Good afternoon, readers.

Last time I spoke a little bit about how I actually ended up joining the Creative Writing society, and how I ended up as President of the society. Today might be a bit of a shorter post, but I’ll be talking about the first two meetings of the society I had as president. The first meeting was during the “trial” period for societies at my university, and I was a little a LOT nervous going into it, for several reasons. Despite being an assistant scout leader for a little while, I had never actually run anything like this; only assisted others in the running of. Furthermore, I was sitting with a huge list of names in front of me of people who had said they were considering attending the society. I had emailed them all the date and time of the first meeting, and was just waiting to see how many would arrive. The problem lay in the fact the room could only hold about fifteen people comfortably, and I had a list of over a hundred in front of me. Obviously, I didn’t expect even half of those to arrive, but the what if’s began to bore into my mind as I sat waiting.

Much of that initial cynicism and trepidation had melted away, and the meeting was a grand success.

I didn’t sit alone though. I had been joined by the members of my committee. Ryan, a halls friend of mine who also had an interest in creative writing; Emma, a 3rd year photography student and long time member of the society; and Sam, a Masters student, long term member, and was on the committee the previous year too. We chatted for a bit, and it served to calm my nerves. I realised that even if I choked slightly under the pressure, they could easily pick up my slack.

Before long, prospective members started to arrive. They arrived in groups for the most part, evidently friends or at least coursemates before they had come here. As it turns out, there ended up being about seventeen of us in the room, so it was slightly overcrowded, and me and Sam ended up standing. When there seemed to be no one else arriving, I gave my little introductory “speech”, which I had certainly not prepared before hand, and got everyone’s names (a pointless gesture really- I am terrible with names). It wasn’t the cleanest introduction I had ever done, and I hope I’ll be able to do better this coming year- the first meeting being in about two weeks from time of writing.

That said, as the meeting went on, it became pretty clear who had no intention of returning the following week. Evidently, the society had not lived up to their expectations in some way, and as we said our goodbyes at the end of the evening, I knew next week’s attendance would be significantly lower. This troubled me for some time until the next meeting.

The problem lay in the fact the room could only hold about fifteen people comfortably, and I had a list of over a hundred in front of me.

Lo and behold, my prediction proved true, and the next meeting was only attended by about four others, not including my committee. For a moment, that stung like a thorn in the heart, before I came to realise that the overall mood of the room was much improved over the previous meeting. Perhaps it was the increased room to move, but more likely I suspect it was because the people who remained actually wanted to be there. Much of that initial cynicism and trepidation had melted away, and the meeting was a grand success.

This set the tone for much of the year; but that is a story for another time.

See you around,

Dan