As the Easter holiday draws rapidly to a close, we hope that you have had a hard-working and enjoyable holiday, without too much stress! On Monday the exam period begins, so get swatting up for your orals! The beginning of summer term also means no more lectures this year!

We’ll be taking a bit more of a low-key approach this term to let you get on with your exams and things. However, remember to always keep NoSo in mind as you put pen to paper in the exam room!

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up soon, so we’re putting out a call to all who might want to stand for a position on the Nordic Society committee beginning next September. We are recruiting for five positions:

• President
• Vice-President
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Communications Officer

If you are interested in running for any of these roles, please e-mail us at uclu-nordic@ucl.ac.uk with your name and a few sentences on why you think you’d be suitable for the role. Please bear in mind that you will need to be voted into the position by Society members, so by standing you do not get guaranteed a position. Candidates may apply for more than one position, although in the event of a double election you would need to fulfil both roles.

Good luck to any and all candidates!

Because we want to make our events as open to everyone as possible, we are conducting a poll to find out which day suits everyone best for Nordic Society events.

Click here to cast your vote.

We would like to officially welcome you to 2010. It looks to be an exciting year for the Society, with our two new committee members and planned events.

A taste of what’s in store: we are planning to host a Þorrablót, the Icelandic midwinter feast, in February. We are also looking to host a Give It A Go session in a Scandinavian language for those of you who want to try something new. We will also host several pub and bar nights, getting drunk is of course part of our blood as Nordic folks. Perhaps the biggest achievement of the year will be the launch of NoSo magazine, slated for the spring. Please remember to continue sending your contributions to (zcmge15@ucl.ac.uk).

Look out for more information on these events in the next few weeks, we will of course keep you posted both on nordicsociety.co.uk and on our Facebook group.

We are proud to announce that the recruitment of our two new committee members has taken place! We are joined by Andrew Graham, our new Treasurer, and Nikki Marshall, our new Secretary. They start their new jobs straight away, so we have to stop expensing all those lunches at Scandinavian Kitchen we’ve been enjoying of late.

Please join us in welcoming them to the committee! All that’s left for them to do is undergo the secret initiation ritual, involving rotten herring and lots of Vodka. Little do they know about what they have let themselves in for...

In other news, we wish all of our members a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We look forward to hosting lots of exciting events for you in the new term.

Thanks to everyone who attended the fabulous Julfest 2009, it couldn’t have been successful without you! In the words of Astrid, “a good time was had by all”. We have displayed your images that were drawn in the quiz on the noticeboard in the Common Room. We’re also going to leave the decorations up for a while for that extra Yuletide feel.

Although towards the end of the evening the Common Room became ridiculously cramped, we still managed to pull off a great night! Only next year, there will be far more glögg and far less Tópas.

Click to see photos from the night.

As part of our promise to deliver more content on our website, we have launched a new Venues page. It is a kind of directory that lists Scandi locations in London, from cafés to churches. We’ve only got a few venues in there at the moment, but we’ll be expanding it as best we can over the next few months.

We need your help to find and review new venues, if you have any suggestions let us know at the usual address. We hope you find this really useful, and gasp as you find out about all the places in London serving köttbullar that you didn’t know about.

With the launch of this new page, we have jiggled things about slightly. You’ll notice that the music page is now part of a larger culture section. Just hit the culture link at the top of the page to browse venues or bands.

In a related cultural note, the deadline for idea submissions to the NoSo magazine is fast approaching. Please send your ideas to Astrid Hjerting at zcmge15@ucl.ac.uk by the end of term.

It is with great excitement that the Nordic Society announces the arrival of the membership cards, entitling you to a free tea or coffee at Scandinavian Kitchen. The cards are rather flash-looking and have arrived all the way from Germany, hence the delay. We do apologise for this.

Anyway, we’re bet you’re just wondering how on earth you get yours. Well, if you’re coming to the Julfest 2009 you’ll be able to collect yours there at the start of the evening. If not, this gives you yet another reason to attend aside from free glögg and the prospect of committee members in bowties. Please note you will have to be a paid-up member in order to collect your card. If you have not yet joined, you can do so online at the UCLU Online Shop, membership is £3. Just sign your name off on our list on the night, and enjoy free tea and filter coffee with your frikadeller smørrebrød!

The Nordic Society website now has a news page which allows you to view older news stories that have been published. You can access this by scrolling to the bottom of the homepage and clicking on more news.

We are also pleased to announce the return of weather information to the news page, now with a brand new look. Here you can view the current temperature and weather conditions of your favourite Nordic capital city, from Copenhagen to Tallinn. Why not check out the latest reports now?

The Nordic Society is currently searching for two new committee members to fill the positions of Treasurer and Secretary.

Why not take this unique opportunity to take part in the running of a UCL society? The role of Treasurer involves looking after the financial affairs of the Society, and the role of Secretary involves taking the minutes at Society meetings and other administrative functions. Both these roles of course incorporate wider responsibilities, and you will have your chance to contribute ideas on future events and other things the Society should do.

If you would like to apply for either of these positions, please submit a short paragraph as to why you think you are a great candidate to uclu-nordic@ucl.ac.uk, by Friday 11th December at 1pm. An Extraordinary General Meeting will be held on Thursday 17th December at 7pm to elect for the new positions, at which you will be required to pose your candidature to the Society. This will take place in Room D103 of the Union (25 Gordon Street).

We look forward to receiving your applications, and good luck!

We are pleased to announce that the membership cards you have all been eagerly anticipating will be available for collection on Monday. As you can see in the image to the right, they’re quite sophistiqué. You will be able to present this card at Scandinavian Kitchen in order to get a free tea or coffee with lunch.

You will need to speak to Max Naylor in order to collect you card, and you will be required to sign to confirm that you’ve picked it up. Alternatively, you will be able to collect your card at the next film night.

UPDATE: Due to complications at the printer, the cards have been delayed until the end of next week. Sorry for the delay, we know you’ve all been waiting on these for a while!

The UCLU Nordic Society now has its own Twitter page. You can follow us here: twitter.com/nordicsociety.

This year the Nordic Society managed to attract 58 members to join up, in just a fortnight! We thank everyone who has shown their support by joining the Society, you will soon start noticing the benefits of your membership!

On a related note, membership cards are currently in production. We expect them to become available the week after Reading Week. We’ll keep you posted with information on how to get yours.

Join us on 22nd November for a tour of three Nordic Christmas fayres in London. We’ll meet at 12pm and go to the Norwegian Christmas fayre in Rotherhithe, then visiting the Finnish fayre next door. Finally we will end up at the Swedish Christmas fayre in Marylebone.

Food and hand-crafted Nordic products will be available at the fayres, to help you truly get into the Nordic Christmas spirit in London. Please note there is an entrance fee for each of the fayres, and that they finish at 5pm. We intend to meet for drinks aftewards.

This year the Nordic Society are looking to put together a publication focussing on all aspects of Nordic life in London. So we are calling on you, our members, to submit articles, photos, reviews, poetry, short stories and so on, to be featured in the magazine (it could be anything as long as it is related to the Nordic region, of course). The magazine will be published in April 2010, and we currently have backing from Norvik Press (the Nordic publishing house based in UCL). Find out more information about how you can contribute here.