The who, what, where and when of clubs

President of UCC Clubs Executive Shane Carroll explains the essentials of what is to know about clubs and why one should join in on the fun!

Clubs in my view are the single biggest part of student life for the majority of UCC students , bar maybe their courses but in some cases, like my own, clubs still win out.

We have, in UCC, a huge amount of different clubs. Nearly sixty in total this year ranging from active team sports such as soccer, GAA, rugby and darts to recreational clubs like go karting and paintballing. Collegeroad.ie/clubs is the best place to find all the information you need on clubs and if you are interested in joining any come along to our clubs day during Fresher’s Week in the Hall in the Student Centre (building with giant glass front).

All clubs in UCC are run by a student committee , these are elected every year internally within the club’s membership, these committees can have anywhere from 4 members to 24 depending on the club so if you want to get involved in helping run any club just ask. All clubs in UCC are free to join; this is because they are by and large funded by UCC, students through your registration fee and Bank of Ireland who are our sponsors. Every club needs to have a first year rep on its committee so it’s a great chance for any of you to get involved from the outset.

All funding for clubs is then given out by what’s known as the Clubs Executive. This is a group of students elected by clubs to decide on matters like funding. It made up of a president (myself) a Vice President, PRO, Treasurer, Secretary and 4 OCMs , all of which are elected at our AGM every year. As you can expect to run so many clubs the volume of money is substantial and weekly meetings take place to decide on who gets what. Clubs in general are atominous, the Exec is there to guide and help develop each and every club, to help them put on events and to grow their membership.

Clubs are the easiest way to settle into life in UCC from day one, they can give you an instant base of friends in similar situations to yourself as many clubs have fresher’s teams. Another way to settle in is all the official (and even more unofficial) nights out that tend to happen involving the clubs.

So I would encourage everyone to join at least one club this year and stick to it, try a few different clubs out, you can join clubs at anytime throughout the year they are always looking for more members. Other than that you can contact me directly and I’ll point you in the right direction.

president@uccclubsexec.ie

Website : www.collegeroad.ie/clubs