Committee Role Description
As president, your responsibilities include overseeing every aspect of the society is running accordingly and smoothly whilst providing any support the society and its committee members may need. It is your vision of how you want the society to be this year that will be portrayed by your ideas and strategy for upcoming events during the year and how you supervise and advice other committee members on the best way forward. You are representing not only the society but also KCLSU and our Department of Physics at King’s College London. You need to take responsibility for how your society is currently conducting itself and its performance. This means you will take charge of the overarching branch of the society and plan ahead and meet the needs of your members.
President
You are in charge of calling committee meetings and assigning tasks onto other committee members. It is very important that you communicate with your entire committee and support them at all times including maintaining good team chemistry. There may come a time where there is conflict internally on an issue and it is your job to find a solution that works best for everyone whilst establishing the peace. Keeping other committee members in the loop of your work will help ease your own workload so you can focus on your own main tasks which include Cumberland Lodge and the Maxwell Lecture series. You have to consult and work with the Treasurer of the society on the financial aspect of your events and ideas. A president, you should continuously remind your committee members that the welfare and wellbeing of students are naturally included in your role and theirs. You need to inform them that they can advise and guide students on issues that they may face, which from your experience you may have maybe experienced too. Everyone should also be able to guide them to the right person if they cannot help them directly. As you can see, if one were to summaries the key skill necessary for this role, it would be delegate management.
The topic for Cumberland Lodge should be cycled through our department's research groups for fair representation over the course of the society, bearing in mind that Theoretical Physics is the most popular area students are interested in. Introducing students to new areas that they may not have conventionally thought of at first is how we approach the student body when it comes to academic events. Once you and your committee have decided on a topic, you need to find a Cumberland Lodge Academic Liaison (not the one provided by default from the department) to help you organize the weekend getaway. It may be wise to pick someone that is not a professor, rather someone who has time on their hands to help you with this situation and cares about equal and diverse representation as much as you and your committee does.
The Maxwell Lectures occur three times per semester and it is your responsibility for summer to find the optimal speaker that everyone including the general public may enjoy. The speaker line-up should follow the same equality and diversity guideline as Cumberland Lodge. You are encouraged to work with the academic officers on this if you require help. Consult your Academic Liaison about your idea and vision for the line-up of the upcoming year. Have back-ups in mind already if a speaker has to cancel on their event due to unforeseen circumstances.
Prior experience of working in the Maxwell Society Committee highly beneficial.
As Treasurer, your responsibility entails keeping track of all expenses and income including setting up a sophisticated excel file where you can set up budgets for different projects in one place and shared on OneDrive for all committee members to see. That way you can advise the society on how to proceed with their projects. You also provide your advice on the risks of the financial aspect of the committee’s and events and ideas when it comes to spending money on a variety of things but do make sure the society uses the money.
Treasurer
You are to keep track of KSCLU grant opportunities and see how we can apply them onto our events and aim for Gold Accreditation alongside the President and consistently remind everyone what we need to do to achieve Gold. Using the app Expense365, you approve transactions and also make transaction behalf of the society. Membership is also on your radar. You need to encourage alongside everyone for people to attend the events but also for those attending to buy memberships. Securing a sponsorship deal is ideal and should be the goal for every Treasurer but, make sure that it is an ethical cooperation/organisation and if you are considering to secure a sponsorship deal with a non-profit organisation, make sure you have looked at them thoroughly and not found anything that you may see as unattractive or not beneficial to the society on a large scale. Welfare and wellbeing of the students are naturally included in your role, same as everyone, so make sure you take that into account.
Prior experience of working in the Maxwell Society Committee highly beneficial.
VICE
President
As Vice President, your responsibilities will consist of providing administrative support for the society where necessary and inform the society of external opportunities for society members, such as internships, summer schools and research opportunities. Within meetings, you are to take minutes and send them out to the rest of the committee once you have finished taking them and made any important changes that you see fit. As you can see, this role would be ideal for someone entering their final year of university and have experience with university administrative services and previous experience within the committee.
For an event, you are to work with the committee and organize at least two events during the academic year, preferably the week right after reading week for each semester. These events are supporting with the delivery of the Cumberland Lodge events, academic events, social events and career information events. Welfare and wellbeing of the students are naturally included in your role, same as everyone, so make sure you take that into account.
Prior experience of working in the Maxwell Society Committee highly beneficial.
As the Academics Officer, your responsibility includes ensuring the society supports students in their studies and offer them opportunities to broaden their horizons and learn more about physics - both in terms of new knowledge and about the various possibilities the field may offer them in the future. This includes planning and running recurring events such as study groups, and organizing events such as talks, tours and information sessions about various topics related to physics, and recruiting academic speakers for Cumberland Lodge and other regularly held academic events.
Academic Officer
It is crucial to be able to balance different subtopics and levels of complexity involved in each event, to account for the differences in interests and academic level present among the members of the society. In general, any event connected to academia will be under your jurisdiction, and it will be important to consult with both the student body and faculty to gauge what the most desirable and impactful events would be at any given time. Welfare and wellbeing of the students are naturally included in your role, same as everyone, so make sure you take that into account.
Prior experience of working in the Maxwell Society Committee highly beneficial.
As the Social Events Officer, your role is to create a harmonious and welcoming environment for all society members. This involves planning, managing and hosting regular social events for society members, developing networking spaces and opportunities in Cumberland Lodge and other academic events, and supporting an enviroment where every society member can feel welcome and engaged in Maxwell Society events.
Social Events Officer
Welfare and wellbeing of the students are naturally included in your role, same as everyone, so make sure you take that into account.
Marketing Officer
As the marketing officer, you are responsible for creating a social media presence of the society. The role involves being able to manage a social media account, scheduling post and events updates. You should also be creative and lead your own media social media campaigns and be able to create new content. You should be familiar with using different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Experience using Canva or similar platforms to create posts is highly beneficial.
Welfare and wellbeing of the students are naturally included in your role, same as everyone, so make sure you take that into account.