Monday 16-05-2016 - 12:51

Ambleside Conservation Society -An Evening with George McGavin

by Sam Poultney President of the UCSU Ambleside Conservation Society           

I suppose when you whole heartedly stand up and volunteer to form a UCSU society where previous attempts have been floundered because of the limited commitment of fellow students it would be an uphill struggle to gather enough people wanting to be on the committee and to hit the ground running in Jan 2016, but we did it. As our first big event as the new society on the campus we wanted a good turnout not only for conservation students but from other students and the general public in the local area.

So three months before the inaugural event, the planning started within the newly formed committee, in which we worked out who we would invited to give a talk sometime in April, which fell to George McGavin. As the months rolled on by, through flurries of emails, the size of the task was only becoming clearer by the day.

The calm before the storm.

Two months before the talk with the date firmly set, the advertising started to be formatted and published which to my horror included a major type error, which some of you may have noticed. This was spotted by someone once every man and his dog had a copy as they spread far and wide from the university to the Cumbrian Wildlife Trust. The effort and drive needed to sustain the event and make it a reality for the first time became clear. It was herculean. Cue the sleepless nights, almost constant thoughts of failure and how that would look on the shiny new society and no body turning up to the talk. Lecturers even reframed from asking how the planning was going, in the fear that I would go supernova and have a nervous breakdown.

The cliché of ‘happiest man alive’, was certainly the case when George walked through the doors and in to the lecture theatre whereby I said out of ear shot of George ‘this is actually happening’ to another committee member; As we have managed to get a speaker which has done various expeditions and documentaries for the BBC Natural History Unit and discovering new species unknown to science. Once George had finished his surprisingly funny and entertaining talk with the help of various re-enactments of stories and facial expressions. The success of the talk shined through with people wanting to meet and talk with George, of course with photos and autographs from the hardened fans of BBC Nature documentaries and conservationists. The icing on the cake was the overwhelming response of a very enjoyable talk and one young lady asking for another one next year (so there is a demand for another talk next year from at least one member of the audience).

Looking forward to next year and future years as I hope the society grows and improves with both a new influx of new students but also current students, working together to create engaging programmes, guest speakers and the alcohol centred socials (without making a name for ourselves). As the committee try and juggle between being an academic focused society without being too much of a ‘square’. So really, in hindsight you always hit the ground running by trying to organise events like these, but hopefully next year’s talk will contain a little bit less stress and a lot more sleep at night.

Sam Poultney

President of the UCSU: Ambleside Conservation Society