It’s September and the sun is setting on Lake Constance, but the day is far from over for some HSG students. A boat in the provenance of Romanshorn is carrying a posse of around 350 people to party until the day ends. This is the CF’s boat party, an event for the romand student community at the university of St.Gallen. Its organiser is the Cercle des Francophones, the circle of French-speaking people at HSG, abbreviated CF. The organisation was established in 1996 as a community for the growing romand student population. As the number of students increased exponentially, the university doubled its programs in English, and opened to more exchange students to solidify its international presence as a leading European business school, so did the CF. Now the CF stands as the club with the most members with annual fees at HSG. It also stands as one of the most active organisations on campus with around 1-2 events per week.
An all-encompassing mission
The boat party is the most well-known event of the club and is seen as a rite of passage for romand assessies but it is far from the only one. The CF’s events can be categorised among four types: parties, networking, corporate and travel. Each represents a pillar of the club’s culture and serves to create a sense of community and belonging for the members. Party events are the most straightforward to explain: you party. Whether you party in a nightclub with specific themes, a privatised house before a Trischli party or on a boat, a party remains the same. Those events serve, like any party, as an antidote to a demanding student life. Through amusing themes and innovative ideas, the CF parties are a pillar of a HSGler’s Wednesday evening. Networking moments occur in settings that allow participants to talk on a personal basis and get to know each other, something that parties fail to do. Here Edouard points to the recent addition to their events “Le Cercle”, a weekly “Stamm” on Tuesday evenings where the CF members could talk in a more relaxed atmosphere before turning the music up later in the night. Corporate events are organised in conjuncture with enterprises coming on campus, or inviting members on site to present their companies. The CF allows companies to tap directly into the demographic of HSG students looking for prospective offers back in Romandie, something quite valuable on campus. Most of these events are organised with its annual partners such as Vaudoise Assurances or the private bank Piguet Galland. Nevertheless, more relaxed and open discussions are also offered, as for example the introduction to Venture Capital hosted in autumn by an alumni president of the CF. Travels are the final and logistically most complicated type of events – besides the boat party. Every year the CF organises a weekend trip to a European destination, this year to Budapest by train, where people are free to do as they wish but evening events are organised for all. Moreover, a one-day trip to Munich for the Oktoberfest or the winter weekend in a chalet are also pillars of the CF’s yearly calendar.
If that was not already enough of an offering for its members, the CF also organises more esoteric activities that do not necessarily fall into the previously described archetypes. The CF has its own football team, with one board member solely dedicated to the task, that regularly plays against other clubs and participates in the classico tournament every year. That is the HSG football tournament between the CF, Ausländer, Latino and Italian Club. Also, some events serve to raise funds for charitable causes, like the Happy Feet tournament or the annual charity beerpong tournament. Moreover, rather unusually, the CF sent four representatives to the ski university world cup last march in Val d’Isère, where CF members went up to participate in the finals.
Club structure
Understandably, this wide range of events and the community it fosters made the CF successful but also require demanding commitments from its executive committee with an ever-present schedule and attune coordination. The CF is led by an eight-member board selected at the end of each year by the previous year’s board. The selection is done through interviews of interested candidates, with everyone getting one vote on selecting the next board. Every board member is then dedicated to a portfolio of tasks; two event-managers, finance, marketing, sponsoring, sports manager and a president and vice-president. Interestingly the CF, which is an accredited university club, willingly chooses not to propose credits to its board members. Edouard tells me that “Being willing to work for the community, without monetary or university rewards demonstrates a high level of intrinsic motivation. This is the kind of values we strive to follow”.
Another interesting point is the large internal leeway given to the CF board by its statutes, which can also be a risk. If people are free to do as they want, they also have more possibilities for mistakes and mismanagement. However, the strategy seems to be paying off, for a student organisation the impact of the organisation is undeniably impressive. The dedication and collective peer-pressure of 400 members plays an important oversight over the board. The dedication is also demonstrated in some creative solutions to problems faced by any HSG club. To avoid paying for a storage space on campus, material is stored directly at the board’s houses. For example, in Edouard’s bedroom a wall of cans of soda drinks watch over his bed.
Looking beyond
The CF is often perceived on campus solely as a party club: the philosophical nemesis to the Ausländer-Club, whose members are recognisable on campus boasting a dark blue hoodie. However, this investigation revealed a much richer organisation. A club dedicated to creating large events whose logistics are only possible with an extremely capable and dedicated team. The CF is without a doubt a place to party, but partying is not the goal in itself, it usually is a means to socialize. By creating spaces for romand students to meet and connect, the club has tapped into a unique need and created a community that prospers even after their university years. Noteworthy, their president made clear that everyone is welcome, people will switch to English around you if you do not speak French. As the university grows and turns evermore to an international positioning, the CF assuredly has a bright future.