Although Pantherpalooza is five hours long, planning for this event begins nearly a year in advance.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 200 registered student organizations will descend on the South Quad to recruit new members and tell the campus community what they do.

Jenna Mitchell, student vice president for academic affairs, oversees all registered student organizations and is responsible for organizing the event.

Mitchell and her team of Student Senate members provide tables and bottled water for each organization that registers in advance. Groups can register the day of, but are not guaranteed a table or food.

Student Body President Kaci Abolt, a senior communication studies major, said because of the on-site registration process, it is difficult to put an exact number on how many organizations will be present at the event.

“It is running the same as years past, but we always see a number of late registrations,” Abolt said. “People come back to campus and are like ‘oh yeah I forgot I have to register for that.’”

Last week, Mitchell said she had only received 37 registration forms via the student government website, but was not concerned.

“Kaci told me to expect about 75 percent more registrations on Monday as most people don’t arrive back until the weekend before classes,” Mitchell said. “Students can expect to see a diverse group organizations to help them find out where they fit in at Eastern.”

As an incentive for RSOs to participate, Mitchell and her team have organized a variety of giveaways including a table design contest.

The RSO with the best-decorated table will win a gift card to the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Bookstore.

Mitchell is also planning a post event survey where a student would win a similar prize.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at alwywialowski@eiu.edu or 581-2812.