BRENTON NEWCOMB
Special to The Leader
Do you hate forced interactions?
Can’t stand icebreakers?
Dislike being singled out?
If so, the first of its kind — The Antisocial Social Club — might being something for you to join.
This is the perfect club for anybody who would rather do the things that they like to do, on their terms, while in the company of those who feel the same way.
Students can come and go as they please with no required meetings.
Amanda Namendorf talks of the execution of the club, describing how her professor, Emily Zane in the Communication Disorders and Sciences department, came up with the original idea.
Namendorf said, “She originally had the idea to start an autism inclusion club, but as we thought more about it we realized that we didn’t want those who were on the spectrum to feel like they were being singled out.”
This led them in the direction they ended up taking — which was to open the club up to anyone who struggles in social situations “whether it was because they were on the spectrum, have social anxiety or they’re introverted” and to simultaneously avoid using labels.
Each meeting includes planned themes or activities.
Namendorf explains one of the recent themes, “anti-valentines day,” which consisted of cookies and paper heart cutouts featuring slogans such as “meh” or “thank you, next.”
Another activity was cooking up a batch of slime.
Activities such as coloring, crosswords, word searches, sudoku, the game of life, Jenga, Uno, jigsaw puzzles and various other games stay consistently available to students, and are specifically chosen so that the interactions are left “up to the student.”
Namendorf, who is now getting her masters at Fredonia, relates how there is a strong need for more clubs like The Antisocial Social Club because many clubs require a lot of forced interaction and mandatory events.
Many people searching for a club that interests them may be easily deterred if clubs are too demanding.
Namendorf’s favorite aspect of the club is the fact that the club is on her own terms.
She has the ability to, “just go and color on my own and hang out with people in parallel. Instead of staying home and being by myself, I can still be by myself but around people,” she said.
She concludes that the club has worked very well so far and they are playing it all mostly by ear as she continues to blaze the trail for this first-of-its-kind club.
The club meets every other Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in W245 Thompson Hall (March 20, April 3, April 17 and May 1).