really comfortable in A.C.T. but I know some people don’t feel that same comfort that I feel. I think that as a club I want us to be more open and friendly in order to have a hard working club all year long. Through my past years I have met people during the musical that I’ve never known before and then after the musical they disappear until the next one. I feel like it’s because they want to be a part of it all but they get to intimidated by the club itself because I guess sometimes we get so close to a group of people we seem like we aren’t open to any “outsiders”. I think in order to have a productive club not just for the musicals but for the fall shows, the Shakespeares, the student directed shows everyone should feel welcomed to join the club whatever point in the year whether they be a freshman, sophomore, junior, or even a senior.

5. How do you plan on making A.C.T. a better club? Be as detailed as you can and explain yourself fully. Be specific in regard to the position for which you are running for.

I plan on making ACT a better club by recruiting as much members as possible, and making them feel welcome and that they belong. Also, this club could be a better place through constant advertising for not only the main stage shows but also the little theater shows and showcases. The final way that I believe this club could become a better place is by listening to suggestions by every single member. Obviously some suggestions might not be fulfilled, but if the officers, or any member, just made an effort to fulfill any suggestion submitted, then that would help this club become a much better place than it already is.

As President I wanna create some fun morale events that everyone feels like they want to come to not just because “well if my best friend goes I’ll go so that way we have each other”. I also think that as President, since they’re the first officer to speak, they give a really important first impression. I think that I have that personality which can just spread that vibe to be open and friendly with every and any person who comes to potentially join the club. I don’t there’s a specific thing to do but there is a specific attitude that can better this club. I’m sick of people getting mad at one another because they got the part that they wanted or bad talking someone because they’re really just jealous of what they’re getting to do. I think that being a chill, kind and friendly person in the position of President can turn those negative attitudes around and make people realize that it’s not about how many people see your show that makes it matter, you make it matter if you truly love what you’re doing. I think a show is what you make of it and positive attitudes are good for everyone. As President I give off a good vibe easily and I don’t act clique-y and I think that would help to better the club.

6. What made you run for the position you are running for?

The reason I want run for President is because this club has drastically changed my life and I want to be able to help contribute to the possible drastic change in someone else’s because of this club. I also feel like I would set a good example for anybody else who wants to run for an officer position in the future. I made the decision that I was going to run for President of this club my freshman year. I honestly cannot picture my life without this club. My goal for my senior year in this club is to make as big as an impact as I possibly can and I cannot think of a better way to make an impact than to be president. I truly wish the best of luck to Catherina. Thank you everyone for reading this and please vote for me for ACT President.

 I know it sort of seems like I maybe should want to run for Community Service Coordinator but I am really passionate about running for President. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t have a story like “I’ve wanted to be President of A.C.T. since my freshman year, I just knew it was for me” because really I figured out that I wanted to run for President in the middle of this year. If you had told Freshman Cat that I would be writing this application right now to run for President of the club I would’ve been like “lol ur really funny no I’m not” because back then I didn’t really care about position I was just happy to be part of this club. My first A.C.T. meeting I remember seeing Garrett, the President, stand in front of all of us and speak so kindly and he was so nice and welcoming. I just remember having a really good feeling about this club from how nice he was. It didn’t make me wanna become President one day but it made me want to be super involved, and I was. I auditioned for pretty much every show I could and then I would do costumes or house managing or build just because I wanted to do something for the club that I feel to welcomed by. I didn’t do all these things I did with the club because I thought “oh this is gonna help me win the elections if I do all this stuff”. I did all those things because I was just so excited to be a part of something. That’s sort of why I want to be President, I want to make someone else feel that excitement just to be a part of such a great club. I’m running for President because I think I show true dedication to this club, which I plan to continue whether I’m elected or not. I just hope that I can encourage other people to be active members of the club all year long and to show them that you can do anything within the club and you’re valued and accepted just as much as anyone else. I basically just want to be able to give back to the club that gave me personally, so much experience, happiness, friendship, acceptance and most importantly confidence to just be able to go out and do what I love because it makes me happy. If you read through all of this thank you so much and please vote me as A.C.T. President!!