Socs galore! (Sports & Societies)

Member Name: ermintrude

Product:	Sports & Societies
Date:	01/08/01 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many, many societies, for both sports and non-sports activities, you can always make your own

Disadvantages: quality not always consistent, even from year to year, may be too many to choose from!

Bit of an odd combination, this category - I guess it's intended for sports clubs, rather than sport facilities, as well as non-sporting societies. I can't say much about UEA sports clubs, never having been a member of one - I do know that there seem to be hundreds, and you can do everything from climbing and fellwalking (those clubs have to venture out of Norfolk, naturally) to competitive team sports such as football and hockey, plus individual events like golf and equestrianism. Add in scuba diving, fencing and korfball, and you've got quite an eclectic mix. I have heard that some clubs can be quite snobby, and not very welcoming to novices (being more concerned with good players to aid the quest for BUSA victory), while others are positively geared towards those with no experience. You do get to interrogate the committee at SportsMart (held every September and January, when new students arrive), and hopefully get a bit of a feel for things.

One thing that most sports clubs have benefited from is the new SportsPark, not actually part of the university (I believe, although it's unclear), but adjacent to campus, and therefore close enough for the university to convert their own, rather old sports facilities into research space. It deserves a review of its own, but briefly: it boasts a 50m pool, a large indoor hall for badminton, basketball, etc., squash courts, a well-equipped gym, a climbing wall, a running track, and all-weather pitches. Worth knowing if you are good at a particular sport, and want to be sure that the university you pick has good facilities to let you continue.

Anyway, that's it for sports. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will write a more in-depth opinion on those. What I want to write about is the non-sporting societies at UEA - if you're interested, I write as an ex-secretary and ex-president of one of them, the Photo Society, so I've seen it from both sides. I've also had close friends w
ho are heavily involved with other societies ranging from ballroom dancing to peace and environmental action.

Just from that little list, you might guess that, as with sports clubs, there's no shortage of societies for you to join. Should you feel that the likes of juggling, skating, wine tasting, bellringing, folk music, DJing or conservation volunteering don't cater for your particular pet activity, then you if you can gather 30 like-minded folk who are willing to pay at least £3 for the year, the Union will give you some cash, and voila, you have a society all of your own - hence some of the more exotic groups. There are also societies for many religious and political groups. A full list can be found from http://www.stu.uea.ac.uk/

--Choosing and joining a society--
At SocMart (the societies fair, at the same time as SportsMart) the plethora of people willing to take your money can be quite overwhelming. There you are, disorientated by the loud music (I use the term loosely) from the turntablists or the alternative music people, reeling from a couple of freebies at the wine tasting stall, all ready to sign up for the Officer Training Corps because you like men in uniform (the armed forces societies, incidentally, have to stand outside as they are considered discriminatory and therefore against Union regulations)... stop! Put your cash away! The best thing to do is to go round everyone you think you might be interested in joining, have a chat, get a flyer, or at least find out the date of their first meeting, and then go back to your room, make a cuppa, and think about it.

If you're heading to Cream or Home on Saturdays with the clubbing society, can you really make conservation volunteers at 9am on Sundays? Do you really want to go on demonstrations with the Socialist Workers, or would you prefer to be watching Teletubbies? Decide what you really want to do, whether you're going to get your money's worth, and then
either go to a meeting or contact the committee direct. They all have a pigeonhole, and most have a contact email - some even have a website. Hopefully you'll be in time for the first social, which are usually timed to catch those who missed SocMart, and then you can meet people, have fun, learn something, and all the rest of it. Societies are also happy to take members throughout the year, so don't worry if you suddenly find in week 9 that your ideal soc exists - just contact them, and take it from there.

--How to get the best from your membership--
Because you've thought about the socs you're joining, you'll be an enthusiastic member, right? I hope so! Speaking as a committee member, nothing is more disheartening than seeing a sea of faces at SocMart, a few less at the first meeting, and hardly anyone at subsequent events. Committees don't take on all that work for their own benefit - they do it thinking that the other members will benefit from it, and enjoy being in the club. So, if the meetings always clash with something else, let them know. If the events aren't quite to your taste (say, training is too basic, or the pub crawl always goes to the same places), let them know. If you've always wanted to try something, but haven't had the chance, let them know... you get the picture. You've paid your fees, you're a member, a part of the club - you're entitled to your say! After all, there are probably others in the same boat, and the committee should be doing their best to help everyone get something out of the society.

--What sort of events are there?--
Of course, this depends on the club, but these are just some of the events I know of. The photo society holds training for novices, on taking photos as well as on using the darkroom, and also runs trips to photogenic places (e.g. Cambridge, Cromer) and interesting exhibitions. Ballroom and Latin dancing offer classes for everyone, from comp
lete beginner to competition standard, and also travels to competitions around the country. Conservation and wildlife offers the chance to do practical conservation work (heath clearance, fen management) and hear talks from wildlife photographers and other professionals. Drama soc put on various productions, and offer both acting parts and behind the scenes work, including training. The environmental action group have been involved in protests and blockades as well as positive environmental action on campus. Most societies will have meetings, pub crawls, curry nights, Christmas meals and suchlike... and if yours doesn't ever do anything - ask them why! Or get involved yourself...

--Can you recommend any society then?--
I could recommend photosoc :) Seriously, it's difficult to make suggestions, since the committees change every year - sometimes they're good, sometime's they're not. Often there is at least some continuity in committee members, but since they tend to be the most experienced people in a society, a committee can often be 100% final year students, leaving a gap the following year. A good mark of quality can be simply whether they are organised/bothered enough to attend SocMart. Not everyone does. But as I said above, if you join one and it's not great, you can either complain, or get involved yourself - it may be that the committee are horrendously overworked.

Remember, it's the members that make the society, and whatever soc you join, it should be working for you. There's enough out there that there should be something for everyone, so go and find yours!

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