5 comments by 2 or more people

1. Union societies might find this a useful way of letting people know what their society gets up to. Having failed in the 5 years I've been at Warwick to organise myself sufficiently to turn up to the society fair (1st week of term – always too busy), I've never really had a clear idea of what societies there are at Warwick, and what any of them do. But if students read about a competition or an event run by a society on Warwick blogs, they may think "well, I never knew that the Clangers Appreciation Society existed, and probably wouldn't have joined anyway, but now that I can see the fun they have with their annual blue string pudding cook–offs, I'm definitely going to join".

   Thinking about it, I wish I'd started a Clangers Appreciation Society. It could have been called ClangSoc. Ah well.

   12 Aug 2004, 13:11

2. Robert O'Toole

   Good idea – getting societies to use blogs that is (not the ClangSoc). We shall investigate this. I'm particularly interested in academic related societies.

   Does the Philosophy Society still run? And how about the (more lightweight) PhilLit Soc?

   12 Aug 2004, 13:53

3. I think the Philosophy Society is still running, although I can't remember the last time they had an event of any kind. They renamed themselves the Academy a few years ago, and had a couple of balloon debates – I went to the first one, which was great – 4 members of the department took on the role of the philosopher of their choice, and argued their case for being kept in the balloon. It's a shame they haven't done anything recently.

   The PhilLit Soc must be still going, because I remember that you had to join to go on the phil/lit weekend (I think it was a cunning way of getting the university to pay the minibus petrol). But again, I don't know of any events they've had apart from that. There seems to be a tendency towards a flurry of interest at the start of the year, which gradually peters out as people get busier. Having a blog record might help to maintain the momentum.

   12 Aug 2004, 14:13

4. Robert O'Toole

   I think it depends very much on how much time the lecturers can put in to help. I ran it for 2 years, and David Miller helped a lot. It was a bit staid though, just a visiting lecturer every other week.

   Not sure about the new name either!

   Writing and distributing the newsletter was always a pain. So maybe blogs can help with that. Am also interested in recording some events on video and putting them on the web.

   Do they still have the Cumberland Lodge weekend? Always very good, although drinking 4 glasses of whiskey before doing a paper on Derrida is not recommended. I got a serious mauling from Christine.

   12 Aug 2004, 14:29

5. Visiting lecturers? Newsletters? We never had those! Although I suppose with the combination of the Colloquium and the CRPL talks, the phil/lit people do fairly well for visiting speakers anyway. You were obviously a far more efficient organiser – a couple of my friends took charge of the phil/lit society when I was in the second year, and as far as I remember managed to organise only one event in the entire year, which was a night out in the Union – only marginally more difficult than the proverbial piss–up + brewery combination.

   The Cumberland Lodge weekend is still running, and I've heard it's very good – I wanted to go this year, but was slightly scared by the price (£100+). I went to a couple of the phil/lit weekends which were always good fun, although apparently less debauched than the Cumberland lodges of John Appleby's era!

   12 Aug 2004, 15:24