Meital Machulsky and Zoe Fox founded RSO Consulting Group in May of 2020. At the height of the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, their start-dates for their post-grad employment as Consulting Analysts got pushed later than they had originally planned. As the spring quarter continued, they noticed some student organizations (formally called Registered Student Organizations) continued to operate virtually, while others struggled to adapt to the immediate changes COVID-19 imposed. These organizations did not know whom they could turn to and ask for help.

Meital and Zoe realized they didn’t have to wait to start their jobs in order to consult. Rather, they used their consulting experience to build an organization to help RSOs at UC Davis address their business problems. UC Davis RSOs provided a space for both Meital and Zoe to become student leaders. In a time of uncertainty, starting RSO Consulting Group allowed them to give back to the community which shaped their college career.

That summer after graduation, they worked with 4 RSO clients and developed unique solutions that addressed club member retention, financial management, marketing, and recruiting strategy, vision and structure, and of course, transitioning clubs to virtual operations. RSO Consulting Group followed its mission and its efforts proved to be a success. Together they decided that they couldn’t run this service alone, so in the following fall, Angel Lin, Sabrina Chang, and Tanvi Chopra helped them turn RSO Consulting Group from a side project into its own RSO at UC Davis.