Let’s start with a Merry Christmas to all our members!
So far this year, we’ve had the highest membership count we’ve ever had, as well as the widest variety of people and interests, and this is all down to the hard work of the exec who were helping out during Freshers’ Week, so I’d like to personally thank them for working non-stop during that week even when we had events chained back to back.
We’ve also been incredibly successful as a University in regard to Esports, being ranked 4th overall in the NSE Championship for Winter with a significant margin between us and 5th place, as well as making leaps and bounds in The NUEL, a testament to all of our teams that participated. A shout-out would be the Rocket League team, who have now won 2 Championships, and as well as this being amazing for them and us, as well as the amazing progress some of our other teams have made this year, massively picking up from last year in some cases, it also helps us to setup for another big push with the University and Students’ Union towards bringing Esports up to the same standard of recognition as the rest of University sports.
Bailrigg has also continued to be the massive success it has been since it was launched, and is now part of the UKIE Ultimate Circuit, co-created by our former Vice President, Boma Iringe, meaning that a future instalment of Bailrigg will be part of something on a much larger scale than any of us will have imagined when the Bailrigg series first came around. Again, a massive thank you to those that founded Bailrigg, and to those who continue to run and take care of it on behalf of the rest of the Society.
Our community has also grown a lot this year, something I was personally most worried about as we are still working on ways to retain members, but thanks to the first couple of reps who have got involved, we’ve already made progress towards building our community more and more, having got the equipment needed so that our members can play the games they love. So also, a massive thank you to both James as Community Officer, but also to our first few reps who have made this growth possible.
The new year will be a valuable time for the Society, as we continue to work on overhauling the representation system for Esports, as well as finalising the Community Rep system now that we have data on what does and doesn’t work, which means we hope to bring a much more inclusive and open Society to our members and prospective members.
As we also approach our Annual General Meeting, it’s worth starting to think about the change our members can make, and by running for one of the Committee positions, you can put yourself in a place to make significant change to the things that matter for you.
I look forward to everyone being back next term!
Brent Oates – LUGES President