Presidential perks

On the 9th March 2012, I was elected President of Comparative American Studies Society, or CAS Soc. Next month, I will hand over to my successor in a cavalcade of personalised hoodies and flags, provided I am not impeached beforehand. Here is my ten-point plan to running a society:

1)   Pick a society with a successful blueprint, and run with it: I was extremely lucky to have a predecessor who put an incredible amount of time and effort into the society, making it a friendly, fun organisation with many opportunities for inter-year group collective congratulating and sighing in equal measures. I could have started a society from scratch, but I’m not really sure many people would join my ‘Knitwear and Scampi’ Society.

Our risqué tweets: A hit with the DoS

2) Remember the good socials, forget about the bad ones: It’s fair to say that certain socials can be a disaster, for whatever reason. Equally, when our flagship event of Term One, Thanksgiving, came together, with over 30 people, some not even CAS students, dining on turkey and pecan pie, it made the previous week's work pale into insignificance. The temptation is to hold an inquest after every one, debating the whys and wherefores and pinpointing the successes and failures. The best thing to remember is that we’re History & Literature students, not experts in the field of Events Management. Laugh it off, shrug your shoulders, and move on to plugging the next Facebook event!

3) Use the things you love: It’s fair to say I’m an obsessive when it comes to social media, and the CAS Soc Twitter account has given me moments to cherish. I’m not sure how much information has ever been gleaned from it, but when you go to see your Director of Studies for talks over a Year Abroad and come out discussing which was his favourite tweet from the night before, it means as much as a successful social!

4) If you’re wondering about whether you’re running for the right reasons, trust me. You are: I ran for CAS Soc President for a multitude of reasons. It's difficult to rank those reasons, having fast-forwarded a year, but I'm fairly sure 'personalised hoodie' came close to the top of the list. I also wanted something to show from my time at university other than a degree of dubious quality and worth, and, with CAS Soc having delightfully impinged upon most of the things I did in Year One, this seemed like the obvious challenge.

5)  It’s your society. Your time. Use it wisely, young Jedi: Every year things get improved upon, changed, altered, trimmed, cut down, expanded, whatever. If a society’s events had the same appeal every year to every year group, there’d be no need for a committee, it’d be ‘CAS Soc: Just add water’. Thankfully, your creative licence comes to the fore. Who’d have thought that a quiz about the Super Bowl which had nothing to do with the Super Bowl during the Super Bowl would become one of my personal highlights of the year?

6) If you’re not enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong: There will always be times when you wonder if you’ve done it right. Remember the Events Management. If being a volunteer, in your second year of university, working amongst your closest friends to organise coffee mornings and celebrations for even more of your closest friends has become a chore, then you’re taking it too seriously.

A highlight

7) We’re not Warwick Finance Society, we’re CAS Soc: I’ll be the first to admit our society isn’t the biggest or indeed ugliest on campus. That’s why it’s great. When I come to graduate, I won't remember essays about Caste Wars in Mexico; it'll be the dance competitions, and the successful socials that will stick in the mind.

8) ‘The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them’- Richard M. Nixon: You will never get this chance to run an organisation and make so many cock-ups in such a forgiving environment ever again. The next time, if ever, I run a group again, we’ll be out of the pre-season of my career and into the harsh winter of real life. And trust me, it won’t be as fun out there with the real ball.

9) Surround yourself with an exec that no matter how tough a week it’s been, will still laugh at your jokes: I’ve been lucky enough to be accompanied by a tireless committee who have spammed Facebook walls, sent emails down the rabbit hole of communication that is Warwick SU at times, and have reminded me of points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 on an almost daily basis. You know who you are!

10) Smile, you’ve got a new nickname. And a hoodie.

El Presidente over and out.