Rachel Yeates, Campus Carrier Managing Editor
Formal, Mountain Day Olympics, the end-of-the-year Block Party are for many students, staples of the Berry experience. They would not be possible without the behind-the-scenes work of KCAB. Accepting applications for paid positions through Feb. 26, this team of 17 students is raising the bar and their numbers.
“We definitely, as the years go on, want to be bigger and better than the year before,” Katie DeVos, KCAB vice president of membership and outreach, said. “Even if we got positive feedback, we always want to try and bring in more the next year.”
This academic year saw the addition of KCAB’s Street Team initiative. According to DeVos, the initiative enlists the help of non-affiliated students to publicize events on campus in return for incentives.
“We really wanted students on campus who are already really involved, who everyone already knows, to help KCAB promote what we do,” DeVos said.
Junior Hannah Bailey has participated in Street Team twice and thinks the program is working.
“People don’t check their emails, so with the Street Team, you’re able to share it on social media, and more people hear about it that way,” Bailey said.
For her promotion of the “Jurassic World” night, she received a Shipyard drawstring bag, and for her post about the Halloween Dance, she received a green Street Team T-shirt and a box of candy.
The funds for these prizes come from KCAB’s marketing budget.
KCAB’s more formalized volunteer board, KREW, has grown exponentially over the past year due in part to the creation of DeVos’ position and her work recruiting new members.
When she joined KREW as a freshman, DeVos was part of a small team of 4 to 5 students. Current numbers are closer to 30.
“At the beginning of the year, I did mailers to incoming students,” DeVos said. “At Viking Venture, KCAB does a dance and puts on a skit every year, and so in the skit, we dropped little hints about how awesome KREW is.”
DeVos is not the only member who began their KCAB involvement in KREW.
“For someone who’s thinking of joining KCAB, that’s a great place to get a feel,” Krista Zalewski, president of KCAB, said.
According to Zalewski, KREW is “like a club.” It’s an opportunity to be involved without the addition of another job.
“They know secrets about KCAB – not really secrets, but they know future events before any other student on campus does,” DeVos said.
Attendance may not be mandatory for the weekly KREW meetings, but for paid staff, accountability is very important, Zalewski said.
“Whatever we do, we’re going to walk together, so [we’re looking for] someone who has that team player attitude and is willing to go up to the plate,” Zalewski said.
Event planning is distributed among teams.
“Usually within KCAB, we work in groups of four, so a supervisor, a promoter and then two programmers,” Zalewski said.
As president, she sees herself in more of an advisory role with the programmers and promoters doing most of the legwork.
“The promoters are the ones that do the publicity for [the events] and make sure the word gets out, and the programmers do all the fine detailing for the events,” sophomore programmer Sydney Adams said.
With the exception of larger group efforts like Formal, the four-person groups tackle projects sequentially.
“We already have the events lined up for the whole semester, so everyone knows what’s coming up next, and then each group gets assigned theirs,” Adams said. “You normally start, typically about a month before, and then two weeks before is when you really start cranking out everything.”