Societies Handbook 2015/16
1
Contents
Welcome Message1 / Introduction / 4
2 / The Benefits of Starting a Society / 5
2.1 Practical benefits / 5
2.2 Personal Benefits / 5
3 / Setting up your Society / 5
3.1 Criteria for a new Society / 5
3.2 What do I need to do to set up a NEW Society / 6
3.3 Unregistered Society / 6
4 / Membership / 6
4.1 Membership fees for Societies / 6
4.1.1 How do students pay their membership fee? / 7
4.1.2 What happens if I pay my membership fee for a Society and there is no activity all year? / 7
4.2 Students’ Union Membership / 7
4.2.1 What is the Student Council? / 7
4.2.2 Society Forum / 8
5 / Training / 8
5.1 Compulsory training sessions / 8
6 / Annual General Meeting & Electing Society Officers / 8
6.1 At your Annual General Meeting / 9
7 / Constitution and Code of conduct / 9
7.1 Renewing your Society each Academic Year / 9
8 / Recruiting Members / 10
8.1 Registration / 10
8.2. Promotion / 10
8.2.1: Society websites and web promotion / 10
8.3. Fresher’s Fairs / 11
9 / Organising Activities for your Society / 11
9.1 Society Meetings / 11
9.2 Organising Events / 12
9.2.1 Planning / 12
9.3 Hiring the Rocket Complex for an event / 12
9.3.1 How to Book the Rocket / 12
9.4 Hiring Other Space in the University / 12
9.4.1 Booking rooms / 12
9.4.2 External Guest speakers / 13
9.5 External guests / 13
9.6 Working with External Companies and Voluntary Organizations / 13
9.7 Trips/conferences away from the University / 13
9.8 Stall booking / 13
9.9 Publicity / 13
9.10 External Events / 14
10 / Fundraising / 15
10.1 Societies and Charity collection / 15
11 / Finance / 16
11.1 Membership Fees and Funding / 16
11.2 Spending money from your Society Budget / 16
11.3 What can/cannot be covered by the funding? / 17
11.4 How you receive the money / 17
11.5 Event Profit / 17
12 / Social Media- Facebook, Twitter / 17
13 / Students’ Union and Other Services / 17
13.1 Photocopying / 17
13.2 Post / 18
13.3 Phone calls / 18
13.4 Student Magazine / 18
14 / Health and Safety / 18
14.1 Duty of Care / 18
14.2 Risk Assessment / 19
14.2.1 How to do a Risk Assessment / 19
14.2.2 When a Society must do a Risk Assessment / 19
14.2.3 Risk Assessment for external events and trips / 19
14.3 Insurance / 19
15 / Equality and Diversity / 20
1 Introduction
The Students’ Union and University encourage participation in student activities as an excellent way to develop personally and academically, meet new friends, share common interests with other students and staff, and have some fun outside the classroom.
Staff working in the Students’ Union will assist societies, i.e. Academic Associations, Clubs and Societies in creating and implementing quality events and activities that enhance leadership and organisational skills and help fulfil their goals. Through its administrative service, the SU is committed to assisting student groups in becoming a positive force within the University community.
This handbook is for students who have registered a Society and are part of the societies elected committee. It gives an overview of the rules and regulations and lays out key information for effectively managing the Society. All elected committee members will be required to read and adhere to the information laid out in this handbook.
If you have any queries that have not been addressed in this handbook or would just like to speak to someone please contact the Students’ Union.
CONTACT US:
CONTACT / TELEPHONE / EMAILStudents’ Union Reception / 020 7133 4171 /
WHERE ARE WE?
NORTH CAMPUSStudents’ Union
Room TMG-75
Tower Building
166 – 220 Holloway Road
N7 8DB
(Nearest tube Holloway Road)
2 The Benefits of Starting a Society
2.1 Practical Benefits
· You can book rooms for meetings and guest speakers.
· You can access 1-to-1 support from experienced Students’ Union staff in areas such as events management, financial planning, managing meetings and publicity.
· You can access specialist training to help you to run your Society and develop your professional and personal skills.
· If you have more than 8 members, you can access funding for events and other activities.
· Subsidised hire of the Rocket Complex.
· Use of Students’ Union facilities including photocopying, telephones, and internet.
· Representation from the Students’ Union on various committees and boards across the university.
2.2 Personal Benefits
There are many personal benefits of starting a Society:
· Develop new abilities and leadership skills
· Work within a team of peers
· Satisfaction of setting and meeting goals
· Make new friends
· Put on campus-wide events or activities
· Share talents or interests with the University community
· Receive training on managing a budget, committee/meeting etiquette, event planning & fundraising
· Gain new skills – through special Skills training
· Most importantly – HAVE FUN
In addition, students find that the more they become involved, the more they will benefit from their overall university experience.
3 Setting up your Society
3.1 Criteria for setting up a New Society
Societies should be considered beneficial to the development and social welfare of students at London Met.
New Societies may not overlap with any activities of existing Societies. The current full list of Societies is available from http://www.londonmetsu.org.uk/societies/
The activities of the new Society must be practical for the Students’ Union to support with its resources.
The new Society must not conflict with the Students’ Union’s constitution which is available from http://www.londonmetsu.org.uk/studentcouncil/constitution/
Every new Society must be open and available to all members of London Metropolitan University.
3.2 What do I need to do to set up a NEW Society?
a. Register your Society at: http://www.londonmetsu.org.uk/societies/registeraSociety/ from the Societies registration page. Fill in the Society Registration Form page. You will need contact details for three members and will need to decide on your membership fee and write a purpose statement.
b. Attend compulsory training sessions provided by the Students’ Union.
c. Elect a minimum of three Society Officers.
d. Complete and sign the Society Constitution and Code of Conduct.
3.3 Unregistered Society
If you have not completed all of the requirements in Section 3 above, your Society will not be fully registered and therefore will be unable to access funds or support from the SU until all of the above have been completed. It is in your interest to register your Society (see benefits above 2.1 and 2.2).
4 Membership
4.1 Membership fees for Societies
Society Membership lasts for one academic year. The membership fee is reviewed on a yearly basis.
The minimum Society membership fee is £2.50 but you can charge more, up to £10. The amount set at the time of registration will remain fixed for the whole academic year and cannot be changed. The Students’ Union will fund match membership fees up to £50 per Society.
Deciding how much membership fee to charge:
It is important that you think carefully about how much to charge your members. Your membership fees will make up the majority of your budget therefore you need to choose an amount that will be suitable for your Society and balance the need to recruit members and have a sustainable budget for your Society.
Think about the following:
- How many members do you expect to recruit?
- How much do you think your target audience are prepared to pay for your Society?
- What activities/events/benefits are you providing to justify your chosen membership fee?
- What events to plan to this year and do these events require any budget?
- Do you need to purchase any Society merchandise/printing?
All these questions should inform how much you want to charge for you membership fee. If you need any further guidance, please contact the Students’ Union.
4.1.1 How do students pay their membership fee?
There are three ways to pay the Society membership fee:
Cash
Students can pay by cash or card in the Students’ Union offices at North campus.
Once students have paid their membership fee they will be able to collect a membership card from the Students’ Union at the City and North campus. In order to receive the membership card, students will be required to provide a copy of the Society membership fee receipt.
You can also collect membership at meetings but you must bring member details and cash to the SU office within 5 working days
4.1.2 What happens if I pay my membership fee for a Society and there is no activity all year?
Once you are a registered member of a Society you are considered an active member and should encourage your Society Officers to put on activities with your support. If for some reason, the three elected Society Officers are not compliant or fail to respond, please contact the Students’ Union for advice as soon as possible. The Students’ Union will be unable to act or return money if we are not made aware. Membership fees will only be returned if the Students’ Union is notified four weeks after registration with the Society and it is confirmed that the Society will remain inactive.
4.2 Students’ Union Membership
All students at London Met are automatically members of the London Met Students’ Union. Once your Society has eight members you will have the opportunity to gain a seat on the Student Council.
4.2.1 What is the Student Council?
The Student Council hold the Full and Part Time Executive Officers to account and establish Union policy. It is made up of the elected SU officers, independent Student Council members, and representatives from Societies, StARs and up to four co-opted representatives.
There are currently 24 seats on the Student Council for Society representatives. What is your role (as a Society) in the Student Council?
Society Officers sitting on Student Council have the opportunity to represent the interests of Societies at the council, to influence the policies and direction of the Students’ Union and wider University policies.
Please contact us if you would like more information about Student Council. More information will also be provided at your training session.
4.2.2 Society Forum/ council
The Societies Forum is a democratic body that decides on the policies that govern how societies run and discusses issues that affect societies as a whole. It will be held at least four times a year and is made up of all the current societies. It will give society members and officers the opportunity to come together and discuss issues, conduct business as well as acting as a forum for feedback and development.
It is compulsory for a representative from each society to attend the Societies Forum meetings. This is usually the President, but a representative of the society should attend if the President is unavailable.
As the Societies Forum develops it shall assume the following remit:
a. Ratify budgets
b. Agree the allocation of development funds
c. To make recommendations to Trustees and Executive committees
d. Approval of new Societies
· All society members are permitted to attend the forum and shall have the right to speak.
· Each Society shall hold one vote via their president or nominee.
· Societies Council shall be chaired by a member of the council elected at the first meeting.
· The quorum for Societies council shall be 50% plus 1 of the eligible member societies.
· Executive officers with a societies remit will be an officer member to a maximum of two.
· The General Manager, Trustees, societies and staff have attendance and speaking rights.
· If a society does not attend or send apologies to a Societies Council meeting a
£10 fine will be imposed on their appropriate account. If two consecutive
Societies Council meetings are not attended, the offending Society funds will be frozen.
5 Training
There will be a compulsory training session provided to each Society which requires a minimum of two Society members to attend. Regardless of whether you are a new or existing Society, you will be required to attend each year.
5.1 Compulsory Training Session: This session will take place after your Society registration.
· Introduction to Societies & Planning your budget – The trainer will give you information about running a Society and you will have the opportunity to ask questions. At the end of this session, you will be required to sign the Code of Conduct and Constitution if you have not done so already. You will be given in depth information about the process for applying for funding and managing your budget. The trainer will take you through this handbook and give you a detailed outline of the procedures you are required to follow.
Please note, once your Society has attended the training session it will be your responsibility to disseminate this information to the rest of your members.
6 Annual General Meeting & Electing Society Officers
Once 10 members have been recruited and your Society is registered with the Students’ Union, you will be required to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM). This must be held in March to elect a minimum of three Society officers for the following academic year. Once you have elected your officers you must provide the SU with the officers details by returning the AGM form.
The three Society Officers are:
1. President – This role plays a key part in the running of the Society. It is the responsibility of the Society President to ensure that:
a. The Society is running according to its Constitution
b. Regular meetings take place
c. Budgets are adhered to
d. Members are kept informed regularly
e. Call general meetings and ensure an election for the following years committee is held
f. The guidelines set out in this handbook are adhered to by all Society members