Summary
As far as I recall, when I entered the university as an undergraduate in 1993, there were such a few pre-existing Thai students, mainly postgraduates. As there were some (three, to be exact) new undergraduates, we decided to form a Thai society, which succeeded as far as publishing a booklet, and arranged a rather formal "cultural party."
Description
Unfortunately, the year after that the society freezed temporary. I think that the main reason was that still there were less than a dozen of us, and to run a real society in the formal sense with such a few people is an absolutely gigantic task (well, in my view anyway).
In 1995, there were a significant increase in the number of Thai students in Cambridge, and, although most of them are postgraduates, it didn't really matter for the reason that they are mostly still "young" (physically or mentally). We were having lots of fun, arranging parties, events etc. among ourselves. Needless to say, such events were mainly informal and aimed at absolute bliss.
In 1996, at the beginning of Michaelmas term, we decided to hold a party, allowing the new comers and the (aging) senior Thai students to meet. We successfully gathered most of the Thai students in Cambridge, although I should mention the enormous effort of P'Yut in walking to all colleges and put up the posters about the party. From that day on, we started to circulate information, mainly via emails, to the whole group of Thais. Most of which were aimed for getting people together to do all range of activities: going to the pubs, cinemas, parties, concerts, badminton, snooker, and occasionally exchanging plane ticket information! However, sending emails to the entire group became increasingly difficult sometimes when people dynamically changed their email addresses, or more Thais were discovered. Moreover, living in the information age, it seemed necessary to have a WebPages and things. The Society originally (in my opinon) came from the need of having a WebPages of our own, so that we can keep track of each other after we (eventually) graduate. The main benefit, at that time, of becoming a formal society is having a WebPages as well as a mailing list for ourselves. Consequently, a few people started to get together and wrote the first formal constitution and finally becoming a formal society as it is now.
To romanticise this history, we actually held the first informal general meeting under the Magdalene Bridge when we went punting on 17th May 1997. That wasn't intentional, of course, we struck under the bridge because of the rain....
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