OPP works to unite students
Imagine an elite organization, lead by a Supreme Chancellor, judges, and counts, that strives to restore balance to peoples’ lives. It’s not a Star Wars movie, but a club that exists at Utah State and is also one of the fastest growing clubs on campus.
Outgoing Productive People (OPP) is a club dedicated to promoting school activities and getting people involved. The group is made up of over 600 members who are looking for an enjoyable time while in college.
“The goal of the club is to unite the students and get more people active in campus events, club sports, and awareness issues,” Staci Meacham, Countess of Recruiting for OPP, said. ” I think people want to be involved, but they don’t know how.”
OPP provides a way for USU students to get the scoop on what’s going on around campus at all times by simply spreading the word. For a $5 fee, members are put on an email distribution list that provides information about numerous activities throughout the week. Some activities even offer discounts for OPP members.
Along with promoting events hosted by other organizations, OPP also sponsors their own activities when none are planned. Some activities they have sponsored in the past were the Halloweeze pep rally and Pack the Pit, where the club earned $2,000 for Hurricane Katrina victims. Celestial Bybee, advisor of OPP and former ASUSU president, said this support of other groups is what makes OPP so great.
“With this group, [students] can make a difference,” Bybee said. “These activities really build school unity.”
While Meacham explained that it is impossible to meet regularly with all the OPP members, she said attending events not only gets people involved, but also creates a good place to meet people.
“There are so many members that it’s so easy to network with people,” Meacham said. “You can make friends on a friendship level and also on a business level.”
OPP is new to USU this year and with its growing numbers, it looks as if it will stick around. Nate Dutson, founder and Supreme Chancellor of OPP, said the idea for the club came from recognizing the need to get better attendance at school activities.
“OPP was designed because many of us felt there were a lot of activities going on, but no one knew about them because there’s a problem with advertising and the rules of advertising at Utah State,” Dutson said.
Dutson said one of the keys to the success of the club is its creativity. This is exhibited in the titles that leading positions hold, such as lords and countesses. Dutson said the creative names distinguish OPP from other clubs and make members excited about the positions they hold. He said creativity also helps draw people to events.
“One of the big things that make an activity successful is how creative that activity is,” Dutson said. “It has to have a creative theme and a creative idea, and if you do both of those and advertise well, the activity will fly.”
However with all the success the club has had, including winning the Club of the Month award, Dutson said OPP has run into some problems working with the university system.
“The problems we’ve run into aren’t necessarily problems we can change,” Dutson said. “Because of policies that have been placed at Utah State, we can’t really get around them.”
Dutson said that school policies have hampered a specific OPP activity’s plans by not allowing a company’s donation. He said this only hurts the students.
“It’s almost like [the TSC] was built for the students, yet their trying to gyp the students,” Dutson said.
To avoid some of these hassles, Dutson said OPP is looking to host more activities off campus. He said the club tries to work with businesses that are not represented around campus, and that by doing this it allows businesses to “reach out to the students more and give them other places to go, other than the TSC.” Dutson said he believes by doing this the students will get better deals.
“We’re trying to get away from the monopoly that Utah State has created with the businesses,” Dutson said. “They have their businesses that they’ve selected and to every other business they basically say go away.”
But Bybee said the club is learning from experience and is trying to learn to work with the university. Dutson said that one way they have started doing this is by teaming up with advisors from different departments and also other clubs in co-sponsoring events. Dutson said he hopes to have things running smoother by next semester so OPP can focus on what the club is really about.
“The whole idea is that this club is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be relaxed, and it’s for people that just want to have fun,” Dutson said. “I think too often in college we get here and we focus so much on school that we just stop having fun.”
For more information about OPP, contact the Student Involvement and Leadership Center in TSC 326.
-bmnelson@cc.usu.edu