Unified sign-in system spurs slight membership increase

The number of students who bickered this year was slightly down relative to last year while the sign-in clubs proved somewhat more popular with the Class of 2000 than they had been with the Class of 1999.

The changes came in a year when the sign-in clubs experimented with a new system that established a unified system for sophomores to join clubs earlier in the week than usual and four out of five selective clubs abruptly went off-tap for their final two Bicker sessions.

Among the Bicker clubs, Cap and Gown Club had 98 students bicker with 56 receiving bids, 112 bickered Cottage Club and 81 were accepted, 120 bickered Ivy Club and the club took 65, and 92 were accepted out of the 120 who bickered Tower Club. Tiger Inn's numbers were unavailable.

Terrace Club benefitted the most from the Bicker club hosees, gaining 37 sophomores in the second round of sign-ins, although 22 of those students were put on a wait-list after the club filled at 98 new members. Quadrangle Club was also popular on Saturday with 28 sign-ins bringing its new membership to 83. In addition, Campus put nine students on a wait-list after filling at 82, Charter added 17 members for a total of 94 and nine students joined Colonial to bring its new membership total to 62, according to Mike Jackman '92, Inter-Club Council Adviser.

Cloister Inn, which added 92 members and created a wait-list of 22 after first round sign-ins, did not participate in the second round.

DEC

With only 20 new members, DEC did not fare as well as the club's officers might have hoped. The club held a combination of first-round Snicker – yielding 11 Snickerees – and second-round sign-ins – yielding nine.

Club president Gretchen Hultman '99 said that the undergraduate officers and the club's graduate board would be taking a serious look at the hybrid system of Bicker and sign-ins known as Snicker.

"I think clearly (choosing) one of the other options – sign-ins or Bicker – might be advantageous to the club solely because they're so familiar to underclassmen," Hultman said.

Although the Bicker clubs' numbers were also down overall by a few dozen this year, no one there is pushing the panic button just yet. "By unifying the sign-in clubs on one single day, it made it an easy option to choose," explained Cap president Doyl Burkett '98.

Dry bicker

One possible change among the selective clubs may be a switch to a dry Bicker system starting next year.

"Obviously, there's no denying that (alcohol consumption) is a particularly dangerous situation when you have bickerees who are trying to win the favor of an institution and its membership," said Temp Keller '98, president of Ivy.

He added, however, that the switch to dry Bicker had not had any substantive effect on the Bicker process at his club and that he had not yet decided whether he favored dry Bicker as 'Street'-wide policy.