Term 1 overview
As we are now halfway through our term as CivSoc committee it has given us a chance to reflect on what we have achieved this term. This year we have had a record number of new members, created 2 new sub networks: post-graduate and international and we have launched a new website. The committee aims for the academic year was to deliver outstanding opportunities, offer quality support and create engaging events. Upon reflection I would say we have delivered outstanding opportunities through running industry events such as our Graduate and Undergraduate recruitment (GURE) evening where we have had the brilliant news that our members received internship offers off the back off. We have also provided quality support through our expansion of our buddy scheme and increasing the amount of coffee mornings. Lastly, we hosted a sold-out winter ball, have continued our family scheme which is as popular as always and volunteered in the local communities all of which we have had large amounts of members attend and thus have hosted engaging events. We are not stopping here though, next term we already have a fundraising event planned, an innovation week and so much more! Finally, we would just like to wish you a merry Christmas and hope you have a happy new year.
CivSoc committee (with the exception of Florence, Ashish, Madeline and Abigail) taken at our annual winter ball
Silver Accreditation
We are excited to announce that we are the first society within the University of Bristol to achieve silver accreditation. The accreditation scheme is part of Bristol SU’s way of ensuring societies offer the best experience for their members through setting out a list of 20 criteria points which every group has to show evidence of meeting. To achieve a silver accreditation certificate so early on is very impressive however we are not stopping here and we hope to achieve gold accreditation by the end of the academic year. To find out more about the accreditation scheme, please follow this link.
Feedback
Overall, a successful month of social events this month from the Christmas ball to our industry events. We received a great turn out for most of our events this month but there’s some improvements that can be made in the future.
CivSoc Christmas ball
In the future, we could hand out drink tokens at the door instead of placing it at tables as some people lost their tokens and did not receive a drink. Moreover, a clear itinerary could be established as people were rushing and queueing up at the bar.
Family Christmas Dinner
A great turn out for the Christmas dinner considering many had deadlines during that week, but not many attended La Rocca after dinner. Good feedback on food, however as families had different number of people of people attending but all had the same budget to spend, some families had more for food than others. In the future we can consider distributing the budget according to the number of people attending so there is enough food for everyone.
Christmas Tree Decoration
Many attended this event and enjoyed decorating and the free hot drinks. Due to its success, this could be run annually.
Socials
CivSoc Christmas ball
The ball went well! It all ran smoothly including the raffle and afterparty at La Rocca. 150 tickets sold out quickly, and we had some great photos from the night by Alex Sheppard.
Family Christmas dinner
47 people came to the Christmas dinner and we had lots of great reviews about the food. There was a smaller turnout to the pub than expected, perhaps because of deadlines.
Christmas tree decoration
Many people turned up to the event. We got some great photos and had good reviews on the free hot drinks.
Industry events
Holly Smith Industry talk
We were delighted to welcome back an ex-CivSoc president back to speak to our members about some honest reflections about what it’s like to join the industry and how her professional review went. We wish her the best of luck with her chartership and thank her again for answering all of our questions! We hope to welcome back other ex-committee and members who have gone into industry next term with the idea that their wisdom and experiences will develop our members understanding of what working in the industry is like and help grow their network.
Spotlight lecture series
Our first Spotlight lecture of the year had a water focus with two fantastic talks from Ross Woods and Francesca Pianosi discussing their respective areas of research – flood estimation and water resources management. We are looking forward to continuing the series next term with presentations from lecturers specialising in other civil engineering disciplines. We were also happy to be able to provide free pizza to our members that attended the talk as it ran during a lunchtime.
Wellbeing
We incorporated a new colouring activity during our coffee morning this month with the aim to de-stress during a period of deadlines. We provided free hot drinks to encourage attendants as this was one of the feedback from previous coffee mornings. However, not many showed up due to their deadlines and there wasn’t enough marketing done as not many knew about it. Therefore, in the future we should consider the timing of coffee mornings in the future and to advertise on other social channels (Facebook events, Outlook calendar invites, and the newsletter).
Comments