Membership
Join us!
Talks are free and open to all. Membership is what pays for them — the speakers who travel to Cambridge, the dinners afterwards, and the cheese at the socials. It also gets you a seat when a talk fills up, and your name in the speaker dinner ballot.
Annual membership
£20a year
For one academic year, renewing each October until you cancel.
- Priority seats at every talk, including the ones that fill up
- Entry to the post-talk speaker dinner ballot
- Members-only socials, cheese and wine, and the Easter garden party
- A vote at the AGM and the right to stand for committee
- Term card and speaker announcements before they go public
- Member pricing on stash drops
Cancel any time in the billing portal; your year runs to its end.
Lifetime membership
£50once
Everything in the annual tier, paid once, for good.
- Everything in the annual membership, permanently
- No renewal to forget in your second year
- Alumni invitations to anniversary lectures and dinners
- Listed as a life member in the society records
- Cheaper than three years of annual membership
A single payment. Nothing to cancel, nothing to renew.
Ready?
Join the society
A few details and straight into secure checkout — no account to create.
Payments are taken by Stripe; CUPS never sees or stores your card details. You get a receipt by email straight away, which colleges accept for grant claims.
Before you ask
Questions the committee gets asked
- Do I have to be a member to come to a talk?
- No. Every CUPS talk is free and open to anyone — members, the department and the merely curious. Membership pays for the speakers, the dinners and the cheese, and gets you a seat when a talk is full.
- Do I need to be studying physics?
- Not at all. Members come from every subject, and from outside the University too. If you like physics, you are in the right place.
- What is the speaker dinner ballot?
- After each talk we take a handful of members out to dinner with the speaker. Check in at the talk with your CRSid, tick the ballot box, and you are in the draw — members only, and past winners sit out for the rest of the term.
- When does an annual membership run out?
- One year from the day you join. Stripe renews it automatically on the same date, and you can cancel or change your card yourself in the billing portal.
- How do I get a receipt, or claim it back from my college?
- Stripe emails a receipt the moment you pay, and we send a welcome email with the same details. Both are enough for a college or society grant claim.
- Can I pay by cash at the freshers’ fair?
- Yes — find the treasurer at the stand. Online is faster, and it puts you in the members list straight away rather than after we type the sheet up.