The Committee Excellence Award
“The Chaos committee sound like they get the balance of fun and productivity just right, and manage to create an amazing community. Clearly, cake at committee meetings is the key to success!”
— the Judging Panel
Chaos Physics Society from the University of Bristol
How does the committee support each other and work as a team?
The most important way to make sure any committee works well together and feels supported is to have good communication. They have various group chats and weekly whole committee meetings, as well as sub-committee meetings where necessary. The committee works so efficiently that an event can go from an idea to planned, promoted and ticketed within a matter of days and any problems can be dealt with immediately.
Organising a 17 person-strong committee running a society with 900 members means that there are often a lot of voices trying to be heard all at once. So having a relaxed but focussed atmosphere in meetings is vital to get the agenda finished. Each week the committee have a cake rota where each person bakes treats for the meeting! This always starts the meetings off on an enjoyable tone, and means that if the chair has to stop people from going off on tangents then they are comfortable enough for that to happen without people feeling cut off.
What has the committee done to involve members in decision making?
There are society networks including; LGBTQ+, postgrad, womens, and BME. These are run by non-committee Chaos members and are an excellent way to involve people in influencing where and how funds and effort in the society can be spent.
Through Physbar, the volunteer cafe Chaos has run for over 10 years now, society members get to mingle and chat with the committee every day. They also host a number of "meet the committee" coffee mornings throughout the year offering free coffee and cake, so that people always have a chance to talk about Chaos and what we do.
The committee also put out various surveys throughout the year for feedback and suggestions for events as well as smaller, more specific polls within their Facebook group and year group chats.
What challenges have the committee overcome together?
Like many other societies this year, Chaos had to cancel all events for the rest of the term due to the Covid-19 outbreak. So to make sure everyone in physics and beyond is staying connected and having a good time they organised the "Chaos' Great Online Quiz". An online quiz with 10 rounds with questions on topics including general physics knowledge, dingbats, and diversity in STEM just to name a few. It was livestreamed from their Facebook page, and the results from their online AGM elections (which also had to be cancelled) were announced.
What roles do you have in your committee?
President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Sponsorship and Careers, Social Secretary, Promotions and Design, Promotions and Publications, Talks, Physbars Rep, Physball Rep x2, Trips, Astro Rep, Equality and welfare officer, NPO and First Year Rep.