“What is a campaign?” - Question asked by a random first year student (also known as “nainA”)
A campaign is something you often hear about before you get to school. A sort of huge event where people fight each other to win the right to represent an association the following year.
And that's basically what it is.
At Télécom Paris, there are three campaigns that punctuate the life of the associations throughout the year, in order:
During these campaigns, generally two or three lists compete in challenges to show the rest of Télécom what they are capable of and try to win the favour of the other students in order to win back their votes in the final campaign vote.
Campaigns are traditionally launched during a LIVE which reveals the videos presenting the different lists and their names.
Traditionally :
This is the time when the list is being set up, members are being recruited and the office is being set up.
During this period, the theme of the list is chosen and the list trailer is shot, all the while preparing for the pre-campaign.
The pre-campaign begins as soon as the campaign announcement LIVE ends.
Challenges are given to the lists as they go along, often through the figure of Campaign Pokémons. These can range from small challenges that earn points to assos/club challenges that earn money for the list that wins.
Similarly, as time goes by, the lists gain more rights of action (physical communication, activities, etc.). It is during this period that the lists sell food to earn a little money and start to build up a small reputation.
It's also during the pre-campaign period that the Challenge Night takes place.
Bar Challenge Night is a special binouze, during which the bar association issues a list of challenges to the NainAs, modelled on Challenge Night. In addition to the challenges, a number of games are organised, generally revolving around beer and Suze.
Challenge Night is a major pre-campaign event.
Over the course of one night (usually a Thursday evening), the NainAs compete against each other to complete as many challenges as possible within the allotted time, while at the same time completing mandatory challenges that are very punishing if not completed.
The list is very long (404 challenges in 2023), but to avoid spoilers, we won't talk about the traditional challenges of this night of challenges here.
Campaign week is, of course, a week during which the lists compete against each other in events that generally require a lot of organisation.
It's the final stretch to show what the list is worth from an organisational point of view.
The traditional events are :
The last cocktail party concludes the campaign just before the vote.
At the end of the campaign, the votes are cast and victory is traditionally announced at a party.