On Friday 1st February, CamSoc Paris held its first event – in Cambridge. For the last three years, we have strengthened our links with current students. We hold a Freshers’ event every year, we have welcomed winners of the Student Travel Grant and we hold a strong belief that the more current students know about what an Alumni group does – networking, lectures, debates, cultural visits, or just fun events – the better the chance to encourage their engagement when they leave the University.

The Paris Society offers current students three years’ free membership and we have about an 80% success rate in attracting those who come to the Freshers’ event to become a member.

So we now have 70 current student members, which led to a proposal put to Sophie Niang, President of the University’s French Society at the September 2018 Freshers’ event in Paris, that we organise a joint event in Cambridge so that these members have an opportunity to come to one of our events during term time. Sophie jumped at the idea and we quickly settled on a Cheese and Wine evening (the cheese to be brought over from France) in the Lent term.

Full credit to Sophie for the splendid organisation of the venue, wine, bread (there is a stall on the market that makes perfect French baguettes) and ticketing. The event was a great success, with over 60 guests, including about a dozen student members of CamSoc Paris, three members of the Alumni Advisory Board and Bruce Mortimer from CUDAR. Ian Roberts, AAB member representing Scotland was sufficiently taken by the idea that he is now considering a similar event for Scottish students in Cambridge. After brief presentations from me and from Margaret Campbell, Chair of the AAB, we successfully managed to drink all of the wine and eat most of the cheese. A great event.

Contact the Alumni Engagement team to find out how to connect with current students to host joint events.