2021 Societies Expo: Societies Making the Best out of a Bad Situation 

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Written by Daniel MacGregor

Header Photo by Alexandre Pellaes on Unsplash

It is obvious that the ongoing pandemic has greatly impacted student experiences at Saint Mary’s this year. Within our community, one of the core components of student involvement is the option to engage with student societies. It has not been easy for some societies to adapt, as their bread and butter had been in-person events, and many students are not interested in adding more Zoom meetings to their schedule. To assist societies in attracting new members, SMUSA recently hosted the Winter 2021 Societies Expo.

This event allowed students to hear presentations from some of the school’s active societies like the Chemistry and French societies. The expo was part of an overall series of events designed to welcome new students, called the Winter Welcome 2021. When asked about the success of virtual Winter Welcome, the president of SMUSA, Bryn de Chastelain responded “[that] typically, we would offer in-person events as a part of Winter Welcome, so it has been a significant change to move to online delivery, but we have been very happy with the positive turnout at our Winter Welcome events so far.” In my opinion, this event’s turnout was not as positive considering at maximum, only 11 students were in attendance at any one time.

First, attending the event was difficult. On SMUSA’s website, interested participants were asked to fill out a survey and then received a message that an email link would be sent later - however, some participants (including myself) never received a link. The only way to attend the event was via a Zoom link shared in the about section of the event’s Facebook page. This secretive trail poses the question of how many potential participants missed the event with the belief that they made an error in scheduling, as opposed to the truth, which was just that it was inaccessible. By now in 2021, access to online events should be easy to register for and even easier to attend without technological issues like this. 

The event itself took place from 12:00 pm to roughly 3:30 pm and was broken up into five blocks where three societies presented to the audience of 10 to 17 people. This included all the members of the presenting societies, myself, and the SMUSA Director of Societies & Engagement. Despite this small crowd, each society gave well-constructed presentations that outlined their future events this upcoming term. However, out of the 18 societies slotted, 7 did not show up, including the Biology Society, the International Development Society, the Investing Society, the Accounting Society, Right to Play, the Engineering Society and the Conflict Resolution Society for reasons unknown.

After the introductory presentations, the Zoom call was broken up into breakout rooms where participants could ask questions to the societies. However, questions were skipped for the last two sessions due to absent societies and overall low turnout. We were lucky enough to speak to several society executives and asked each society two questions: “How has your society been doing during the pandemic?” and “Have you received many new members during the pandemic?” 

Every society present stated they have done their best to create and adapt events that are open to students on a digital basis. The Commerce Society stated that even though they have had difficulty attracting members, they nonetheless have received a small number of new members while also being able to host successful online events and have attendance from international students who have never been able to visit Saint Mary’s Campus. Other societies present were Students Acting for Global Awareness (SAGA)  and ENACTUS, both of which have also been hosting online events.

A large proportion of societies represented their respective academic departments. They all shared common concerns. For example, the Chemistry Society and Forensics Society both reminded expo participants that you don't need to be majoring in a given field in order to join a society. As stated by a member of the Chemistry Society, their attendance has taken a hit and there have been fewer events, but overall they are still trying out new online events (such as a movie night) – a common trend among all societies. 

As attested to by every society at the expo, they have managed to retain a sustainable amount of old and new members while still being active with a plethora of online events. This only relates to the societies that were present, as many societies did not attend or did not register to attend. Their experiences are less known and could represent the society’s struggling to maintain their existence, or maybe they were too busy hosting other events to attend (let's hope for the latter). 

The Environmental Society has been hosting events all year and plans to host many more events this term, from environmental bingo, to film screening, to professor meet and greets. However, two of the society’s executives expressed that, given the group's environmental focus, they are hoping to host safe outside events again, such as nature hikes. Most notably, the Dump and Run event, which is one of the largest garage sales in the HRM, may once again be hosted by the society but in a revamped fashion.

The Caribbean Society, shifted their focus from online events due to low turnout, to supporting students from the Caribbean and their small businesses. The Bangladesh Student’s Society noted that they plan to host an online event soon, which would be an unofficial ceremony to promote and continue cultural sharing during the pandemic.

There is a small fraction of societies that were only formed immediately before or even during the pandemic. The French Society started in September, but even though it began during the pandemic it has roughly 20 members, and various events planned, from movie nights to an online French Café. The newly formed Astronomy & Physics Society has been and will continue to host events on how to code and remote use of the Burke-Gaffney Observatory (telescope on top of the Loyola Building). ToastMasters, a public speaking organization, has still been hosting regular meetings, providing vital public speaking practice along 11 different potential public speaking pathways, such as engaging humour and dynamic leadership.

The common trend for all societies has been lower engagement and fewer new members, but a strong small core membership and continued online events. Despite the worst of conditions, hopefully, Saint Mary’s societies will remain until the end of this crisis. For those who did not attend the expo event but may still be interested, many societies stated they wished students to know that they are always free to join their societies. Feel free to check them out.

Claire Keenan