Student Government Association’s first ever Join Week began Monday after Chapel with booklets and a student organization fair.

On Tuesday, SGA hosted two discussion panels featuring three to four student organizations at each panel. Wednesday during chapel, another discussion panel featured three more organizations.

Marketing Director Marco Martinez, senior advertising and graphic design major from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, proposed the idea of Join Week. He said he worked in the admissions department during his freshman year and people were always asking how to get involved with organizations on campus. When he couldn’t answer that question, he said he realized ACU had a problem, and as a current member of the SGA, he believed Join Week would be a probable solution.

This summer, Martinez approached Ty Kelley, executive president of SGA, and proposed a week-long effort for people to join organizations on campus. SGA budgeted $2,000 for the week, including money for posters, pamphlets and other marketing items.

“Our goal for the week is to get everyone involved in something,” said Mikaela Clinton, a junior advertising and public relations major from San Antonio.

Martinez said Join Week also compensated for the small amount of funding SGA is able to allocate to 72 of the campus’ organizations. Join Week gave SGA the ability to advertise for over 200 organizations with no cost to the groups themselves. Of the over 200 groups, 160 registered, however, service opportunities, social clubs and other groups were included in booklets and panels.

Originally, Martinez said he hoped to open the panel to all organizations, however Immersed, a Tuesday and Thursday breakout Chapel, would have to be cancelled to make room for a large number of people. Because of this, SGA was required to pick the most prevalent campus organizations. According to Martinez, the Join Week panels were successful.

On Friday, Join Fest will be in Moody Coliseum, where various clubs and organizations will be available for students to ask questions and learn how to join or get involved. Martinez said students are encouraged to stay and look at all of the tables and get as involved as they can.

“Just joining one club can make a huge difference for the life of someone at ACU,” Martinez said.