The Societies Awards 2009
Every year the Societies Federation gives out the Societies Awards. You can find out everything you need to know about them on this page. The awards are:

  • Society of the Year
  • Most Improved Society
  • Best New Society
  • Best Social Event
  • Best Non-Social Event

Alongside these, Warwick Volunteers give out a Community Award. Click here to find out more.

The deadline for submissions will be in the middle of Term 2, and the awards will be presented at the Societies Awards Party towards the end of the term.


Eligibility

Any society will be eligible to win Best Society, Most Improved Society, Best Social Event or Best Non-Social Event. To be eligible for Best New Society your society must have been recognised within the last 18 months.


Criteria - Best Society, Most Improved, Best New Society

Each of the three main awards will be judged against the same criteria:

Membership

How does the society aim to involve its members in all its activities? What does the society do to try and attract new members? We will look at things like:
  • Your commitment to membership involvement
  • Level of membership participation
  • Your commitment to Equal Opportunities
  • Demonstrated attempts to recruit new members

Events and Activities

What has the society done over the last year?
  • Regular events/activities
  • New activities
  • Special events
  • Special achievements
  • Promotion and awareness of society

Development

How does the society help its members?
  • Personal Development opportunities for members
  • Strong Exec teamwork
  • Strong Exec leadership

Community

How does the society contribute to a wider environment?
  • Good intersociety relations
  • Contribution to the Union
  • Contribution to wider university environment
  • Contribution to the local community


The Best Society will be a society that has excelled most across these criteria.

The Best New Society will be a recently founded society that has really excelled at these criteria, and particular consideration will be given to what has been done to raise awareness of the society, and potential for long-term success based on the groundwork done in the first 18 months.

The Most Improved Society will be the society that shows the most improvement across these criteria, and the focus will be on new things that have been introduced, and increased/improved active participation.


These points are meant as a guide as to what the judges will be looking for - this is not an exhaustive list. Membership, Events and Activities, Development and Community will be judged in relation to your society's Aims and Objectives, so societies have different priorities for the above criteria. They are intended to be fairly broad to allow for the diversity of societies here at Warwick. This is also designed so that if you wish to enter more than one category you only need to write one submission.


Criteria - Best Social/Non-Social Event


The Best Social Event and Best Non Social Event are an opportunity for you to tell us about an individual event that you have run throughout the year. These will be judged against:

  • Commitment to Equal Opportunities
  • Membership Involvement
  • Society Progression
  • Innovation


Your Submission


The committee invites nominations for the awards in term 2, with a deadline of Thursday 14th February, Week 6. You are invited to give us a submission of no more than 1,500 words (excluding appendices) for Best Society, Best New Society and Most Improved Society, and no more than 400 words for Best Social and Best Non-Social Event. It is up to you how you present this.

The panel will probably have quite a few submissions to read, so you should aim to make yours clear, appealing, and stand out from the rest! You may submit as many appendices as you feel you need to, but it is at the chair's discretion whether these are reproduced for each panellist. The deadline for submissions will be announced shortly.

The Judging


The judging panel will consist of the Societies Federation Committee, which consists of the SSDO, the Societies Federation Committee Chair and 5 committee members. The Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer will chair the Panel to ensure fairness. Where a panellist has an interest for the society to win or lose an award this will be declared confidentially in advance, and they will not be able to participate in any debate or vote on that society.

Each panellist will receive the submissions in advance and rank each of them out of 10 on each of the four main criteria. A score will be reached by dividing the total by the number of panellists voting. The panel will be able to award up to 10 further points to a submission at their discretion. The winner will be the society that scores the highest over all criteria. The decision will be made in a Closed Session meeting of the Societies Federation Committee, except that the Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer will be allowed to attend in order to chair. The panel's decision will be final.

The Presentation


The decision will be announced and the awards presented at the Societies Awards Party at the end of Societies Day, which is Tuesday 26th February, Week 8.