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As social sec it’s your job to plan socials, talk to reps and create events. It’ll also be partly your job to contact civil and to advertise in lectures. You should try and make every social but don’t worry too much, work with the committee to make sure someone is always there. The most important time as social sec is first semester, a lot of freshers come to events in the first few weeks of Uni and you should start planning in the summer for what events you want to host (plan this with the President).

The fresher events that have worked well over the last few years is the welcome BBQ, pub quiz and the Otley run. The welcome BBQ and pub quiz are great ways to introduce the freshers to their course mates and outline what you want to do with the society. Then plan the Otley run for a few weeks into term, this gives the freshers time to settle in. Also remember to advertise to second and third years, as this is the social with the largest non-first year turnout. After the Otley run, it’s up to you to decide future socials. I’d advise having one at least each month and try to variate between drinking and non-drinking socials. Remember CivSoc are an inclusive society and we want to cater to everyone! It would make things easier for you if you followed the standard timetable and socials shown below!

Regarding the Invasion holiday we usually plan for post January exams, plan the holiday early (in summer) and advertise like crazy (as soon as Uni starts) to get people to sign up! It can be tough to get the numbers up for the holiday, so don’t be afraid to cancel if it doesn’t look like it’s going ahead. Try not to lose people’s money by allowing them to pay the deposits before you have the enough people interested yet! If the holiday is cancelled, you will lose a lot of money paying their deposits back.

Otley runs tend to run themselves, but it’s always fun doing it with T-shirts. The society will need to buy more T-shirts to sell for next year (the design should be in the Dropbox).

The past two years we have run a joint Engineering Ball that has been very successful. Usually Mech are the main organisers but be sure to get involved – message them early and get the ball rolling!

I’ll leave you with some advice I wish I had gotten when I was elected social sec. Firstly, consider your timetable, second year is harder than first year and make sure to plan socials in advance around deadlines. The toughest months are November, January and March, you’ll get most of your deadlines then and make sure you put your work first. At the end of the day socials can be changed, don’t fall behind because of the society. Secondly, it’s hard to keep high social attendance, it’s natural to get less people after the Otley run. So, make sure to host socials that you’ll enjoy, as you’ll be at most of them. Try to establish a good relationship with the treasurer and industrial sec. You’re going to be buying tickets and giving members discount, so work with the treasurer to see what’s affordable. It’s not your job to organise industrial socials, but the school will want more industrial events so see if you can mix industrial talks and socials. I always wanted to do Careers and Beers event, but it just never happened this year. Finally, if you have certain ambitions with CivSoc get them done first semester, second semester is much busier and has time is more limited. Make use of the Union - terrace, old bar, the upstairs rooms. If your passionate about something, the rest of the committee will be there to help.