Menlo began auditing clubs for the first time in the 2024-2025 school year; the audits were focused on evaluating club productivity and determining whether some clubs needed to be cut. New requirements for clubs were subsequently published in the 2025-2026 school year, including minimum membership requirements, new club leader limits and new planning standards. Upper School Dean of Student Life and Culture Alexis Bustamante and Student Council Club Coordinator Lauren Rukavina have since continued to audit Menlo’s clubs throughout the school year to make sure clubs meet the new requirements. The audit includes collecting attendance data from club leaders, visiting clubs during meetings, and discussions with club leaders.
Some of the club requirements instated relate to long-term planning from club leaders, including requiring club leaders to publish their meeting plans for the year on Menlo’s new club website. “A lot of it really is just about planning ahead, making sure they have plans. […] Just a little more structure to it, especially since [the clubs] are Menlo sponsored, […] and so we want to make sure that we’re honoring everyone’s time,” Bustamante said. In the previous audit the Menlo Choreography Club was cut for failing to schedule a meeting with Bustamante about the club.
Included in these requirements were limits on allowing only two leaders per club, which will go into effect next year, and requiring a minimum of five regularly attending members per club. Bustamante explained that this was not only to help remove any dormant clubs, but also help unburden teacher advisors and student leaders of multiple clubs: “You might have a teacher who’s doing like five clubs and that’s a lot for them. I also don’t want to ever limit [club leaders], but to help students let’s lessen your plate. Also, it leaves room for other students to step up and be leaders,” Bustamante said.
Bustamante also revealed that equity played an important role in creating club requirements and performing club audits. Some clubs on campus receive school funding, a policy Bustamante hoped to continue with greater equity across Menlo’s different clubs. “I want to make sure that if we’re giving funds to a club, we make sure that’s fair and equitable. Especially if there’s, let’s say, a club that’s asking for $200 that only has three members versus a club who’s asking for $200 that has 20 members,” Bustamante said.
Junior and president of Menlo’s Trivia Club Neil Hutton noted that not every club receives school funding. “Especially if [the clubs] are not a waste of your money, I don’t think the school should care that much about [the size of] them,” Hutton said. According to Student Council Club Coordinator Rukavina, the new club audits have allowed them to also better observe the atmosphere and leadership of the many club meetings that take place on campus. “I think we just want to see intention with the clubs, intention in meetings and intention in the events that they’re doing, because we really don’t have many analytics to go off of,” Rukavina said.
However, some club leaders think that new requirements could harm smaller or more casual on-campus clubs that don’t fit some of the requirements and are at risk of being cut. Hutton believes it could negatively impact the welcoming and casual atmosphere that many clubs on campus emphasize. “I think clubs have become a much more school-run process, instead of clubs being like a group of people who just want to hang out and have some fun while sharing a similar interest. [The new requirements] have made it overall much harder for clubs to exist,” Hutton said.
Hutton also expressed concern about the demands of balancing a heavy workload while being a club leader. “We’re spending so much time doing work because we’re in a competitive school. So I think having […] the additional work on top of that really hurts. [Especially] as a club leader, sometimes if I don’t have time, I’m scared that I will not have a club which I do care a lot about,” Hutton said.
Bustamante and Rukavina both reinforced that the purpose of the new audits and club requirements are to help keep clubs engaging for students and inviting within the Menlo community. Part of the purpose of a club is to foster community within a shared interest or hobby. It’s how we can make sure that [clubs] branch out and it’s not just a small group of friends meeting,” Bustamante said.
