The student club had 142 applications after the Annual Introduction Days, and now 131 of these students have joined as active members. KSV Franciscus had the most applications, 172, but ended up with only 126 new members. The counter stopped at 109 for SSR-W (153 applications). A drop-out rate of 25 to 30 percent is normal for all the societies, says Robbert Hoeboer at KSV. ‘To start with, you always get some no-shows who don’t even turn up to the intro. They may have applied for several societies and eventually decide on only one intro. Some decide not to join a student society at all.’ Floor Dieleman, Ceres vice-president, confirms that there are always people who cancel their application. ‘We usually have a similar drop-out rate. But this year we managed to keep the number of people joining close to the number of applications. Of course we are very pleased with this. It seems we informed the new members properly beforehand about what exactly is involved in being a member of a society.’ These social clubs are doing well compared with previous years. The number of applications for the ‘big three’ grew from 375 to 468 despite the slow student fine (still in effect then) and the threat of the basic grant being abolished.
Ceres: fewest applications but most new members
Of the three largest student societies, Ceres has managed the biggest haul of new members.
