Eight different registered student organizations from the Lumpkin School of Business will participate in a series of games held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at Sister City Park.

The idea to have all the business RSOs collaborate and participate in the games came from Angel Valencia, a senior accounting major and president of the Student Accounting Society, and Trent Yocum, a junior management information systems major.

“We wanted to have all the RSOs come together for a good time and get to network with each other,” Valencia said. “This way, in the future, the RSOs can work together on different events and fundraisers.”

The games will consist of an Olympic-style race, bean bag toss and other activities, followed by a cookout sponsored by the School of Business.

“I am involved in many RSOs and I have realized that none of the RSOs really work together,” Yocum said. “I think this will be a good way for them to get to know each other and be able to collaborate on different projects, and people will also be able to know more about what the different RSOs do.”

Yocum said it is important for students to get involved with different organizations, as it is a way for them to get to know each other.

“Since I do not live on campus, nor in Charleston, I participate in a lot of organizations because I want to get to know more people,” Yocum said.

Yocum said he hopes the RSO games will become a yearly tradition.

“I guess it really just depends on how it goes on Friday,” Yocum said. “We reached out to all the RSOs and we had about half of the RSOs get back to us, which we hope the other half will still show up as well.”

Denise Smith, department chair of the school of business, is also involved in planning the event.

“Dr. Smith was very interested when we proposed this idea,” Valencia said. “She has done a lot to help us out with the planning and hopes that this will successfully bring together RSOs and hopefully they will be able to collaborate together in the future.”

Valencia, who has experience in teambuilding, said he was glad to help out when Yocum first presented the idea.

“I used to be in charge of teambuilding, so I knew this was something I would be glad to help plan,” Valencia said. “I have a lot of contacts throughout the school, so I knew I could get in touch with people to participate.”

Andrew Paisley can be reached at 581-2812 or at abpaisley@eiu.edu.