November 20, 2016, by Danny Bav

How do I run a society?

So you’ve either got a society, thinking of making a society, or you’re just curious to find out what the ‘behind the scenes’ of a university society looks like. Well, look no further! I’m the president of the Contemporary China society and I’m going to give you a couple of my tips or things I’ve tried in my society. Disclaimer: I’ve only being running my society for 2-3 months, so these tips are subject to my opinion.

Socials, socials & more socials

So you want to keep your members happy, what’s better than having regular socials and meetups!? Well, of course you don’t want to have TOO many socials, because you want them to be something people look forward to, right?

How exactly do I run a social?

1.) A quick shoutout or Facebook poll can help me and my society with initial ideas on where our members want to go. We also ask them for ideas from time to time, it’s always nice to get feedback from members of your society.

2.) Alright, now I have an idea of where we want to go – say we want to go out for a meal. I then have a meeting with my society to plan the logistics, where are we going to eat, how much are we going to charge etc…

3.) Book the venue. I’m grateful in having the two Chinese girls on my society committee, they are a great help when it comes to booking Chinese venues and restaurants as they can use their Chinese to haggle the price down. (Unfortunately my Chinese isn’t that good yet, eeek). Remember, you can often haggle the price down since you’re such a large group.

4.) Collect money and go do the event – there are some logistics in here such as event forms and selling tickets online if you need to, but these are usually quick processes.

5.) Take pictures and share them on social media. You ran a great event, now tell everyone about it on your society’s social media to attract people to come to your next social.

Create a great community

What brings people back to your society week after week? Sure, it could be the great activities you guys put on, but a large factor is the friends your members make in the society. In light of this, I recommend you give time for people in your society to socialise. People are going to chat and connect, and if they make friends at your society they’re more likely to show up every week.

If you think your society is getting too much work and it’s hard to juggle university work and running a society, just try and have one quality event from time to time. It’s better to have one great event than many little ones that aren’t as successful. However, the most important factor is to remember to have fun. Your members are having fun, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun too. Sometimes the preparation and making sure the society goes ‘well’ means that you don’t get to have fun as you’re worrying about your members. Remember, you share the same interests as them too.

Finally, I’d just like to end by saying if you are reading this and haven’t joined a university society yet, join one because you are seriously missing out! It’s a great way to escape the ‘routine’ of weekly life and do something you enjoy.

 

 

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