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Samaggi Samagom
Samaggi Samagom (Thai: สามัคคีสมาคม, RTGS: Samakkhi Samakhom; "Unity Association"), the Thai Association in the United Kingdom, was established in 1901 by King Rama VI of Thailand.[1] Samaggi Samagom is Thailand's only student association under royal patronage. It adheres to its original purpose as a locus for Thai students, roughly 10,000 in the UK, to connect with one another. The Thai Embassy in London and its Office of Educational Affairs (OEA) has a large presence in the association's activities, with embassy representatives, and sometimes the ambassadors themselves, attending Samaggi Samagom events. The close working relationship is reflected in the fact that Samaggi Samagom’s registered address being at the OEA. Samaggi EventsSamaggi Samagom organises many events for the Thai community in the UK, notably the Samaggi Games, Samaggi Careers Fair & Seminar and Samaggi Fest. The association’s recreational events, such as its annual concert and sports day, are funded by Thai companies.[1] Samaggi GamesSamaggi Samagom's biggest event is the annual Samaggi Games.[2] This is a sports day that involves several thousands of people, and is well attended by most Thai students as well as Thai expatriate workers in the UK. Sports such as Football, Basketball, Badminton, Chair Ball, and Athletics. The event sees over 800 attendees annually and is usually hosted at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in South London. The event used to be the main opportunity for Samaggi Samagom's sponsors to advertise their respective firms which ranges from PTT to small Thai restaurants in the UK wishing to reach a broader market.[3] However, recently companies focus their advertisement to online channels and Samaggi Samagom's other events. Sports previously played as part of Samaggi Games which are no longer played includes: Thai Chess, Tennis, Table Tennis and Squash. E-Sports was also briefly introduced in the 2022-2023 academic year. Samaggi Careers Fair & SeminarThe Samaggi Careers Fair & Seminar is Samaggi Samagom's main academic event. The Careers Fair includes booths from Thailand's leading companies and organisations which in the past have included PTT Public Company Limited, Siam Commercial Bank, Banpu, Bank of Thailand, Krungthai Bank, Advanced Info Service, Siam Cement Group and Thailand Development Research Institute. The Seminar includes talks from company representatives and Thailand's important figures including Somkiat Tangkitvanich, Parit Wacharasindhu and Jirayut Srupsrisopa (online). The Seminar and the Careers Fair were originally separate, but have been combined since 2022 to lower venue costs. The Careers Fair & Seminar has been hosted at many venues including The Landmark London, SOAS University of London and Imperial College London. It will be held at Senate House, London for 2025.
The event was held online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2023, the Careers Fair has been hosted in a hybrid format, with an online portal allowing students to apply to companies in advance. The application portal was developed in-house to reduce operating costs from licensing event software. Seminars held by Samaggi in 2007 included the "Happiness Index", a talk by researcher Khun Nattavudh Powdthavee on the measurement of happiness; a talk by Gordon Bennett from Amnesty International on the death penalty; and a seminar on the future of Thailand's 18th constitution, which was being drafted at the time, led by Peter Leyland, a professor of public law at SOAS, University of London, and London Metropolitan University. Samaggi FestSamaggi Fest is an annual concert and the second largest event for Samaggi Samagom. The event includes performances from Thai artists which are flown in from Thailand. The event sells 800+ tickets annually, since 2023 the tickets for Samaggi Fest is sold on Samaggi Samagom's in-house ticketing system Samaggi Postix. The event's major sponsor has historically been Chang (beer).
Samaggi Clubbing Night SeriesThe Samaggi Clubbing Night Series (shortened to Samaggi Series) is a series of clubbing events hosted by Samaggi Samagom introduced in the 2024-2025 academic year as an additional source of income after Samaggi Fest struggled to bring in reliable income for the organisation.
Other EventsOther Samaggi Samagom events include the Samaggi Case Competition where students compete to present solutions to a prompt by one of Samaggi Samagom's sponsors. This event is only held when a sponsor is interested in providing a case. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Samaggi Samagom has also partnered with other organisations to co-host events, including North Games which will be held in Manchester in March 2025, and various events in partnership with Wat Buddhapadipa. The organisation is also looking to form a partnership with T-Stage Musical (formerly London Thai Night), the annual Thai student musical. As part of the organisation's push for more diverse set of events, Samaggi Samagom plans to host an Art Exhibition in partnership with the Thai Society Innovation Network (TSIN) and University of the Arts London Thai Society. Past EventsPast events no longer held regularly include the Samaggi Karaoke Night, Samaggi Bowling Competition, Samaggi Film Festival, Samaggi Abstract Competition and Samaggi Night. Staff & Executive CommitteePresident & Presidential ElectionEach annual cycle begins with a presidential election. The election is usually held between June and September of each year, aligning with the UK academic year. Prior to the election for the 2024-2025 Presidential Election, only staffs and Thai Society presidents (acting as representatives from Thai students in each university) are eligible to vote, with 2 votes given to Thai Society presidents and current executive committees, and 1 vote for other staff. However, the 2023-2024 executive committee made a decision to open the voting to any Thai citizen in full-time education in the United Kingdom with all voters getting one vote each. However, a condition was also added that the presidential candidate must have at least one year experience in Samaggi Samagom or be supported by running-mates with combined experience of at least 3 years. Voting is done online through Samaggi Samagom's voting system which uses block-chain like system to ensure integrity. Each vote also contains no identifiable information, though each voter is required to upload their Thai National ID/Passport and a valid proof of student status before voting opens. Executive CommitteeThe Samaggi Samagom Executive Committee consists of 13 members not including the president in the 2024-2025 academic year. These members are selected by the president after the election. The structure of the Executive Committee was changed in the 2024-2025 academic year to improve communication and efficiency. Prior to this change, the Samaggi Samagom Executive Committee would consist of the following titles:
The new structure breaks the Academics team down to the new Academics Affairs and Careers team, with the latter focusing exclusively on the organisation's main academic event: the Careers Fair. Public Relations was also moved to the Marketing team to allow the Sponsorships team to focus on their work. The naming of the roles are also changed for consistency. As of December 2024, organisation's Charter is currently being amended to reflect this change. The unofficial new structure would therefore consist of:
Officers and DirectorsOfficers report to the head of their respective departments or the director of their sub-team if one exists. Directors lead the sub-team responsible for a certain part of the team or usually a specific event. For example, the directors in the Events team include: Director of Clubbing Nights, Director of Samaggi Fest, Director of Samaggi Games. There are 96 officers and directors (excluding the president, executive committees and advisors) in the 2024-2025 academic year. All staff are in full-time education with the majority pursuing an undergraduate degree. All staff (including the president, executive committee and advisors) are unpaid, instead staff are rewarded through special prices or free entry to Samaggi's events. Staff are also entitled to compensation for travel and other costs related to their work. In the 2024-2025 academic year, a new initiative was introduced organisation-wide to allocate budgets for staff bonding activities including staff trips to Oxford and staff bonding events. Ties with Thai Associations in Other CountriesThe Thai Students Association in Europe (TSAE)In November 2024, three representatives from Samaggi Samagom attended the academic conference in Toulouse to launch the Thai Students Association in Europe (TSAE) along with representatives from 11 other European countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. TSAE aims to "[Bring] Thai students together to grow, connect, and inspire across Europe". Whilst Samaggi Samagom is by far the largest member of TSAE (by budget and memberships), visa restrictions means that travels between mainland Europe and the United Kingdom is limited, limiting Samaggi Samagom's involvement in TSAE. TSAE is currently led by the president of the Thai Students Association in France (AETF). The Association of Thai Students in America (ATSA)In 2024, Samaggi Samagom entered into several partnerships with the Association of Thai Students in America (ATSA) beginning with ATSA's online careers fair. The organisations expect to expand their collaboration to in-person events in the upcoming year. FundingSamaggi Samagom receives a majority of their funding from sponsorships by Thailand's leading companies who are mostly interested in the Careers Fair & Seminar where they recruit students from the UK. Other sources of funding come from ticket sales for events such as Samaggi Fest and recently the Samaggi Series. The organisation operates using the non-profit model and all staff members including the executive committee members are unpaid student volunteers, though they are reimbursed for travel and other costs related to their work in the organisation. Thai governmental oversightIn 2011, the Thai Embassy in London intervened to force the removal of an article from Samaggi Sara, the group's annual journal. The article was a five-page interview with Giles "Ji" Ungpakorn, a Thai academic wanted by Thai authorities for lèse majesté who now lives in exile in England. The society was threatened with losing all Thai governmental support if it did not comply. Several days before publication, the interview was removed.[1] Teeraporn Suwanvidhu, Samaggi President at the time, said, "I asked [the ambassador] whether he had...read the article, which I thought was balanced and not provocative at all. His reply was that it wasn't necessary, due to the...fact that Mr Giles' name is on the 'blacklist',...It's not even censorship. It's something more than that", she noted.[1] Samaggi Samagom in 2016 faces even more hurdles from Thailand’s post-coup military government. Since the 2014 military coup no politically-related academic events have been held. "We try not to hold events that are too sensitive, otherwise it will definitely not be approved [by the embassy]", then Samaggi President Thanawat Silaporn said in early-2016.[1] In 2011, when Samaggi was forced to censor the interview with Mr Giles, Samaggi secured the majority of its funds from the private sector. In 2012, Samaggi received 20 percent of its funding from the embassy. Samaggi currently refuses to disclose the public/private funding ratio, but said the embassy and OEA has provided about £2,000 (102,700 baht) for academic events.[1] The Bangkok Post sums it up as, "Thai university societies in the United Kingdom built their reputations on political debate, but are now cowering under close government scrutiny."[1] Samaggi Samagom no longer receives funding from the Royal Thai Embassy, though the Office of Educational Affairs provides a small amount of funding for the annual Samaggi Games and the organisation still maintains good relationship with the Embassy. The organisation is no longer under the direct oversight of the Embassy. See alsoReferences
External links
Thai societies in the United Kingdom
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