As one of the few clubs that was operational during the pandemic, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) is in full swing as it plans for the return of an in-person “Springfest” on Brandeis’ campus. President Abigail Winter ’22 and Vice President Douglas Vantran ’22 sat down for a virtual Zoom interview with The Brandeis Hoot to discuss this, what CAB is and why others who are interested should join.
Winter shared her involvement and beginning with CAB saying, “When I was looking at Brandeis, I was looking at clubs to join. I saw CAB and thought that it looked like fun!” Then, when Winter made it to Brandeis’ campus, she “saw them at the involvement fair and started talking to one of the girls who was marketing chair at the time. I had a class with her and we became really good friends so I joined CAB on the ‘G board,’ last year I was the finance chair and this year I am President.”
“I got involved when my friend Sasha [Skarboviychuk ’22] was the major events chair her first year on the board. She told me I should come to the first ‘G-board’ meeting and I listened to what the board said they do on CAB and I sounded really cool,” Vantran continued saying, “So, I joined the major events board and became the major events chair during COVID-19 and now I am Vice President.”
Winter and Vantran have both held a number of positions while on CAB and told The Hoot about a few of their favorite moments. Winter began by saying, “I am looking forward to Springfest because it is such a big deal on campus and it’s fun because COVID-19 is a little more relaxed at the moment and we can have that.” Winter mentioned as well, “I think the most rewarding thing is meeting with the E-board every week and helping everybody get what they need done. I think all of the chairs are really committed, determined and excited about everything that they do, so just being there and being along for that ride is probably my favorite part.”
“My favorite things that I have done since being on CAB are some of the events we have done this year!” said Vantran. “Because last year a lot of our events were smaller. They were mainly grab and go stuff which is tons of fun to do, but I think it’s been really cool this year to see some of our bigger events like our Halloween event last October, our casino night and our formal this semester. We have been able to return to a lot of the traditions we had when I first joined CAB.”
But despite all the events CAB puts on during the academic year Winter said, “we always have people asking us during events ‘what club is this’ and I say ‘oh it’s CAB.’” However, Winter continued saying, “I feel like a lot of people know about our bingos… and they are starting to know that it’s CAB putting on these events.”
And when asked about some of their proudest moments on CAB Vantran pleasantly responded with, “How to pick just one!” Vantran added, “I still love, and this was even before I was on the e-board, the library party we had in fall 2019. It was 90’s themed and I was on Sasha [Skarboviychuk]’s committee for planning that one and it was the first CAB event I was really into the planning of. It was a really fun introduction into what CAB does in a really big event setting.”
“I think last semester my favorite event was the ‘Welcome back concert’ that we did right in the beginning of the semester just because it was such a nice day first of all and on top of that our chairs put so much work into that. The whole E-Board was helping out in checking passports, helping people get to the event, the food trucks, the artists and setting up the rooms and everything. We had a whole bunch of people show up and we had a bunch of cool food trucks and music and I just think that that feeling of normalcy, of being around people and having the social community connections on such a nice day was a lot of fun,” said Winter.
Vantran and Winter concluded our discussion about CAB with some words to those who are interested or on the fence about joining CAB. Vantran commented, “If you’re thinking about CAB and you’re not sure if it is something that you would want to do for the whole semester or the whole year it doesn’t matter. Just come once to ‘G-board’ and try it out, if you go to one committee meeting, you can join at any time, there is no missed opportunity if you didn’t see us at the involvement fair. We have so many events throughout the year that we start and restart the planning process for events constantly so you can always get in on what is happening next.”
Winter concluded by saying, “If anybody has any interest in any part of event planning: if that’s marketing, doing the finance, actually doing the creative ideas or calling people; I know some people are like ‘I will never call or email anyone’, that’s totally fine you can just be creative! Like for bingo, we had a ‘Springo’ themed bingo which was spring themed so we had springs and flowers on tables so if you just want to do the creative part that is totally okay. But if you’re interested in the hands-on calling people stuff there is also a place for that. There are just so many different aspects and anything you’re interested in—you can find it in CAB.”
Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Sasha Skarboviychuk did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.
