Getting Involved

Whether you have just joined or have been here for years, it's easy to get involved and make more out of your time at the Union.

 STEWARDS are essential for the running of the Union. They act as fire wardens, check membership and tickets for events, and count votes after debates. Volunteering to help at events is a great way of ensuring that you get a good seat, and stewards are always rewarded with a panini and £5 bar tab at each event! Plus, if you steward four events in the term you can attend the termly splendid stewards' dinner, a multi-course restaurant meal with wine, all paid for by a grateful Union. All this for attending a one hour fire-training session, and enjoying the events you would otherwise have attended without free food and drink! We are constantly looking for more stewards, and you can commit to as many or as few events as you wish, so contact our Head of Event Management athoem@cus.org for more information.

COLLEGE REPRESENTATIVES help our officers stay in touch with our members. A weekly meeting allows you to give us your thoughts on what we are doing well and what we could be doing better - the chance to directly influence how your Union is run. Our college representatives regularly go on to hold higher appointed and elected positions, so if you want some insight into how the Union works, (and some free drinks! )this could be for you. Notifications about which colleges we need new representatives for will be made by email, but if you want more information contact executive@cus.org.

The Cambridge Union Society is a student-run organisation. Elections are held towards the end of each term in which members elect student officers. Each election is run by twoReturning Officers, to whom all queries about the election procedure should be addressed. During election periods they can be contacted by emailing ro@cus.org, outside of this time please address all queries regarding elections to vicepresident@cus.org.

The Standing Committee is the governing body of the Society. It is chaired by the President and all junior officers are voting members. The Bursar and the Secretary also attend Committee meetings and directors are usually invited.

Owing to the great deal of work involved in holding a position in the Society, newly-elected officers serve as officers-elect for a term before actually taking office. This enables them to become familiar in their rôle, work with their immediate predecessor and also to plan effectively. This set-up means that all officers are elected two terms in advance: for example, the officers elected at the end of a Michaelmas Term will serve as full officers during the following Easter Term. As its members help officers as well as officers-elect to perform their duties, those elected to the Supplementary Committee serve for only the term immediately succeeding their election, without an additional term's preparation.

All voting is on-line. Members will receive an e-mail instructing them how to cast their votes on or just before the election day.

The Officerships

A number of positions are contested in each election. The termly and annual officerships each carry a vote on Standing Committee. The Supplementary Committee is separate to the Standing Committee, but members of each committee work in close conjuction with one another.

Officers of the Society preside over debates in rotation: the President always chairs every debate and two of the other four officers flank him or her on the chairs at the front of the Chamber. The presiding officers usually attend the dinner with the speakers before a debate. The President-elect, flanked by two officers-elect, presides over the emergency debates that precede main debates.

For more information on how to stand for election, see the Elections page.