It's been a huge year for CivSoc with more industrial liaison than ever before, new committee positions to answer the many interests of their members, sporting wins and all culminating with the famous Engineering Spring Ball. Beth McGoff, who's been on the committee for 4 years, gives her final summary for CivSoc.
It has been a very eventful and exciting year for CivSoc! Our year kicked off with an EGM in September to elect a new Sport Rep as our former one has went on a placement year, as well as two new First Year Reps, Keith Chan and Alex Pogmore. We also elected in a brand new position of International Rep which went to Chris Tang. This role aims to help get more international and visiting students involved with CivSoc and enjoying their time whilst at the University.
Our historic High Vis Bar Crawl was another huge success and a great way for students to break the ice and get to know others across civil engineering. We followed this up with a trip to Rush Trampoline Park which was well very attended and enjoyed by all. Later in the term we held our Christmas meal once again in Café Rouge which has become a firm favourite thanks to their great service and free prosecco!
For the first of our industrial events we had a ‘Kick start your career as a Civil Engineer’ which was a great way to learn what careers and pathways are available in civil engineering. Representatives from Morgan Sindall, Interserve, Curtins and Amey attended to share their expertise with us. The room was packed out by students all keen to learn about a career in civil engineering and the evening aimed to help students make informed decisions when applying for their RESPECT placements later in the year. We are always looking for more links with industry so if you are an alumnus working in civil engineering do get in touch as we’d love to hear from you!
Our second semester was just as action-packed, with a joint Mech-Civ-Elec pub golf night to start the new year. We continued the golfing theme with a CivSoc trip to what is fast becoming Birmingham’s new attraction: Ghetto Golf (for those who haven’t heard of this, it’s crazy golf in a warehouse!). This attracted a great variety of our members and got good feedback from all.
We also took part in the first ever EPS Trophy, the College’s first multi-sport tournament. CivSoc had huge success in the Netball coming out winners, and overall runners up across the whole tournament. It was great fun and we would like to thank the EPS Trophy organisers for a brilliant event; we hope to return next year to defend our title!
If you have been on campus recently then you may have spotted some of our new civil engineering stash! We have rolled out a selection of hoodies and fleeces with different designs which are proving incredibly popular. We are looking at doing another order next term so if you’d like to place an order do register your interest via email as soon as possible. We’re really enjoying spotting CivSoc members in their hoodies across campus!
Our biggest and final event of the year was the Engineering Spring Ball, jointly organised with MechSoc and EESE Soc. We built upon last year’s success and raised our game to 250 guests at the beautiful Birmingham Botanical Gardens. It was a brilliant evening and the perfect way to celebrate the end of the second semester.
We held our AGM at the end of March where our new committee were elected. With a lot of our current committee graduating in the summer it means a lot of exciting changes! Alex Hoyle, Sarah Jackson, Beth McGoff, Tom McGeoch and Josh Fletcher are all leaving us and we wish them every success in the future. Our current treasurer Naomi Addy is also off on her year abroad so we wish her luck and look forward to welcoming her back to the committee in 2019. It is also farewell to our current Secretary Elliot Keen who is concentrating on his other commitments.
Rocco Casale has stepped up from sports sec to President, Chris Tang has moved from International Rep to Vice-President, Keith Chan and Alex Pogmore have moved from First Year Reps to Social Reps. We also welcomed new committee members in the form of Ana Anton as International Rep, George Soole as Sports Rep, Elizabeth Maidment as Industrial Liaison, Will Talbot as Secretary and Edd Evans as Treasurer. Next year looks to be very exciting with the new CivSoc committee; we wish them all the best and can’t wait to see what they get up to!
The EPS Societies’ Awards are coming up and CivSoc would like to continue our running streak, having won an award every year so far! Please please nominate us if you think we are deserving of an award as it’s great to get recognition for all the hard work we do! Also if any of our CivSoc alumni are interested in attending the event please feel free as it’s open to you too. We’d love to see you all and celebrate our amazing society!
If you are interested in getting involved with CivSoc please email us at civsoc@guild.bham.ac.uk – we’re keen to make links with new companies and are always looking for sponsorship opportunities.
Finally, after four years on the CivSoc committee I would like to say a big thank you to all the committee members I’ve worked with, the students I have met along the way, as well as the College and Departmental staff. I look forward to returning in the future to events as an alumna!
Beth McGoff
Vice President 2017/18
President 2016/17
Secretary 2015/16
First Year Rep 2014/15
