Societies

During my years in Cambridge, I have never come across anyone who would not be a member of a society. Similarly, I have hardly seen anyone who would not ever be a member of a society’s committee. I am no exception to this. For the last year, I have been a Logistics officer for the Cambridge University Scientific Society, known in short as SciSoc. Even though it may sound to be an extremely busy post, it was more of a catering officer job. So my main task was ensuring there was enough food and drinks during society’s events. Nevertheless, it was also a great way to have a peak behind the scenes how a society is run.

The societies are run by committees, which are elected for a year. The most important people there are the president or presidents, who manage the rest of the team. Other crucial members of the team include a treasurer, who is in charge of finances, a secretary, who takes care of the administration, and a publicity officer, who keeps the society visible to the outside world. The rest of the key supporting team comprise people in charge of liaison with sponsors, members, other societies as well as people taking care of social events and food (like me).

The committees assemble throughout the year to discuss the plans for the activities of the society. For example, as SciSoc’s main activity is organising scientific talks accessible to broader public, most of the meetings concerned the planned talks. However, we also discussed other events like the garden party, quiz night, movie night or even Fresher’s Fair and with that the strategy how to attract new members.

In the end, if the committee does its job well, which the previous committee of the SciSoc did and which our current committee has hopefully done as well, then not only do the members enjoy the activities and events, but some of them will also want to contribute back to the society by becoming a committee member. That was even my case. Having been to a couple of exciting talks last year, I wanted to become a part of the team and I do not regret my decision. I think that being in a committee is an experience worth trying while in Cambridge. Not only is it something quite typical of the university life, but it also gives you new skills. So I hope this article will motivate you, readers, to get involved with societies at your school. Similarly, I hope that the work of the SciSoc’s committee will inspire other members to take part in it and that in couple of weeks’ time, after the elections, we will be handing over to the next enthusiastic lot.