Event Ideas

CMS

Today’s post is just a list of ideas for events that you could run if you were a student executive. I can’t stress enough that not all of these are my ideas. Some of these are events past execs have done, events I’ve heard about, read about, or which emerged from the dark dreaming of ancient gods.  And they’re all pretty well mixed together. In no particular order, you could…

• Start a lecture series. Book a room and find a professor to give a talk once a month, on anything. Classics, medieval studies, economics, look up professors that have spoken at TEDxUW, or that you’ve had who have been good speakers. All they can do is say no, and out of 1200 faculty members, odds are that you can find someone to come and speak. Make it a brown bag lunch event, and you don’t even have to provide snacks. 
• Feed a Classicist. Have students (and professors) draw names from a hat and make lunch for each other once a month, at a little party in the lounge or a larger room. Be conscious of food allergies, but take it as an opportunity to introduce students who might never have met, and get them talking.
• CMS Conquers the World. Go to museums, art galleries, or community events, and set objectives. For a history focus, go to the ROM and have people “conquer it” by taking pictures with certain exhibits. For professional development, make a list of networking events in the area and have people submit pictures of themselves with a new connection they’ve just made. If people are going to conferences, get them to bring back pictures of them with lecturers. Not only is this a lot of fun, but it creates a great photo archive.
• Life of Diogenes. Volunteer for 5 Days for the Homeless, or go and work with local shelters, and help the homeless and at risk in your community. Places like Out of the Cold are always happy for volunteers, and it’s an incredible experience.
• Workshop Life. There are dozens of workshops available on campus, and dozens more people looking to set them up. Organize students to go to to development workshops, or work with the Office of Organizational and Human Development or the Centre for Career Action and start your own! Maybe one for looking for non-academic jobs with a Classics degree, or perhaps one on research paper time management.
• Do traditional things. Get a projector and have a movie night, do a pub night or an end of term dinner. Go to trivia night at the Bomber (I loved to involve the other societies in this by announcing at ASU meetings that we would be there and that they should stay away in order to preserve their dignity). Get together after classes and play board games!
• One of the really successful holiday things we did was to adopt a family. It’s a wonderful thing to do for someone, and we each gave a little so they could have a Christmas.

These are just some of the things you could do as a student executive. Leave your event ideas or preferences in the comments!