by Heather Dimmer
Every year, coinciding with Refreshers, societies participate in ‘Give it a Go!’ week, where we host taster events open to the whole student populace to try and garner more interest in our societies. These events can range from anything from the usual weekly socials to themed parties, outings and competitions.
This year for Give it a Go! week, eight Hobbies and Interests societies banded together to host a massive collaborative quiz; through the work of the presidents of Anime, Cartoon, Disney, Gaming, Hogwarts, MADCAS, Sci-Fi and Tolkien, a 10-round 99 question mega quiz on ‘all things pop-culture’ was hosted on the 2nd February. the quiz included a round themed to each society plus a music round and a picture round, as is tradition. These rounds featured questions of varying difficulty and bonus points were available for things like the best team name (won by #NoRoomBookingsForYou), and correctly counting just how many presidential faces appeared on the quiz presentation (including but not limited to faces replacing Skyrim swords, the moon and Marge Simpson’s hair). Most, if not all of the participating societies will run their own, smaller quizzes throughout the year but, despite being used to the format, quizzing students on categories they might not be familiar with always leads to interesting results – and the perfect opportunity for joke answers galore. Only the winning team got more than half marks.
Other societies running Give it a Go! events were the Business Society, Choral, Conservation and Ecology, Debating, English Society, Quidditch, Show Choir, and Soapbox; There was also a collaboration hustings run by the PCL societies Conservative Future, Labour Students, Liberal Democrats, and Plaid Cymru, and our volunteering group Discovery hosted a litter pick in conjunction with the Students’ Union.
Even if you missed or were unaware of these events and are still wondering what a society is like, just go along and try it out! We’re always looking for new members and societies are one of the best and easiest ways to find people you share common interests with. Give it a Go! week is what this focuses on for sure, but that doesn’t mean it stops there. With most societies you can join them at any point throughout the year and still fully participate in what they’re all about.
