How do you run a student society from your bedroom? We asked SOAP President, Rachel Aquino. 

Transcript

Alex Siegers: Hi there, I’m Alex. Today I’m calling SOAP President Rachel Aquino to see how she is running a student society from home! Hi Rachel.

Rachel Aquino: Hi, so I am a 3rd year student here at UNSW. I’m studying a combined Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Law degree. So, running a society from home I think is a very different experience, especially given that the Society of Orchestras and Pipers is so reliant on our weekly rehearsals to keep our community going, and just all of our operations, it’s so integral that we have rehearsals weekly. So we are really wanting to try to keep that same thing going and satisfy the needs of our members by keeping the music going, keeping community going. So what we’re trying to do, is over the next few weeks, we’re hoping to have some online performances, up on Facebook maybe, and also some events on Zoom to try to keep all the activities we would have otherwise normally done still going. So look out for that if you’re a SOAPie.

RA: I think through the end of it, just, the kind of collective experience that we are all going through will be great for our musical practise once we get back into the rehearsal room, given that we have all just gone through this together, and the sense of camaraderie going back into rehearsals is something I look forward to.

RA: Obviously there are still ways that needs aren’t being met, and I think one way that they could do that is through open forums for students to make their needs more known, for both UNSW and Arc. Just because, I think, while there are emails and surveys and things like that, that people can use, it’s not very streamlined and there may be some students who feel like they’re not be being heard during this time. I think that some of the videos things that they have been doing online, especially Arc, they’ve kind of been running workout sessions or paint and sip sessions from home and I think they’re really great. And societies can kind of take a, take some ideas from that. But like I said, every society is different and for the Society of Orchestra and Pipers, who is so reliant on our rehearsals, it is tricky, but we’re working on it!