Written by Rohan Hornsby, CivSoc President 2020/21
It has been a weird 8 or 9 months for everyone and a fun challenge for CivSoc to adapt to the new situation along with the 42 other EPS Societies.
Soon after our March AGM, the new committee took the reigns and begun planning for the year ahead. In June, we hosted a watch party for the long-awaited EPS Societies’ Awards. We were delighted to see last year’s Sports Secretary Karlo Olalla win Sports Personality of the Year, a huge achievement and well deserved! There was also an award for our Member of the Year, which was won by the always enthusiastic Robert Gough. We couldn’t have our usual photos as a group, however still managed to capture the moment in our Instagram stories…
Over summer, we ran some socials including a virtual pub quiz and a “psych” night to keep our members involved whilst we were away from campus. Our Social Secretaries quickly adapted to the world of Zoom calls and have organised a range of awesome socials such as virtual pub nights, Scribbl.io socials, and poker nights where our new members have had the opportunity to meet fellow civil engineers! We also tried our hand at speed-networking with recent Engineering alumni to see what they’ve gone on to since graduating.
At the start of term, to help incoming students make friends in a virtual environment we helped set up the engineering-wide Family Scheme, pairing first year ‘children’ with a 2nd, 3rd or 4th year student buddy from across the School of Engineering to act as a ‘parent’. This was a huge success with a large intake from both ‘parents’ and ‘children’, allowing older students to use their past experiences to give advice to new students helping them settle into life at UoB. More recently, engineering families have taken part in virtual escape rooms and there are plans for other family events throughout the year!
As well as our socials, we have been running careers and industrial talks to help our members understand the civil engineering industry and what to expect in an engineering career. So far, our Industrial Rep has helped organise an engineering networking event and has organised “Intro to Careers” and “CV Workshop” events to prepare students for job applications and the RESPECT Placement Scheme. More can be found about the RESPECT Scheme here… www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/engineering/civil-engineering/undergraduate/industry
We’ve also been able to build our football teams, following the appropriate guidelines of course. We have a 6 a side and 11 a side team and, despite the season being cut short, we have had some great results and currently have a 66% win rate in 11-a-side! Last year, we progressed to the University’s Champions League in our 6-a-side league and we hope to have the same success again.
I’m really pleased how the CivSoc committee have been so proactive and haven’t let the current situation stop the Society from providing great events and activities for our members ��
Recently, we welcomed our new First Year Reps Tara Taylor and Matthew Armour onto the CivSoc committee where they will help represent 1st year civil engineering students and help CivSoc in making sure 1st years can have the best possible experience during their time year in Birmingham.
Coming up, we’ll be having more fun socials, interesting industrial talks, and hope to continue sport next semester!
To be the first to find out about our events join our Facebook Group (CivSoc University of Birmingham) and follow us on Instagram (civsocuob) �� And don’t forget to sign up for free through the Guild of Students website!
On behalf of CivSoc, enjoy the Christmas holidays and stay safe.
To find out more about CivSoc, visit their website www.birmingham.ac.uk/eps/civsoc.