Societies Who Don't Call

UCDCritic

Was in the freshers tent today and approached MED SOC

Had a conversation and mentioned how I'd joined their society in the past and never got an email afterwards, to which the person revealed, if you're not a med student there's probably no point in joining.

What is the point in setting up a stand when you're only interested in other med students? It seems wrong to take people's money under a false pretense.

There are other very large societies which I wont mention who have also taken my money in the past and I never heard from them.

Crow92

UCDCritic wrote: »

Was in the freshers tent today and approached MED SOC

Had a conversation and mentioned how I'd joined their society in the past and never got an email afterwards, to which the person revealed, if you're not a med student there's probably no point in joining.

What is the point in setting up a stand when you're only interested in other med students? It seems wrong to take people's money under a false pretense.

There are other very large societies which I wont mention who have also taken my money in the past and I never heard from them.

Top of my head would be there is a Facebook page the society runs off instead of emails, this tends to be for smaller societies. I was in charge of the architecture society last year and ran nearly everything through our Facebook page as we have 170 or so members with 90%+ being architects and most other being friends with architects.

Also the whole having a stand thhing can just be for some societies to show face to seem involved even if they aren't really with the whole campus. Again you'll find that more with the smaller faculty based societies.

OneOfThem Stumbled

UCDCritic wrote: »

What is the point in setting up a stand when you're only interested in other med students? It seems wrong to take people's money under a false pretense.

There are other very large societies which I wont mention who have also taken my money in the past and I never heard from them.

Well the grant is predicated on how many you get to sign up - so sorts clubs typically sign up far more than they can cater for, for instance.

But it would, akik, be unusual for a soc/club to filter email recipients based on course. Sometimes info can be taken down wrong, sometimes socs/clubs just can't be arsed sending out emails or running many events. Generally sign ups are tied to SIS, so a correct student/ staff number will be required for you to properly register with a soc.

errlloyd

UCDCritic wrote: »

Was in the freshers tent today and approached MED SOC

Had a conversation and mentioned how I'd joined their society in the past and never got an email afterwards, to which the person revealed, if you're not a med student there's probably no point in joining.

What is the point in setting up a stand when you're only interested in other med students? It seems wrong to take people's money under a false pretense.

There are other very large societies which I wont mention who have also taken my money in the past and I never heard from them.

You hang medsoc out to dry but won't mention the names of large societies?

Raphael

Number of things involved -

Firstly, they may have gotten your email wrong. Typos/illegible handwriting knocks a lot of people off society mailing lists who should be on them.

Secondly, med students go to the tent too. And while I imagine medsoc might prefer to have a signup stand in the health sciences building, I doubt they'd be allowed to. And it would probably be ignored wholesale -

Thirdly, 'probably no point in joining' isn't really the same thing as 'we don't want you'. It's more of a 'It's unlikely you'll attend or enjoy our events'. But it happens, I don't know what type of events they run. Anyone know? There might be talks that interest non meds, or just free tea and coffee once a week somewhere on campus.

Fourthly, as mentioned - numbers. Signing people up is good for your grant. Which is why you get a bag of goodies that will in a lot of cases be worth your 2 euro, even if you never go to an event.

unknown13

Why would societies waste their time setting up a mailing list and sending you an email when there is a strong chance you might not even check UCD connect before the event. Makes no sense for any medium to large societies. Smaller societies can do it because they have time. Social media has taken over because it is so much easier for societies to get the message across.

Kiltennel

The only place societies can set up a table is within the freshers tent. Many of which are either a niche area or will only be of interest to people from certain courses. That said if you signed up they should have contacted you. This has happened to me before, problem was I had written my details poorly and they were sending it to the wrong email.

ironclaw

Kiltennel wrote: »

The only place societies can set up a table is within the freshers tent. Many of which are either a niche area or will only be of interest to people from certain courses.

Think that sums it up nicely. Not picking on anyone in particular but FilmSoc would only interest people in films, L&H mainly for debates etc, ElecSoc for Electronic Eng. Pick what you like and go from there.

If you have no interest in Medicine (Or that general field) or had no interest in say the previous events they ran, I have no idea why you would join MedSoc (Or any soceity with a niche)

UCDCritic, is there anything about UCD you are not critical about?

UCDCritic

ironclaw wrote: »

UCDCritic, is there anything about UCD you are not critical about?

Criticism is a good thing, although some people can take it the wrong way, it helps things to get better.

For example, think of a lecturer who criticizes a piece of your writing, they are just helping you to be better.

Kiltennel

UCDCritic wrote: »

Criticism is a good thing, although some people can take it the wrong way, it helps things to get better.

For example, think of a lecturer who criticizes a piece of your writing, they are just helping you to be better.

Do you provide criticism to the relevant authorities or just post on random forums?

errlloyd

Raphael wrote: »

Thirdly, 'probably no point in joining' isn't really the same thing as 'we don't want you'. It's more of a 'It's unlikely you'll attend or enjoy our events'. But it happens, I don't know what type of events they run. Anyone know? There might be talks that interest non meds, or just free tea and coffee once a week somewhere on campus.

To be fair, Medsoc are actually a class society which probably do have pretty all encompassing appeal. They are running some pretty good debates at the moment, because they aren't rigidly attached to BP (competitive format) like Lawsoc and L&H so they have some advantages.

OneOfThem Stumbled

Kiltennel wrote: »

Do you provide criticism to the relevant authorities or just post on random forums?

UCDCritic, commenting on the UCD forum about UCD wouldn't, I have thought, been the epitome of random forum use.

UCDCritic

Kiltennel wrote: »

Do you provide criticism to the relevant authorities or just post on random forums?

This is not random.

If you realized who is in charge of societies you would know why I post here instead of providing criticism to the "relevant authorities".

A further example: I joined a certain society last year. Joined them on facebook too. A few months went by and I realized I hadn't heard from them and so decided to look them up.

And there I find on their facebook page pictures of nights out featuring the same small group of people each time.

These people were having piss ups and charging it to you and me and the society bank account.

ironclaw

UCDCritic wrote: »

And there I find on their facebook page pictures of nights out featuring the same small group of people each time.

These people were having piss ups and charging it to you and me and the society bank account.

Yeah that happens a lot. And I found a lot of Soc's intermingle and you get the same people at different events. Always the same core groups. Doesn't really bother me to be honest. It is entirely possible to get your money's worth (i.e. €2) by going to just one night, if its the financial side of things that have you worried. Granted it could be said only certain personalities and persona's do well in certain Soc's (You either fit in or you don't) but thats the same in every field in life.

Kiltennel

OneOfThem Stumbled wrote: »

UCDCritic, commenting on the UCD forum about UCD wouldn't, I have thought, been the epitome of random forum use.

UCDCritic wrote: »

This is not random.

If you realized who is in charge of societies you would know why I post here instead of providing criticism to the "relevant authorities".

A further example: I joined a certain society last year. Joined them on facebook too. A few months went by and I realized I hadn't heard from them and so decided to look them up.

And there I find on their facebook page pictures of nights out featuring the same small group of people each time.

These people were having piss ups and charging it to you and me and the society bank account.

Unless you're getting onto the Soc heads or getting onto the Societies Officer about these issues posting on here is about as much use as posting on Boards in an effort to change the Irish government. It is just passive aggressive pissing and moaning which accomplishes nothing. If they're getting pissed off "you and me" then how about getting onto Richard Butler and letting him know about this. I'm sure UCD don't want to be funding cliquey piss-ups.

OneOfThem Stumbled

Kiltennel wrote: »

If they're getting pissed off "you and me" then how about getting onto Richard Butler and letting him know about this. I'm sure UCD don't want to be funding cliquey piss-ups.

You think that UCD actually care about the internal affairs of student socs? Even if they do, the "authorities" would have little capacity, as outsiders, to affect this. Sure, they could ensure that a society or club cannot turn away people, but there are more ways of skinning a cat if the organisation is determined to be cliquey. Finally, I'm not sure if it's even legitimate to have UCD interfere in the running of a student organisation. Two cents.

electrictrad

OneOfThem Stumbled wrote: »

You think that UCD actually care about the internal affairs of student socs? Even if they do, the "authorities" would have little capacity, as outsiders, to affect this. Sure, they could ensure that a society or club cannot turn away people, but there are more ways of skinning a cat if the organisation is determined to be cliquey. Finally, I'm not sure if it's even legitimate to have UCD interfere in the running of a student organisation. Two cents.

UCD through Butler do tend to take a dim view of societies that turn into private piss-ups (see Carlowgate and the now-defunct B&L Society as case in point). That said, a lot of faculty societies and societies with poor committees or flailing membership numbers often flog the cash for the occassional piss-up for their mates, and their resources can be so limited in the first place that it's not really worth UCD's while pursuing them for dereliction of duty - they just cut or stop the grant in later years.

"Cliquey" is a term that can be levelled at a lot of UCD Societies; a lot of them appeal to a narrow range of people in the first place, so its easy for them to become insular. However there are a lot of excellent welcoming and open societies in UCD, run by extremely hard-working people, so its important to bear that in mind.

ironclaw

electrictrad wrote: »

(see Carlowgate).

Didn't hear about that one, Got a story link?

electrictrad

ironclaw wrote: »

Didn't hear about that one, Got a story link?

You won't find a published account. Although I'm surprised it hasn't surfaced here before.

For those who don't know, B&L were a large and active society within UCD, nominally representing Business and Law Students.

In November 2009, they were fined €5,000 for an event they were going to run with ArtsSoc. Story is here http://www.universityobserver.ie/2009/10/13/bl-and-artssoc-fined-e5000-over-offensive-posters/ ArtsSoc only really recovered from this in 2012. I'm only mentioning this as context, possibly explaining events that happened in the early months of 2010.

Less than a year later, it was announced they wouldn't have a presence at the 2010 Freshers Week after the Societies Council deemed "no suitable candidate could be found" for the post of Auditor. http://www.universityobserver.ie/2010/09/21/bl-society-without-auditor/

Now, this should make you smell a rat, because the Societies Council never interfere in the direct running of a society, big or small,full stop. Most societies have constitutions, but it's up to the members to enforce them, they usually come from the members themselves. If a society fails to elect an auditor, it only means that they become inactive until such time as it wants to be revived. It's counter-productive for the Societies Council to veto Auditors individually, never mind place a blanket ban on a society having an auditor, because obviously, they want societies to be active (and B&L was large enough to have plenty suitable auditors, so the story itself doesn't stacl up) In short, they'll only interfere if the reputation of the college is at stake, or if they want to bury something.

At the risk of being libelled, I'm going to stop talking here. I wasn't in Ms McGuinness's committee or society, and am not going to put on public record a story I only heard second-hand. What I heard that I think I can say is that events occured in Carlow in the 2009/10 year, and the Council and the members of the society agreed to cover up what happened to protect the individuals and the college, on the condition that the society was wound up. What those events are I'm not saying here. Get an older student to tell you.

errlloyd

Your post above makes one assumption I've never heard before. Which is that the committee were keen to cover it up and the whole "no candidate" thing was a lie. If I remember correctly two people attempted to run, Brendan Lacey and Stephen D'Arcy.

If I recall correctly Lacey challenge that D'Arcy wasn't on the membership list, and had it checked, at which point they discovered that neither were members. The election had already been pushed back, and with both failing requirements there was no more time for an election.

I guess this provided the excuse ucd authorities wanted to close down the society.

UCDCritic

Kiltennel wrote: »

It is just passive aggressive pissing and moaning which accomplishes nothing.

This is a forum for the UCD community and it is raising awareness of different issues.

We as students can use this forum to communicate.

We don't always have to run to the authorities to fix things for us.

Please don't describe our posts as passive aggressive.

Kiltennel

UCDCritic wrote: »

This is a forum for the UCD community and it is raising awareness of different issues.

We as students can use this forum to communicate.

We don't always have to run to the authorities to fix things for us.

Please don't describe our posts as passive aggressive.

It raises awareness among a very small portion of UCD students. I suppose complaining about it on a forum is certainly easier than trying to make a decent effort at rectifying the problem though.

SparkySpitfire

Kiltennel wrote: »

It raises awareness among a very small portion of UCD students. I suppose complaining about it on a forum is certainly easier than trying to make a decent effort at rectifying the problem though.

People like me find it interesting to read accounts from "critics" of UCD and "lovers" of UCD, so instead of trying to shut posters up, I'd appreciate if you could keep this unhelpful posting to a minimum, thanks.

Kiltennel

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

People like me find it interesting to read accounts from "critics" of UCD and "lovers" of UCD, so instead of trying to shut posters up, I'd appreciate if you could keep this unhelpful posting to a minimum, thanks.

I'm not trying to shut him up, I never once told him to be quiet. I simply stated instead of complaining about it on a forum with a small reach among the student body he could have gone to the authorities which oversee the societies and tried to rectify the problem. I'll continue to express my view as I'm entitled too, just like you and UCDCritic are rightly entitled to.

UCDCritic wrote: »

We don't always have to run to the authorities to fix things for us.

But what has posting here done? Has it in anyway made progress towards solving the original problem? That's what I mean by pissing and moaning. I don't mean to insult you and I agree criticism is certainly a good thing, there's plenty of things about UCD I'd be very critical about but posting it here on boards and hoping it will magically solve itself wont do anything to rectify the problem.

UCDCritic

Kiltennel wrote: »

But what has posting here done? Has it in anyway made progress towards solving the original problem? That's what I mean by pissing and moaning. I don't mean to insult you and I agree criticism is certainly a good thing, there's plenty of things about UCD I'd be very critical about but posting it here on boards and hoping it will magically solve itself wont do anything to rectify the problem.

To me, that's a bit like saying what's the point of The Observer or The College Tribune. What's the point of journalism.

Now I'm sure I don't get the same readership and I'm not trying to put myself in the same class as the writers and papers as a whole but the point I think is to make commentary and start a discussion.

No, I wont change UCD with my posts, that would be like believing in magic bullets can change the world in one shot, but I think every little adds up. Every little can have an effect to begin to tip the scales in the right direction. So my posts are important, your posts are important, everyone's posts are important.

It's the little things you do everyday that add up to something more meaningful in your life. You can scoff at that but it's true.

Anyway, this is starting to get way off the original topic.

SparkySpitfire

Kiltennel wrote: »

I'm not trying to shut him up, I never once told him to be quiet. I simply stated instead of complaining about it on a forum with a small reach among the student body he could have gone to the authorities which oversee the societies and tried to rectify the problem. I'll continue to express my view as I'm entitled too, just like you and UCDCritic are rightly entitled to.



But what has posting here done? Has it in anyway made progress towards solving the original problem? That's what I mean by pissing and moaning. I don't mean to insult you and I agree criticism is certainly a good thing, there's plenty of things about UCD I'd be very critical about but posting it here on boards and hoping it will magically solve itself wont do anything to rectify the problem.

Do you not understand by posting here no one is trying to solve the problem? They're highlighting it- or is that unacceptable now? Seriously, nothing is ever going to be solved until you get people talking about an issue. Personally, I'm not a leader, I'm happy to read opinions, make up my own mind and then if someone wants to start the motions to solve the problem I'll follow. BUT, what if this reaches someone who is a leader? Who's capable of setting in motion the plans for change? It's possible.

In short, there is a point to airing grievances on a message board: to let out your own thoughts and get others to contribute theirs. No one is saying that boards.ie is going to be the instigator for change in UCD, and if people don't want to try solve the problem in actions, they're still entitled to talk about it.