Open Minded-Community Club (OMC) is not an official club on campus yet, however, the club board is in the process of finding an advisor to make the club possible. 

OMC wants to promote positive individual growth, invoke confidence and create a community of open-minded people that can feel comfortable discussing any topic or issue. 

The club was founded by junior Ryan Sleasman, junior Andrew Johnson, junior Tristan Smith and sophomore Mackenzie Snow. These students are trying to establish OMC on campus in order to establish a safe place, free of judgement, where club members will learn new skills and be challenged to think broadly about different issues brought up in the club meetings. 

According to Sleasman, the goal of the club is to gain a wider perspective of the way people think and find ways to apply that knowledge to everyday life. 

“They can feel more confident in the actions they take from knowing they analyzed three different options, and having a better understanding of the people around them, the way the world works and the place people are coming from,” Sleasman said.

If the club finds an advisor, it would give club members career or organization opportunities that would benefit them. Sleasman said this would even benefit club members’ resumes, in that they could say they attended OMC and talked about the opportunities to open their eyes to a new outlook for each and every person. This would give club members an insight on each opportunity that could be out there for them.

The board of OMC said there are roughly seven members who want to join, but since it’s not an actual club yet they have not sought out more members. This is due to not wanting to get students interested if the club may not become official.

OMC would start out with a few lessons on how to respect others’ opinions. If someone isn’t comfortable talking in a large group, the board would set up small groups in order to make sure people can share their opinion without any judgement from others. A few weeks after club meetings would begin, issues would be brainstormed and discussed the topics to educate each and every member that their opinion is theirs and others will agree and disagree with you.

“[OMC wants] to challenge people to discuss with people on these topics that they wouldn’t normally discuss to grow,” Sleasman said.

Everyone is welcome in the OMC club. The board wants to make sure everyone can share their skills, ideas and opinions and that people know OMC is a safe space to bring up topics that you feel you would not discuss with a family member or a friend. A place where you can open your mind to new possibilities and be able to connect one-on-one with the same or differing opinions as yours. Having an open mind is all the OMC board members ask from you. 

“I value people that are open-minded, and how they don’t immediately devalue someone’s responses because they disagree with them or they have a certain background or a certain job or something. Just being open minded has been a big value of mine and talking about topics and about what people don’t talk about, I have fun doing,” Sleasman said.