Resources for 3rd Level Clubs and Societies

Introduction

3rd level clubs and societies change committees every year. As a consequence, ideas for activities and social good causes sometimes get lost. This section is for ideas and resources to help student wellbeing, and to help groups get budget points by helping good causes while promoting the arts and sciences. Ideas that involve working with other societies are especially useful as it means that costs can be shared. Let us know if you have any other ideas and want to add to this list: info@mentaldiy.com

Psychology Society

Team up with film, drama, or media societies for psychology themed movies night.

A nostalgia event where people are encouraged to revisit childhood experiences. Invite a games society for old games, or an anime or comic society for old materials.

Team up with an animal charity to bring puppies to campus. They can help relieve exam stress while raising awareness or donations for a good cause.

Research and give talks on happiness. Bring chocolate and bananas to chemically boost people's moods.

Team up with an IT or games society for virtual reality. VR has useful applications for psychology research.

Team up with a games, a drama, or literary society for mental health or neurodiverse themed story telling.

Team up with a music society for music that promotes positive mental health.

Reach out to your campus arts officer about making a wall where people can post positive messages.

Recruit psychology experts (e.g., local lecturers if available) to do a guest talk.

Make and share content for MentalDIY.com with psychology themed opinion pieces or education materials.

Psychology students can find it hard to recruit people for research studies. Set up a day and book a venue where you can meet up, participate in each other's research, and bring friends to help out. It's easier to find people if you all work together.

Review the mental health policies of your local campus and make suggestions. Invite local politicians to join in for policy development advice.

Team up with a drama, an art, or writing group to make mental health or neurodiverse themed art that is informed by psychology theory.

Team up with a games society for an RPG campaign.

Creative Writing or Literary Society

Talk to your student union about applying for funds to pay for competition entry fees.

Visit a book festival.

Recruit guest speakers such as poets and writers.

Visit or start a group to do public speaking with poetry or prose.

Make and share content for MentalDIY.com with neurodiverse or mental health themed work.

Play the consequences parlour game. This is a fill in the blanks game that often involves the following sections: Person 1, person 2, where they met, what 1 said, what 2 said, and the consequence. Each player writes content to go with the first section and folds their paper over so that nobody can see what was written. They pass it over to the next person who fills in the next section, and so on until the exercise is complete. At the end, paper is unfolded and scenarios is read out (often to hilarious effect).

Team up with a games society for word based games e.g., Cards Against Humanity, Ah Here Now, or console games like Child of Light (the entire story is in rhyme).

Play fill in the blanks game like Madlibs or madtakes: https://www.madtakes.com/

Challenge a maths society to a game of BBC styled Countdown. I recommend watching the IT Crowd to learn about Street Countdown!

Team up with drama society to get works performed.

Team up with an arts society and use stories as a prompt for art pieces, or use art pieces as a prompt for writing.

Debate Society

Flip flop round where people have to change what side of the argument they're on when a designated person snaps their fingers.

Have groups argue for the opposite of what they believe.

Get a group of males to argue women are better than men, vs a group of women doing the opposite. Get younger members to argue older people are better, vs older members arguing the opposite.

Have debates based on facts but have individuals and teams try to use three false pieces of information without being detected.

Team up with literary society and law to debate about the possibility of legal cases in fiction e.g., could Voldemort sue Dumbledore for child endangerment by giving him access to dangerous weapons (i.e., wand).

Have members share stories (some false, some true), and other members have to figure out if it's true or not before the reality is revealed.

Make arguments for non-sensical ideas.

Parkour Society

Take part in charity walks/runs like Darkness into Light.

Ideas for all Clubs and Societes

There is an event called BAHfest (Bad Ad Hoc) where people use serious academic arguments for non-sensical ideas. There are plenty of hilarious examples online on YouTube e.g., why babies are designed by evolution to be thrown across long distances. Inspired by this, I once set up a conference for poster and presentation content called AHHAfest (Ad Hoc Hypothesis Arts festival). It's a really good way to teach critical thinking and academic concepts in a way that's accessible to non-experts. Setting up a conference looks good on your CV.

Themed table quizzes are often used to raise money. Throw in a twist if you can e.g., for a Game of Thrones Table quiz I had a red wedding round where everyone but the team leader 'died' so they couldn't participate in the last few questions even if they knew the answer.

General advice: People can lose access to accounts when committees change. Forward emails to your personal email account so you have access to a record of the work you were involved in.

Clubs and societies often don't have storage space. This can limit growth even when a group has access to a budget or other forms of funding. However, many departments often have storage space and have limited budgets. Depending on staff, it may be possible to work together and share equipment that can be used for both academic and society activities. Check with your Student Union to make sure their insurance can cover equipment stored in departments.

Send us ideas so we can grow this list: info@mentaldiy.com