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The Students of Chemistry Society

SOCS, the Students of Chemistry Society was formed in the good old days, when there were lots of people studying chemistry. It is the ONLY society of its type on campus, catering for all students of chemistry, from first year through to final year Ph.D. Any and all students with chemistry as their major are automatically members. Best of all, membership is free. All students are encouraged to become involved in any way they would like.

Who are we?

At the moment, the SOCS executive looks like this:

President: Michael Page, Dalton second floor
Secretary: Callie Reynolds, Dalton first floor
Treasurer: Alex Goh, Dalton second floor

Where do we live?

The first SOCS fish - hydrogen

The SOCS room on the ground floor of Dalton is equipped with plenty of couches and tables for study or relaxation. It also containes a small kitchenette with fridge, sink, toaster, microwave and kettle for preparing lunch. We even have our own fish ('hydrogen', the first SOCS pet, is shown on the right).

What do we do?

Each year, the SOCS crew runs social events that are designed to bring us all together, in the hope that the older students can have a bad influence over all of you younger ones.

BBQ's - Occur usually a couple of times a year and usually at the beginning and end of sesson, so keep an eye out for when they are on - cheap food and drink (beer, wine, soft drink) is always on offer.

Drinks nights - Almost every Friday night from 6 pm students of all stages get together for a drink in the SOCS room (H516) to unwind from a week of chemistry and conduct some private research on the intoxicating effects of ethanol. Thankfully the chemicals are discounted: beer/wine $2, mixes $2, and snacks are provided. Control experiments on non-alcoholic beverages are also conducted. All are welcome.

Trivia nights - A good chance to mix with both staff and students and to test your wits against the best in the business. There is a strong chemistry theme so it may even help those of you in need of brushing up on your general chemistry knowledge.

Pub Crawls - The legendary SOCS pub crawl will take you on a leisurely stroll through some of the wonderfully inhabited streets of Sydney. The routes vary from the City centre, Surry Hills, Cleveland Street, and the Rocks area. All routes finish at one of the city rail stations, so that the burden of getting home is lessened for all. If you have any suggestions for routes, feel free to discuss them with us at one of the meetings.

Social Sport - Each session SOCS enter a team into the lunch time social sport competition, run by the UniGym. Sports include netball, soccer, touch football. Anyone interested in joining a team should contact SOCS president Michael Page - all skill levels are catered for.

The Ball - Once a year around October the School hosts a semi-formal dinner for all enrolled chemistry students. The venue changes every year, but is invariably somwhere nice (the 2004 event was held in Centerpoint Tower). Afterwards the party usually kicks on to a local bar to round the night off with more drinks and dancing. This is the biggest event we host each year and not to be missed. For some pictures from the 2003 Ball follow this link.

Have your say...

Every month, we organize a meeting for you to air any thoughts, ideas or grievances about how SOCS is run. An e-mail is then sent around to the SOCS representatives for each year, so check with them. If you want to get involved in any way just ask, we'll find something for you to do.