There’s nothing like getting other people to do work for you. And in most cases, it would be stupid not to.

Every time DUCK does a new thing, several things come up: worry about if it’s going to be popular enough, stress as DUCK volunteers have to learn, promote and establish new, strange ground, and in some cases, compete with existing ventures for attention and support.

So lets get a rock and kill all these birds in one go. And get someone else to throw it.

Why working with sports and socs is the holy grail

• Sports and societies have an established community and user base- there’s no risk of no-one showing up. There’s loyalty amongst members, and an existing desire to get involved.
• Societies have people who are used to, and passionate about, making events happen, and promoting them.
• Societies often yearn for DUCK involvement because of the exposure, charity and tax-evasion. They are willing.
• Societies may have people who are just as qualified as professionals, but work for a lot cheaper. Photographers spring immediately to mind.
• Societies are a good way of directly accessing a captive audience which doesn’t yet Do-DUCK- expanding into societies increases the DUCK support base for minimal effort.

Here’s a wee test-case:

DUCK wants to do something creative: a photo competition. Trouble is, DUCK don’t really know how best to launch it, don’t have direct access to people who’ve expressed interest in it, and has to compete with the photosoc.

Funnily enough, the photosoc wants to put on a competition; but needs a little more leverage across the uni to get interest.

Solution: work together. Farm the work off to photosoc; give them a DUCK logo to slap on the poster, maybe a little help with promo, a website or judging entrants, maybe even capital if it’s needed. But leave the work to the experts. And take the cash .

Outcome: everyone’s happy. DUCK has loads of participation, some cash, and solid friends in a photo-soc exec that appreciates the warm fuzzy feeling.

Here are a list of things which DUCK dabbles in, which other people specialise in.

• Marathons and runs: DUAXC
• Abseils: DUMC (the climbing club)
• Student PR and notoriety: Palatinate, Sanctuary, Mostly Harmless.
• Arty competitions: photosoc, art-soc

So, there’s a list. For each one:

• Find out who their president/secretary is. Make friends. Buy coffee. Utilising student experience and advice could save £lots- for example, if you don’t have to pay a pro- so this investment pays off.
• When an appropriate event comes up, get in touch. e.g. if there’s a marathon, email DUAXC; send ‘em some posters or flyers (physically) as well as an email/text, telling them to plug it to their members.
• Maybe go down to a society event, get involved, meet folks- tell them how DUCK can make their jaunt acey-pacey-successful and TAX-EXEMPT.
• Find out how DUCK can expand it’s activities into their space- increase DUCK participation by making more DUCK activities which fit into established communities and have defined, strong participant bases.
• Ask ‘how can DUCK do them a favour?’ e.g. the sky-diving soc isn’t going to be too interested in a parachute jump for charity- they do it all the time after all. But why not ask the society if they want to meet the participants, give participants promo flyers for their club. You never know- the extra involvement and sense of gratitude to DUCK the society gains may prompt support, favours and hard cash in the future.

There’s a special case:

• Volunteering type stuff: SCA:

Now this one is really important. SCA comes out of the same office, uses the same staff and staplers as DUCK- it makes sense to cooperate. So very often when working for charities it’s easy to loose interest, focus or determination, especially in the face of disappointment. The medicinal shot in the arm? Getting back to source: seeing where the money goes and how worthwhile the work is. Giving DUCK volunteers and fund-raisers a view of some of the stuff we fund will be massive encouragement to stuff the degree and raise more dosh.

So what have we learned today?

• DUCK should have a list of every major uni society; and establish which ones are the most popular, and have the most potential for (easy) coordination.

• Personal relationships with the folks involved is vital to make the most of societies

• Each and every event DUCK does has to have two questions asked of it: “are we working against a society here that we could work with?” and “can I save myself time, money, worry and effort by getting someone else involved?”

• Identifying societies as a news stream and a PR outlet: giving student newspapers material or full articles makes them happy (less workload), and puts the DUCK logo in the hands of thousands… for free. The same principles apply to the ventures with smaller remits.