By Cassandra Larson
In January the SALSA club had seven members. Now it has close to 700.
At the last dance there were 428 people in attendance.
'The success of the SALSA club is attributed to the diligence of the club president,' said Jason Smith, 23, a senior from Rigby, Idaho, majoring in marketing communications, who is an executive director of campus clubs for BYUSA. 'I also think it is because it attracts a variety of people.'
Michelle Palmer, 29, a senior from Phoenix, majoring in marriage, family and human development, took over as president of the SALSA club last January, when there were only seven members.
'I had to find some really committed people,' she said.
Palmer said she thinks the growth is due to many reasons, but it is not necessarily her commitment.
She said a big draw was the dance lessons. The lessons were taught by a professional who only charged $10 for a semester instead of the normal $15 an hour per student.
But it is not all about dancing, Palmer said.
'The point is just to bring a lot of people together. It is so easy to feel lonely when there are so many people around you at BYU,' she said.
Palmer said she has seen many members of the SALSA club who have gained a sense of belonging and friendship.
Natalie Green, 21, a senior from Reno, Nev., majoring in community health education and Spanish, joined the SALSA club last fall and is now a committee member.
She said the growth is because of the advertising plan they have instituted.
'We have mostly focused on flyers and posters, and we try to always have a booth in the Wilk,' Green said.
Green said the SALSA club has instituted a strategic plan using booths, flyers, ads in The Daily Universe, posters, an e-mail list and word of mouth.
'We are trying to get everyone aware, and we thought that by doing all of these things, we could accomplish our goal,' Green said.
They developed an advertising plan to get posters in all the buildings on campus. Each committee member has a certain route.
'We divide up routes and each person gets on-campus buildings, dorms, off-campus apartment complexes, and they go and target those areas,' Green said. 'Some students don''t come to the Wilk at all during the day, so getting things in other buildings helps.'
The SALSA club''s next dance will be from Saturday from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., in the East Ballroom of the Wilkinson Center.