Cannon to hold fall Bicker

The Cannon Dial Elm Club will be conducting a fall round of bicker for members of the Classes of 2014 and 2013 next semester, Cannon president Connor Clegg ’14 confirmed.

The club will also conduct a spring bicker at the same time as the other clubs on the Street, during the first week of spring term, Clegg said. This past year, Cannon held bicker in December but not in the spring.

The fall bicker will be open to the Classes of 2013 and 2014 and the spring bicker will be open to the Classes of 2013, 2014 and 2015, Clegg said. Ivy Club, Cap and Gown Club and Tower Club are currently the only clubs that hold a fall bicker.

Clegg explained in an email that Cannon wishes to be “synced with the other clubs on the Street in terms of a bicker schedule.” The club is not looking to accept a particular number of members in the fall, he explained. Cannon accepted around 90 sophomores and 138 students total during Bicker last December.

“We approach bicker from the viewpoint that we will accept all those who we believe will add positively to the club's atmosphere,” Clegg said.

Clegg also anticipates that the Bicker process will consist of a combination of interviews and games, similarly to how the club conducted bicker last December. However, he noted that fall Bicker will be an “abbreviated version” of the Bicker process the club conducted in December because fall Bicker is a smaller event.

“Fall bicker would be really helpful since we’re on the smaller end,” said Kate Miller ’13, who joined Cannon in December. “I’m really excited to add a few more people.”

Clegg added that Cannon will not be using the “ironbound” system that it used last December. During the first round of bicker students were allowed to enter “ironbound” groups, meaning the entire group of students would either be accepted or denied into the club.

Since concluding Bicker in December, Cannon has been holding dinners for members twice a week.

“There is a culture that has developed over the term,” Miller said. “A lot of people make the effort to go out to the club when we have meals, and I definitely know a lot more people than before.”

Starting next term, Cannon will hold a regular meal schedule for the first time since closing its doors in 1975.

The Bicker class in the fall will be the second group of new members accepted since Cannon reopened its doors this academic year. Cannon had previously been slated to open during the springs of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, but each time the reopening was delayed due to setbacks such as failures to obtain building permits and the economic recession.

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From 1991 to 1998, Cannon held meals in the former Elm Club, which currently serves as the Fields Center.

Cannon’s return was promoted by former Graduate Board Chair of Cannon Dial Elm Club Warren Crane ’62. Crane reached out to students to form a Bicker committee and helped the club become fully functional. Crane died in early February of this year, soon after Cannon accepted its new class.

Cannon Bicker chair Erin Williams ’14 declined to comment.