The Committee Excellence Award Longlist NSVAs 2022
Recognising the teamwork and achievements of a committee of a society or volunteering project. This award is for those outstanding teams who work together effectively, perhaps have overcome difficulties as a committee or have just been outstanding this year.
CLICendales
CLICendales is the University of Bristol Medics Dance show. Each year around 250 medical students come together to put on the event of the year in order to raise money for Young Lives vs Cancer. We have a team of four directors and then an amazing supporting committee
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
Last year's show was unable to go ahead thanks to COVID so, this year, we wanted to make the show bigger and better than ever in order to support our amazing charity! As a director, I've seen the hard work my fellow directors and committee members have put in behind the scenes to make this year's fundraising events and the main show the best we've ever had. Around 1500 people attended the show (held at the O2 academy in Bristol) and we raised record breaking £60,095, beating the previous year's total by nearly £15,000!! This would not have been possible without our wonderful committee!
What is special about this nominee?
CLICendales is not only a record breaking dance show, but it also promotes body positivity, diversity and inclusivity. We've worked extremely hard to put in place measures to ensure the show improves year on year. And on top of that...what other student-led dance show can say they've raised £60k!? The charity and our dancers our at the heart of all we do and we hope the feedback we've had this year and the total raised only goes to support this.
Dance Society
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
The Dance Society is a small committee of 4 students, and yet they host over 8 hours of Dance classes every single week during term time - including contemporary, inter/advanced ballet, lyrical, contemporary, open commercial, beginners ballet, musical theatre, and jazz funk. They work independently to organize all the logistics for these sessions, from room bookings to risk assessments. Finally, they offer a yearly opportunity for alumni and former students to become the instructors who lead these sessions - retaining continuity year to year and giving members opportunities after they leave.
What is special about this nominee?
The Dance Society is innovative as they are wired into Roehamptons changing community - formerly predominantly home-students, living on campus, they noticed a rise in international students who only stay on a termly basis, or commuters who couldn't make every session. In turn, they provided a pay-as-you-go option for their socials, ensuring people could afford to participate on their own terms if they had different limits on their ability to participate. This has succeeded in enabling more types of students to participate in their activities.
EcoSoc
EcoSoc is a student group at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus, running accessible and inclusive nature and science related events to over 225 members. The committee is composed of 11 people, all in charge of running specific interest events such as bird, mammal and community events.
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
EcoSoc has run 100+ events relevant to professional development, offering key skills in ecology and conservation through wildlife identification and specialist equipment use such animal trapping, bat surveying using industry standard technology, bird ringing and nest recording, forwarding data to conservationists. EcoSoc works closely with the University, inviting lecturers, PhD and alumni students to give talks and engage with members. We facilitated students with research internships with Professor Xav Harrison. We run a documentary series and a microscopy science communication project.
What is special about this nominee?
This is the most active year in society’s history, with diverse events that cater to any ability, creating an inclusive community, with a rep in charge of member wellbeing. We carry out conservation work in the local community to create wildflower meadows and are tied to many conservation organisations, providing members with key employability skills. We marry science, nature and creativity in highly varied events, working with multiple universities, creating a microscopy project and relaunching a documentary series. Ecosoc are involved with University initiatives such as sustainability week.
Edge Hill Uni Boob Team
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
Edge Hills Uni Boob Team established in July 2021 are now one of the most visible societies on campus. With over 1000 followers on social media and dozens of successful events the group have raised over £2000 for breast cancer awareness charity 'coppafeel'. Events have included quiz nights, charity walks, wine and paint nights, film screenings and bake sales. The groups also ran awareness sessions with coppafeel guest speakers and ran a Union wide 'Pink week' with numerous staff and societies wearing pink and donating.
What is special about this nominee?
As well as winning 'best new society' at the Edge Hill Societies awards night, the committee go above and beyond and utilise individual strengths to further develop the society. As a result the now 12 person committee contains a number of unique roles such as a pec rep, recruitment officer, outreach officer. The committee has built excellent relationships across the University and into the local community with their work now being recognised in local press and community groups.
Environmental Society
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
The society was very disorganised and inactive in the past. From the moment of election till now the current committee has revamped and jumpstarted the society. They came up with a vision for the society through changing the logo, introducing a seamless administration system and focusing on membership engagement. The environmental society has an above average membership of 103 students and is well known for their bi-weekly litter picks. The team went to great lengths to ensure that all the members ideas were included from coffee meet ups to socials to guest speakers and more.
What is special about this nominee?
Their dedication to ensure the running numerous events each month and that each person leaves the event learning something new and having fun will not be forgotten. Each event was unique especially scooter tours and the toilet fissure workshop. No matter if you saw all of them or one of them, they are always friendly and willing to help. Their love for the environment shone through always but most all their dedication to the members was always number one. Not once did they complain or do a mediocre job. They gave 100%, leading the society with elegance and genuine enthusiasm!
Japanese, Anime and Manga Society (JAMSoc)
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
JAMSoc has always been a steady society here at Aston, but this year the committee have produced the best year of the society to date. With over 130 members, countless weekly events, brilliant one off events such as a Halloween Party, Ghetto Golf and cinema trips their engagement has been fantastic. They have created a fun, safe space for their members, striving to be inclusive and create a welcoming society family. They hold in-person events as well as a engaged Discord server.
What is special about this nominee?
JAMSoc won the Society Committee of the Year award at our recent ASU Awards for their hard work, dedication and their welcoming, friendly nature. They are a credit to the Students' Union and the society and have really impacted the society. All of the committee are close friends, but have different personalities and backgrounds. Members comment on the fact they are friendly, approachable and that they have gone above and beyond to put on incredible events and to make everyone feel welcome. They are already planning an end of year party in the SU. It has been a privilege to work with them
Women's Welfare Society
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
Women’s Welfare Society were created last summer after the concerning rise in violence against female victims which reached national press. Following the subsequent increase in spiking incidents in Nottingham within the first two months of term, they co-created an anti-spiking campaign to send to venues across the city, signed by over 100 societies and clubs. As a result, the committee met with various venues and agreed to the implementation of increased safety measures, ultimately helping self-identifying women feel safer on nights out, exemplified by their fantastic feedback from students.
What is special about this nominee?
Innovative activities included self-defence classes that consistently sell out as well as spearheaded other campaigns including Girls Night In within our venue (another sold out event!). For a new committee, they have done exceptionally well to establish themselves and manage the society effectively. WW have made a deep, impactful change to help self-identifying women feel safe and supported, also assisting NTSU with implementing safe spaces every evening across our campuses. With over 230 engaged members and 1k followers on Insta, it’s no surprise they won Best New Society at the NTSU Awards!
PlayTeam
PlayTeam is a medical student-led committee within the Paediatric Society. They lead a volunteering initiative for children at St Mary's Hospital, coordinating daily student volunteer groups to engage these children in play, hoping to make their time in hospital a little easier and a lot more fun!
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
Groups of 5 volunteers attend hospital 4 times a week for 2h, bringing games to engage children on the paediatric ward or A&E. Groups play with 6-8 children per session. Feedback from parents and staff has been extremely positive; children feel happier (it can be boring and scary to be stuck in a hospital bed all day!), parents get a break and nursing staff/HCPs feel supported. Feedback from 56 volunteers showed that 100% agreed PlayTeam was an enjoyable experience for them and the children. All also agreed that it was an opportunity to develop communication with children and teamwork.
What is special about this nominee?
This committee managed to re-start PlayTeam since it stopped in 2020. Despite Covid restrictions easing in the UK this did not apply to hospitals, leaving children with very few visits or support. The committee held several meetings with the hospital; after 7 risk assessments, piloting in-person and virtual formats and gathering feedback from wards, they demonstrated that the benefits of volunteering far outweighed risks. It took determination, teamwork and hard work to make this happen. Ultimately however, benefits for children, HCPs and students made it all worth it!
Roehampton Players Society
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
This year, Roehampton Players they had an ambition - to not only deliver their yearly production, but transform the disused stage of our Sports Hall into a fully fledged performance space for their production of Legally Blonde, which had never been done in recent memory at Roehampton. As a Committee, they worked incredibly hard to transform the space - rigging £600 worth of professional stage lighting to the Sports hall, working on sound design, and selling nearly 200 tickets to their shows in total. Providing a bespoke experience for their performers, and attendees alike.
What is special about this nominee?
The Committee of Roehampton Players come from a variety of non-theatrical backgrounds - studying a range of courses from Primary Education to English Literature. They managed to work together over a course of 1 week, with a strict deadline to performance, to transform the space from effectively a disused storage space into a fully fledged theatre. They also identified opportunities for their members to get involved who had experience in rigging lights, sound design, etc. They refused to settle for less, and have shown what's possible in the space for future committees.
SwiftSoc
SwiftSoc at the University of York were founded in 2015 and were the first society dedicated to Taylor in the world. They have since inspired multiple other societies of the same type around the globe and have this year achieved their ultimate goal of being recognised by Taylor Swift herself.
How has the person, event, group or initiative impactful?
This year the committee has grown the society from a small society of around 20 members, to one of the largest with over 225 members - an increase of over 1000%. This has been through hardwork and dedication, planning regular, varied socials to appeal to all of our members. The committee have played to their individual strengths, growing the social media, improving the society communications with a weekly newsletter and planning fun and varied events including a crafts evening, quizzes and incredibly successful club night with over 300 attendees.
What is special about this nominee?
SwiftSoc’s committee have achieved their ultimate goal this year; being recognised by Taylor Swift herself, whose management group recently sent us a box of merchandise to thank us for our support. Having posted about this on their social media, the society garnered significant media attention, doing interviews for BBC Radio York, ITV Tyne and Weir amongst others. This was generally a result of successfully growing their social media presence, with a TikTok account with over 27k likes and a viral video with 111k views.