The Story of the Imperial Leadership Elections 2019
Every year, for a fortnight in March, Imperial goes into Elections frenzy. Walls are plastered with campaign posters, social media is spammed and those running for positions suddenly start being peculiarly nice to everyone.
Most of you who keep up with my blog will know how important MathSoc has been to me this year. So with the support of all of the current committee (including our esteemed president Hitesh) I decided to run for MathSoc President. I knew there would be competition for the role, so I set about a strategy to have the best possible chance of winning.
The Preparation
After deciding to run for the role I formed a small campaign team who became my biggest support during the election period. I began writing my manifesto, highlighting my experience and the many new ideas I have. Then came the many, many poster drafts! I finally settled on a design that included an endorsement from the current President, as I felt it highlighted my USP of having experience on this committee. Along the way I had my rather opinionated campaign team suggesting improvements for both text and design.
Campaigning
Finally after weeks of prep the time came for campaigning to begin. As the clock struck 12pm my team dashed around Huxley sticking up my posters, allowing me to focus on my facebook campaign. An hour later and I had done as much as I could do, all that was left was to speak to people! I spent the next few days doing lecture shoutouts and mingling as much as possible whilst keeping a close eye on my competition. I focused my efforts by mentioning lots of the positive things I’d done to help MathSoc this year.
A few days before voting opened, the society hosted hustings, a chance for all the candidates to speak about their plans and motivations. It was interesting to hear the views of people who could be my potential teammates next year as well as being able to voice my own reasons for running for President. I was quite pleased with the way the hustings concluded with two of my competitors (from the computing dept) ending their speeches encouraging people to vote for me!
Once voting opened I just wanted to make sure as many people as possible voted, and somehow the maths department achieved the biggest turnout in history, which in itself felt like a victory!
Results
I was extremely nervous about results, I felt that I had invested a lot of time into MathSoc already and to lose the position to someone with no experience would be a shame for the future of the society. In fact I was so tense about results that I had to be whisked away to Byron by some of my campaign team (would thoroughly recommend the courgette fries) to take my mind off of it. Whilst we were there I received the news that I had won and honestly it was the biggest relief of my life and was met with significant elation, hugs and a rewarding chocolate milkshake. Not only had I won, but I had completely smashed the opposition! 🙂 (231-89-26-12) We then headed back to the union to celebrate at the Election Results Party where the main positions were also being announced. I enjoyed my first drink from the MathSoc President’s tankard and treated my team to a pint as a thank you for all of their hard work.
In the past Maths in general has a had a reputation for being quite male dominated, so it makes me even more proud that the members of MathSoc have elected in a female Pres and VP!! A MathSoc first that has received such lovely positive attention! I am so excited to work with the new committee next year, with some friendly faces from this year’s committee and also many new faces. Hopefully we can take MathSoc to even greater heights in the months to come. Most of all I’d like to thank Hitesh, the current president for being such a massive support to my campaign and for entrusting MathSoc in my hands, I can’t wait!
