open-goverance/Committee/2024-2025/Awards/Society Individual of the Year.md

# Society Individual of the Year
Page: https://cp.ulwolves.ie/committee/awards/2025/s_person

## 1. Detail your involvement with a society/societies this year? How have you helped the society/societies you're involved in develop and grow this year? (Max 1500 words)

Brendan Golden is the president/system administrator of UL Computer Society. 
He helped forge connections with Games, Games Development, and the Anime & Manga societies, 
directly helping the latter two in setting up.

He was instrumental in the development of the UL Computer Society, 
coordinating committee members in preparing several unique events each week for both the 
Fall and Spring semesters over his final year. He also set up Skynet, and is responsible for 
most, if not all, of UL Computer Society's server infrastructure.


## 2. What are your THREE proudest achievements with societies this year?

### — Achievement 1 (5 Marks) (Max 250 words)

* Brendan upgraded and revitalized Skynet and has singlehandedly given regular training sessions to others on how to use it. His hands-on training has helped our members learn and utilize subjects such as Git, CI/CD 
pipelines, and server infrastructure outside an academic environment without all the stressors and potential fallout that a proffesional environment would add. The training also helped enthusiasts find their passions and niches within the field of computing.

### — Achievement 2 (5 Marks) (Max 250 words)

* Brendan was instrumental in the development of the Inter-Soc Committee member Discord server, 
building a common space for all committee members of all participating societies to coordinate and network with one another. This has helped ease discussions and collaborations between societies.

### — Achievement 3 (5 Marks) (Max 250 words) 

* Brendan was responsible for providing a common space for all students in the Computer 
Science and Information Systems Department to socialize and interact with their preferred subject 
in an open and friendly environment. This has improved the social lives of many students in the 
department, and better prepared them for a good post-college life.

## 3. What significant contribution have you made to the society/societies you were involved in during previous years of college? (Max 500 words)

* Brendan's most significant contribution made to UL Computer Society was the development of 
Skynet, the society's in-house server infrastructure. Using it, he was able to host minecraft 
servers for multiple societies, such as Games Society. Additionally, he helped build Open 
Governance, which allows the public to access information regarding decision making, event information, and other important insights into current and past Committees. This fosters a culture of 
openness and transparency regarding why certain decisions were made within the society.

## 4. Explain the top 2 challenges you encountered in your society work this year?

### — Challenge 1 (5 Marks) (Max 200 words)

* One of the biggest challenges Brendan faced was implementing GDPR regulations while setting up 
the Inter-Society Networking Server. This was a challenge because it required a lot of back and
forth with the C&S office to ensure that the server was compliant with GDPR regulations while
also automating the process of adding and removing members from the server. 

### — Challenge 2 (5 Marks) (Max 200 words)

* Another challenge he encountered was organizing multiple events of different types every week,
which required a lot of coordination between committee members and society members. He, and by
extension, the committee, decided to adopt a model of making a unique event every week instead
of having regular weekly events like most other societies to keep things fresh and help alternate
between having technical and social events. Due to this however, more time was needed to arrange
events and Brendan had to coordinate committee members to ensure that events were prepared in time.

## 5.  How have you worked as part of a team and how have you motivated others within the society this year? (Max 400 words) 10 points 

His contribution to the UL Computer Society's committee has been invaluable. He acted as the
leader of the committee, coordinating members towards contributing towards given goals like
preparing budgets, organizing events, and ensuring that the society's server infrastructure 
worked well. He also regularly checked in on Committee members and offered help wherever needed, often going beyond the call of duty to do so.
His actions helped motivate a sense of responsibility among committee members and helped us create
a friendly atmosphere in the committee and the society at large.

## 6.  How has your societies' work impacted campus life in your college this year? (Max 200 words) 5 points 

The UL Computer Society's work has had a significant impact on campus life, by providing students
studying in Computer Science and similar subjects a common area to socialize and interact with 
each other in a friendly and open environment. It helps people engage with their passions in a
positive way outside of academia. Allowing students to meet other like-minded people and foster
connections that help them grow as individuals and prepare them for a post-college life.

Additionally, we've offered many students a place to find respite from events like fresher's week,
allowing people who don't participate in those events to still have a place to socialize and not
feel left out.

## 7. Please describe two skills that you have developed as part of your society work that have prepared you for your post-college life.
### — Skill 1 (5 Marks) (Max 250 words)

* The main skill Brendan said he learned during his time as president of the UL Computer Society
was leadership skills, which would be instrumental in his career and future development. These
leadership skills contributed to him being a great leader and manager of people, which would
surely help him greatly in his post-college life

### — Skill 2 (5 Marks) (Max 250 words) 

* He also learnt other important soft skills like communication, networking, and teamwork, which
are essential in maintaining a good life both during and after college. These skills were developed
from being in a leadership role in the UL Computer Society for several years.