open-goverance/Committee/2024-2025/Awards/Best_Society.md

Best Society

Page: https://cp.ulwolves.ie/committee/awards/2025/s_best

Organisation & Events

Please detail the society's aims and objectives.

The overall aim and goal of the Computer Society is to promote the use and enjoyment of computers within the University, by all students including those for whom it is not an academic requirement.
To this end we employ the use of the computing skills, knowledge and resources of the society, computer based information services, combining both the practical and the entertaining, to bring computers to the masses.

In recent years we have also been strongly promoting social skills and networking of our members.

How has the society's work fulfilled these aims and objectives? (max 400 words)

6 points

Skynet

At the heart of Computer Society lies our (33 years old) Skynet computer cluster.

• Host services for Computer Society and other Clubs/Socs
  • Member websites
  • Clubs/Society websites
  • We used to host UL Wolves on it
• Train our members in using enterprise grade hardware and software
• Be a point of contact with ITD
• Touchstone for our alumni members to interact with our younger members

Talks and Presentations

We try to do as many social events as we can, tech is a field where creativity and soft skills are as important as the technical skills.
To facilitate this we invite in speakers from industry to talk about their experiences.

Notable speakers in the last year:

• NetApp
• Intel
• IEEE
• Patch

We also encourage members returning from co-op/internships to talk about "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" of their experiences.
This has lead to these members improving their public speaking abilities as well as inspiring our younger members.

What UL doesn't teach

The courses that UL (in particular CSIS) teach are really fantastic.
However as an institution it can be slow to react to the ever changing landscape.

As a student run Society (full of passionate people) we are agile enough that we are able to create targeted events to cover the cutting edge of technology.
By providing these Peer Learning supports we aim to help people to become more invested and involved in their academic degrees.

Conferences and Competitions

To help encourage professional development we now go to at least two conferences a year as a society.

There are a multitude of programming based competitions now held in Ireland annually.
We are now supporting and encouraging our members to go and compete at these.

Inter C&S and Committees

Networking is important, we have formed strong links with Games Development Society, Games Society and Anime&Manga.
Additionally we provide games servers to any Club/Society who ask for them, to help facilitate bonding in that Club/Soc.

We are heavily involved in the Virtual Committee Networking, we believe that networking and communication is the way forward to improve all of Clubs/Societies. We have worked with UL Wolves in order to help manage the discord server, providing each Club/Soc with its own space.

Closing Remarks

Computer Society is like glue, we help our members form strong bonds as well as strengthen relationships between Clubs/Socs.

Please give details of the society's committee structure and how committee members functioned as a team. (max 400 words)

6 points

Our committee structure has been stable for many years and takes the form of:

Elected Committee

These are the center of the committee and comprise of:

1. Chairperson
2. Secretary
3. Treasurer
4. Safety Officer
5. Public Relations Officer (PRO)
6. Senior Systems' Administrator
7. Ordinary Committee Members (OCM)

One other quirk is while many on the committee are technically OCM's we have found it is best to name their roles.
Currently this would include "1st Year Rep" and "IT Officer".
This is especially true for intensive roles such as Treasurer or PRO wherein we have "Assistant Treasurer" or "Assistant PRO".

Skynet Sub-Committee

Skynet sub-committee is in charge of the Skynet computer cluster.
The skynet cluster hosts many of the services for our members and other Clubs/Socs. They run, upgrade and train members in use of the cluster.

Advisors

Advisors are former committee who have been asked to remain part the committee.
They provide a "Wisdom of the Ancients", knowledge and experience from their time on committee as well as their current industry connections.

SISTEM Sub-Committee

This year we are also joined by the SISTEM sub-committee whose goal is to organise and run SISTEM.
SISTEM is Ireland's only student run tech conference: https://sistemconf.com/
It is the spiritual successor to SkyCon which we used to run.

Please detail the challenges encountered by the society this year. (max 500 words)

8 points

What systems have been put in place to ensure the continuity of the society and to ensure its ongoing success? (max 400 words)

15 points

Detail the society's membership. (max 400 words)

10 points

Please list the number and variety of events held

15 points

Finance

Details of income and expenditure?

5 points

Describe how you managed your finances this year. (max 300 words)

5 points

Please provide details of the success securing funds for the running of the society. (max 300 words)

5 points

Communication, Engagement & Publicity

Please outline all aspects (both digital and non-digital) of your communication and publicity this year. (max 800 words)

14 points

Please give one example of a campaign that was successful and the impact this had on the target audience? (max 500 words)

6 points

YouTube Video

Prob wont be doing this, but will be useful for nexct year (???)