By the fourth week of school, classes are in full swing and tests are just around the corner. To curb stress and take the edge off, joining a club or organization may be the answer.

The Great Hall of the Memorial Union will be packed with more than 200 clubs at the annual ClubFest on Wednesday. Representatives of student organizations will be readily available to pass out brochures explaining why students should get involved in their organization.

Students looking for something new can take matters into their own hands and can start a club, as well.

Dan Jensen, senior in mechanical engineering, and Jared Cave, junior in mechanical engineering, decided to do just that last year.

Cave is president and co-founder of the Red Green Club of Iowa State University, a club that promotes awareness and enjoyment of “The Red Green Show.”

“It was pretty easy; it just takes an interest in the club and finding an adviser,” Cave says.

Although it has been an official club at Iowa State since February, Cave says he and a few other guys started meeting together as an unofficial club before they got official status.

Andrew Mevissen, sophomore in mechanical engineering, has been participating since last year and is now vice president. He says one of the benefits of becoming an official club is funding from the Government of the Student Body.

The funding can provide a group with funds for equipment, maintenance or travel expenses, he said.

“One of the things we were thinking about planning is a trip to watch a taping of ‘The Red Green Show,'” Mevissen says.

Mevissen says the club is in the process of drawing up a budget to propose to the GSB finance committee.

Since last year’s change in policies by GSB, certain clubs might fall under a different jurisdiction as far as funding is concerned.

GSB representative Peter Finzell, sophomore in mechanical engineering, says the new bylaws have different guidelines this year as to which clubs will be funded by GSB or college departments.

Finzell says each club must go though this process each year in order to receive funds. The money that is not used by the club gets recycled by GSB, he says.

“To get funding, [the club budget] has to be reviewed by the GSB finance committee,” Finzell says. “Then the GSB finance committee decides how GSB will allocate the funding.”