Ceres, which was able to add the most new members last year (170), has 158 fi rst-years now, while 148 students have joined SSR-W, 20 more than last year. NSW Navigators, Nji Sjri and Unitas all say that they have got 50 new members.
‘The society premises look a bit smarter and there is more room thanks to recent renovations,’ says Matthijs Verburg, the chair at KSV Franciscus. ‘I’m not going to claim that we got more people joining because we’re better than the other societies. We’re simply Franciscus.’
Student sports association Argo is also doing well. In fact, it has actually outdone the traditional student societies, with 200 new members. Talking about the large number of new members, Saskia Tersteeg, W.S.R. Argo’s secretary, says: ‘As a student rowing club we’re unique in Wageningen as we have social activities at Argo as well as the sport side.’ (See too the article on page 18.)
On average about 75 to 80 percent of the students who register with a society during or just after the AID eventually become members. That is because students sometimes register with more than one society and make a fi nal choice later on. Students also drop out during the VIT. NSW is an exception to that rule: the 50 people who registered have all become members.