Welcome to SOCIS

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the Society of Computing and Information Science (SOCIS) for the 2009/2010 academic year. If you're like most students, you navigated to the front page and read our mission statement:

"The Society of Computing & Information Science is the official student body representing B. Comp., B.A. and B.Sc. Computer Science Majors on campus. We seek to provide resources and activities to strengthen the community of all CIS students for mutual support and development."

But what does this actually mean? We're just a bunch of students with an interest in computer science, and we run events for other students with the same interests. This tends to even out the odds when we play paintball, dodgeball, or capture the flag (or anything else "sport" related ;) ). In the past, we've run seminars with guest speakers, visited Silicon Knights (a video game development company), run LAN parties (advertised as "LAN Gatherings" for Student Risk Management reasons), run Smash Bros. tournaments, board game nights, and many more. Heck, we've even had get-togethers at the Brass Taps where we give you free pizza and subsidize your beer :)

The heart of SOCIS, and our most famous service, is the LOCIS (Lounge of Computing and Information Science), where we offer comfy couches, cheap (50 cent) pop, and a CIS friendly social environment where you can mingle with other CIS majors and those interested in computer science. SOCIS also offers many other services to its members.

Every CIS major at the University of Guelph (any student who is in a B.Comp degree, or a BSc/BA with a major in CIS) is automatically a member, so you guys get to be lazy and don't have to take any further steps to become a member. If you're interested in computers or computer science, but you're not a CIS major, do not worry. To become a member, you simply have to come to one of our meetings and ask us to motion you in as a member. If you want a say in financial decisions (a vote), AND you're a non CPES student, you can pay a small membership fee (usually around $5.00 dollars) for the privilege to vote. Traditionally, non-members have been allowed to attend SOCIS events too, so please come check us out if you're not sure about joining -- and tell your friends (CIS and non-CIS alike)!

If this is your first time here, there are a few things you can do to get started. First, make sure you sign up for our newsletter by clicking "subscribe" on the right hand side menu (make sure you're logged in when you do this). You can also join our facebook group by searching for "SOCIS Guelph" in the search bar. Second, why not become active on our forums? You can start here, with our introduction thread. Last but not least, to get more involved, meet other CIS majors when there is definitely others in the lounge, and to get any ideas for events and services SOCIS should run out of your head, make sure you come to our meetings on Thursdays at 5:30 PM. Every member has a voice and a vote for how things get done.

Welcome to SOCIS. Let's have a great year!
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Robyn (Robert) Smith
Honours Bachelor of Computing
President, Society of Computing and Information Science