The National Honor Society (NHS) held their first synchronous general meeting in four different groups differentiated by the last names of members. Members with last names starting A-F attended on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8:30 a.m., last names starting G-L attended on the same day but at 4:00 p.m., last names starting M-Sa on Friday, Oct. 9 at 8:30 AM, and last names Sch-Z on Friday Oct. 9 at 4:00 p.m..

“I think the new synchronous format worked pretty well,” President Arjun Seth ‘21 said. “I think all of us would prefer to be together in person, but we know this isn’t a possibility, so we feel very happy with the synchronous meetings online. In the past we’ve had a portion of our meetings online and asynchronously, so we have some experience with that. We feel confident that our virtual meetings can be effective.”

Officers launched the meeting by going over basic requirements. Future meetings will not be synchronous and will consist of a google form that if not filled out within the one week requirement, a one hour penalty will be given. Due to the pandemic, NHS has adjusted their point requirements to 10 instead of 15 hours and will not be differentiating between inside and outside hours. All hours must be submitted through Innerview, with the exception of tutoring hours. There will also be no tribes this year.

“Going into this year, we definitely wanted to have a lot more involvement of the members, and hour requirements was one of the things we were planning to change,” Vice President Deepti Choudhury ‘21 said. “Given the circumstances, we have lowered the hour requirements and removed the distinction between inside and outside hours so that members don’t feel overwhelmed with the requirements for NHS. We still believe this hour requirement is substantial, and will still make a big impact on the community.”

Opportunities to receive hours include tutoring and a food drive. Tutoring has already started and members have been using a Google Meets to attend Q&A style sessions with students. The food drive can be found outside of the main entrance of school. Each can is worth .25/hour with a maximum of six cans for 1.5 hours. Members must take a picture of their donations to submit on Innerview.

“I’m very excited to see how our program and community can adapt to the new school setting,” Seth said. “I’m also very excited to hopefully host some of our larger events in the second semester like Powderpuff and Warrior Fest.”

There will be no Powderpuff this Fall, but there will likely be two fundraisers in the second semester along with the Thirst Project. Dues this year will be $20 in check only, with the deadline as Friday, Nov. 6.

“It’s definitely been a new experience, but I think that we are adjusting quite well,” Secretary Cesar Monagas ‘21 said. “We are constantly in contact with each other, and even though a lot of our communication is remotely, we are still working together to ensure that everything in NHS happens as smoothly as possible.”

For more updates, follow NHS on Instagram or sign up with their Remind with the following codes.

Last names starting with:

A-G

@wwnhs21ag

H-M

@wwnhs21hm

N-Z

@wwnhs21nz