<p><span data-contrast="auto">There is a difference between organising an event and creating something that people expect to be there.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">An event happens on a particular day. People attend, participate and go home. A club has continuity, it keeps going.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">That distinction is important when thinking about the development of the OU Debate Club. What began as an idea for students to come together and debate has gradually developed a regular rhythm, an identity and a community around it. The regular Monday evening meeting is now only one part of that development.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">As the club has become more established, so has the range of things happening around it. There are opportunities to debate different subjects, take on different roles, suggest motions, become involved in organising and participate in events beyond the ordinary weekly meeting. This development changes the relationship between the students and the club and boosts participation.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">It becomes less about attending something organised by somebody else and more about contributing to something that belongs to the community using it. That might sound like a small distinction, but it matters.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">A successful student organisation cannot simply rely on having a programme of activities. It needs people willing to contribute their time, ideas and enthusiasm. It needs someone to chair a debate, someone to suggest a motion, someone to encourage a new participant to have a go and someone to think about what the club could do next.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">In that sense, becoming established is not about becoming bigger; it is about becoming more </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">real</span></i><span data-contrast="auto">.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The club develops traditions. People become familiar with the format. New members arrive and discover that there is already something waiting for them to join. Regular participants become recognisable faces or, in an online environment, recognisable names and voices.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Eventually, the question changes from </span><b><span data-contrast="auto">“Are we going to have a debate?”</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> TO </span><b><span data-contrast="auto">“What are we debating on Monday?”</span></b><span data-contrast="auto"> This significant moment for any student organisation and opens possibilities.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">A regular debate club can begin to look beyond its weekly meetings. There can be guest speakers, competitions, collaborations, special events and opportunities to hear from people outside the immediate student community. The club can develop connections with the wider university and with organisations beyond it.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Those opportunities don&#8217;t replace the ordinary Monday debate, their nurturing it’s growth. The regular meeting provides the foundation on which everything else can be built.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">There is also something particularly interesting about the way this happens at the Open University. Students don&#8217;t necessarily meet each other in person, and many of us have lives that extend well beyond being students. The community therefore deliberately creates its own sense of belonging. People choose to participate, and they choose to return.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">And eventually, they may choose to take some responsibility for keeping the thing going. That is when a club starts becoming more than a calendar event to attend.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The word </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">society</span></i><span data-contrast="auto"> can sound rather grand, suggesting committees, constitutions, membership lists and formal structures. And while those things can be important, they are not what makes people feel that they belong. A society exists because people do things together.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">They ask questions. They disagree. They organise. They turn up. They encourage other people to join. They occasionally have ideas that work brilliantly, and occasionally have ideas that need reconsidering, and that is part of growing.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Perhaps the most useful way of measuring the development of the OU Debate Club is therefore not simply by asking how many events it holds or how many people attend.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">It is asking whether, when Monday comes around, there are people who feel drawn to the topics suggested for debate by the members of its own community.</span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Somewhere between an idea and an institution is something rather more human, </span><b><span data-contrast="auto">a group of people who have decided that this is somewhere to belong and share.</span></b></p>

Share
Read more