Around this time every year, new members are inducted into various organizations around campus. Then the general meetings start and everyone in the organization is there. But as the semester moves on, the numbers start to dwindle. People stop showing up, and you often wonder if the people who stopped showing up are OK. Did they get kicked out of school? Did they leave the organization?

Well, you know the answers to these questions because you just saw them on campus, and they are definitely going to show up to the formal – with a date. But at the meeting after the formal, they’re nowhere to be found. Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication to the organization – we really appreciate it.

This is also the time of the year when there are information sessions galore. Everyone attends them, making sure to pick up an application for themselves and their roommate. I mean, everyone else is doing it. Then they get into the organization because they professed their undying love for said organization in the interview.

Please, don’t waste your time. If you’re going to join a group just because you think it will look good on your resumé, don’t. Many employers actually don’t care – I know; I’ve been told that before.

There are a lot of people who commit themselves to various organizations and give up their free time to schedule meetings, reserve rooms, send out e-mails and make sure the organization continues to exist.

If your heart is not into it, then don’t do it.

There are people who actually want to volunteer for Special Olympics, and if you’re going to just take the free T-shirt that says “volunteer” to make yourself feel better and to let other people know how caring you are, it’s not worth it because in the end you’re wasting you’re time, the organization’s time and just making people angry.

Is it really worth the 17 rounds of interviews if you’re just going to fall off the face of the earth by fall break? Save yourself some time.

Please don’t join an organization because it sounds good or because your entire floor decided to pick up an application. It is actually OK if you want to spend your college career studying and having some fun. Not everyone on campus needs to give a tour or have Student Government Association written somewhere on his or her resumé.

If the organization sounds cool, then go to the information session and see what it’s all about it. But if you can’t make the commitment or you just don’t want to, then don’t scheme your way into the organization and then go on sabbatical next semester, never to come back.

You don’t need to be in every organization known to mankind – just pick one or two you’re actually interested in and stay committed, or you could just bum around for four years. So, think about why you’re actually filling out that application before you hand it in.