Societies Update 

It’s been a busy few months in the world of societies, so I thought I’d give a quick update on all that’s going on! Thank you to everyone that’s been running events, welcoming new members, or just showing up, keeping our fantastic community thriving.  

Term 2 Societies Fair 

Shout out to all 106 societies who came to our first ever “refreshers” fair. With hundreds of students attending, it was a great success and we’ve certainly learnt a lot for next time. Off the back of this, we’ve had almost twice as many new society memberships begin in Term 2 as we did last year, so incredible work from everyone! 

Alongside the Socs Fair, I created our first society taster session programme outside of Welcome Week, which we hope to grow in the future. 

Improving Accessibility 

As we enter the depths of the election season, working with our Disabled Student Officers, we’ve created guidance to make it easier for societies to run elections that are accessible and inclusive to all! 

Improving the exec experience 

There’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make running societies easier this year. So far, I’ve: 

• Worked with James (VPDD) and forums to replace the outdated Regulation 9 with clearer fresh supporting documents 

• Made exec resources easier to navigate 

• Improved information around booking rooms 

• Introduced response time standards to ensure a more consistent experience 

And there’s more to come, with a redesigned reaffiliation pack and exec resources site coming in the next few weeks. 

Help us help you

With the rest of the Societies Team, we’re launching the Warwick Societies Experience Survey, so we can understand what’s going well, what’s going not so well, and where to focus our efforts going forwards. All society members should be receiving the link today, so please do fill it out, it should only take 5 minutes! 

Adam 
VP for Societies 

Welfare Update 

STI Testing 

STI testing took place in the SU Advice Centre on Wednesday 11th February. We were incredibly happy with the uptake from students, and the feedback was incredibly positive. STI tests and sexual health advice can also be accessed at the University Health Centre.  This was a great collaboration between Ollie Chapman, VP Welfare and Campaigns, Manuel Giardino, Medical Student, the SU Advice Centre, and Prof. Kate Owen. 

The testing was performed by professionals from BHA for Equality who tested many students and also offered confidential, expert advice surrounding sexual health. We have organised for this testing to take place twice termly, with the next day planned for Wednesday 18th  March. 

Menstrual Health Day 

Menstrual Health Day took place from 9AM to 6PM on Thursday 12th February. Alex Morris from Lunaire delivered 5 group sessions for Warwick students centred around general and specific advice on various conditions. At the end of the day there were 6 x 1-1 sessions which received incredibly positive feedback. The group sessions covered Navigating Worrying Symptoms, Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, PCOS and PMDD, and ended with an anonymous Q&A session. 

Students in attendance made the most of these sessions and asked a lot of important questions. The 1-1 sessions were particularly well received and is a model we could look to expand upon in future. Menstrual Health Day was a collaboration between Ollie Chapman, VP Welfare and Campaigns and Katie Todd, Women's Officer. 

Ollie 
VP for Welfare and Campaigns