Monday 14-08-2023 - 10:30

Hi everyone, I’m Cian, residing President of the LJMU Pokémon Society. I want to start by saying it’s an honour to continue to run the society into the next academic year, as we only founded the team quite late on in 2022. We started with an amazing group of members who were able to make the establishment of the society possible, and they have continued to support us ever since. 2022/23 was the first full year running the society, and what a year it was.

We hosted over 50 socials over the last year which is an incredible achievement - not to mention all of our Pokémon GO sessions. We offered some introductory socials to other Pokémon-related games such as UNITE and the Trading Card Game, which really helped newer Pokémon fans get a feel of what we offer. We held events large scale events like our Gaming Night for Refreshers, which proved to be successful. We also enjoyed collaborating with other societies at JMSU across the year, which gave us insight into other people’s passions and were able to share our own.

 Our weekly Wednesday socials have been quite fun to plan and host and have given us great experience as leaders and organisers. Our meetings were predominantly held in the Student Life Building. This provided a familiar and chilled environment for members to come along as and when they wished. Sessions ranged from watching episodes from the anime collections both old and new, to playing Pokémon games like the main-series line with Scarlet & Violet and spin-off games such as Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

As mentioned earlier, we were able to host a Gaming Night event with JMSU to welcome members and non-members back on campus in January. The turnout was amazing! We played with a few retro-consoles such as Nintendo 64, arcade machines and Nintendo Wiis. Some members even brought board games and other video games in. It was a fantastic experience being able to host this for Refreshers Week and cannot wait to see what we are able to offer for next year.

I could sit here and write forever about how much I’ve loved being a part of the society and JMSU this year. I’m highly grateful for the experiences I’ve gained throughout the year, and the people I’ve met as President. I really appreciate all the help and support from not just the other committee members, but from other society members and JMSU itself. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for our society, and I’m really looking forward to continuing to lead as President of the society in 23/24.

If you would like to join the Pokémon Society, or check out our full list of Societies, head to our dedicated web page for more information. If you are part of a student group and would like to spotlight your team, please feel free to get in touch.