Joseph's guide to managing a society during COVID-19
Hi everyone, my name’s Joseph and I’m studying a Bachelor of Telecommunications Engineering at MQ. I'm also the student President of Engineers Without Borders Australia – Macquarie University Chapter (EWBMQ).
On December 2019, we established Macquarie’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB). We couldn’t wait to plan, organise and facilitate in-person activities like School Outreach, inter-university events and volunteering in remote communities.
But in March of 2020, we were forced to rethink how we hosted these due to a sudden shift to an online university environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moving from in-person to online
As we came to terms with this new reality, we looked for a way to directly interact and create a sense of community with the members.
Our Discord server
We created a Discord server where we could chat, play games together, watch content and post announcements. This greatly supplemented the use of other tools such as social media and emails when promoting events. We could quickly get feedback, gauge interest, and even have meetings using corresponding text and voice channels.
Hosting events online
We dissected events into three stages: promotion, duration, and reflection. For each stage, we listed down tools, tasks, and a timeframe for each stage.
- Promotion: a set period before an event where we advertise to students while at the same time, finalising any event logistics. Marketing online, we:
- increased the period by at least two weeks
- used Notion to keep track of tasks and handle any documentation
- shared events with Student Engagement and the GLP
- used Canva’s ready to use templates and Figma for finer control over the design of our promotional materials
- use social media boosts for posts on Facebook and Instagram
- send out details over custom-formatted, scheduled emails using Hubspot, a customer relationship management tool
- announce it on other relevant Discord servers, such as the School of Engineering and Student Engagement servers
- Duration: the period when the event occurs. For this, our roles revolved around:
- Reflection: the period after the event. We sent out feedback forms at the end the event and used the feedback to inform our evaluation in a debrief meeting.
Benefits of running the society virtually
During the pandemic, we were able to collaborate with our EWB counterparts from other universities, other states and even other countries! We were able to host larger events together, where our attendees were not restricted by their geophysical location. Since we’re also not spending money on a venue, we can give out more prizes.
While it may not have been the ideal scenario for any student group, by embracing the tools available, remembering why we started and staying motivated, anyone can manage their student group well in a pandemic.