After classes are over, a new club on campus gathers for a calming college pastime — watching TV.
The Office Club was established on IU’s campus in January. The club meets once a month to watch “The Office,” discuss the show and alleviate the stress of the school day. The next meeting will be on March 6, with a time and location to be announced.
Sophomore Michael Kraft, 20, is a finance and accounting major who loves “The Office.” He said his favorite episode, if he had to choose, would be “Dinner Party.”
“I think I know every word to that episode,” Kraft said. “I think every line in that episode is funny.”
Kraft was inspired to start The Office Club after he attended a meeting of The Seinfeld Club, also known as “Club About Nothing” . He said he loves the sitcom genre, and felt inspired to create a similar club about his favorite show. This semester, his dream came to fruition.
Kraft said around 20 people showed up to the first meeting, and he thought the atmosphere was great.
“It went pretty smooth for it being the first meeting,” Kraft said.
The Office Club meetings will typically start with a short and humorous video relating to “The Office,” Kraft said, and they will then watch an episode of the show. Kraft said the club does not plan on watching in chronological order, so those who didn’t attend the first meeting haven’t missed anything important.
“The attendance policy is as relaxed as it could be,” Kraft said. “You could come in for one minute, I don’t care. You can come halfway through. It really doesn’t matter what you want to do. Nobody’s going to miss anything.”
After the club watches an episode, Kraft said he plans on doing some sort of “The Office”-related activity. For their first meeting, the club played “The Office”-themed jeopardy. Kraft said the meeting lasted between 45 minutes to an hour, which he wants to be the length of most meetings.
Although Kraft is the president, or regional manager, of The Office Club, he wasn’t alone in starting the group. Kraft’s friend Anna Harris, 21, a junior studying health care management and policy, was the person to help put his idea into motion.
In order for The Office Club to be an official club, it needed a faculty supervisor.
Luke Lawson, 30, a program and reporting specialist in SPEA, works with Harris and they have talked about “The Office” on multiple occasions. From there, she mentioned the club to him, and Lawson said he was immediately interested.
Lawson said he hopes to see the club have a steady attendance of about 50 people per week, and wants the organization to be a space for people to relax and have a good time.
“We just want to ease some stress,” Lawson said. “We want to make sure people have an outlet to go to during stressful times, and I think that by really analyzing the workforce the way ‘The Office’ does, you can really dissect that and have fun with it.”
Kraft said he plans to facilitate The Office Olympics, which is a series of activities related to the show played for a prize at the end. Everyone is welcome to join, even if they have never watched “The Office” before. Those interested can email the club at theofficeiu@gmail.com for more information.
Overall, Kraft said he hopes people find solace in coming to The Office Club Meetings, and that the club can continue even after he’s graduated. He said he believes there are a lot of people who can relate to the show, and it has the ability to bring people together.
“I’ve been hard pressed to find somebody who doesn’t like the show,” Kraft said.
