School Student
What's surgery like?
Setting up a Surgical Society
If your medical school does not currently have a surgical society or the current one needs re-invigorating the following guide will tell you what you need to consider with useful pointers and tips.
Getting started
Events and activities
Getting Started
Initially most societies are started by a small group of individuals with a shared interest but it is important to see if there is adequate interest in the issue and to check if no one else has the same (great) idea. A good starting point is an email to the student body to gauge support and interest or a widely advertised open meeting to discuss ideas. Once you have established interest you can put together a working party to act as the founding committee.
Committee
The temptation is to get together a group of friends and dive straight in. We recommend opening up the initial committee to a selection of years (1st and 2nd years may have more time but 4th and 5th years may have better contacts and ideas) and look for people with suitable skills to make up your working group.
The key areas of work in the beginning will include; funding and financing, website development, leadership and some administration work. Make sure you have access to computers and the internet either via the Medical School or home computers. Key skills to look for are Web design, IT skills (excel and word), good letter writing skills, desktop publishing and financial management/ basic accounting.
Be sure to delegate tasks evenly so no one individual is overwhelmed and make the most of the skills available. The president of the society or nominated leader should make sure that no-ones studies (including their own) are suffering because of the society and that work is evenly distributed.
Eventually the committee will need to expand to include people responsible for different work areas. To see how different surgical societies structure their committees we suggest that you look at some of the established society structures on their websites. It is important to consider committee succession from the outset, many a fine society has floundered early on because not enough thought was given to the replacement of key members of the group upon graduation.
Support and Funding
It is important to get local surgeons and key bodies to support your venture. Local surgeons, especially the Head of Surgery can help you get started by suggesting ideas of sources of funding and by speaking at events as well as providing useful contacts for sponsorship. Key bodies such as your Student Union can be approached to provide you with financial support or resources such as an email address, office space or a postal address. They can also add credibility to your society.
Most surgical societies raise funds in four key ways:
- Sponsorship: many companies will provide societies with sponsorship in return for advertising. Medical insurance companies and local companies can provide societies with nominal funding which can be a great help to get started. Look on websites to see if there is a local student sales representative and approach local cafes/ pubs etc. Some local companies may be able to provide refreshments or a venue rather than money. Send letters to named individuals and be clear what they will receive in return for their sponsorship. The Royal College of Surgeons of England cannot provide sponsorship.
- Donations: You can approach past students, current consultants as well as current students and potential members.
- Fundraising Events/Activities: Socials/ Raffles/ Auctions you name it, let your imagination run wild.
- Membership fees: Once your society is established you can charge a nominal fee to join. Again, it is worth checking in with existing societies to see what they charge.
Website
Your student union or medical school may be able to set you up with a website that you can easily edit. Check with your IT department to see what help they can provide. If they can’t help we recommend that you recruit a committee member with specific responsibility for this role and get started with this as soon as possible. Make sure that once you have a website you keep it up to date with events listings, news and information about Surgery and the society.
It is important for members and potential members to be able to keep in touch with the society. We recommend one or more generic email addresses which can be passed on to subsequent committee members, this way logins and contacts belong to the society not the individuals.
MSLC
The Medical Student Liaison Committee can be a valuable resource. Contact the Opportunities in Surgery team at the earliest opportunity email. You will be invited to send a representative to bi-annual meetings at the College where you can meet representatives from other societies and establish links with The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Events and Activities
For details on how to organise events please see our section on running events.
Types
Most societies run a mix of talks, tutorials, careers and social events. We suggest that when starting out you start with straight forward talks and expand as you gain experience into other areas. Always check demand before you start planning events.
Ideas Sharing
Established Societies can run large programmes of events targeting a range of students with a range of outcomes. We suggest that rather than re-invent the wheel you speak to existing surgical societies and use their models to re-create successful events and workshops. Equally if you run a new event that is successful why not write up what you did and share it with the MSLC.
Costs
Be clear about how much you are going to spend and include contingency funding in your plans. Where possible negotiate with local facility providers to minimise costs and get sponsors to cover large expenses. Some budget templates are available in our events planning section.
