Hi there,

The requirements for starting a society are that they have been established already- we can’t affiliate new societies to help them to set up as we now have too many under SUSU for us to give adequate support to a budding new club or society. They won’t be affiliated if they haven’t started to interact with students already and it will help if they can put a number on the form of how many interested students they have already. Other than this, they need clear aims and future plans to show that the society will grow and become more stable over the year as this means it is less likely to disaffiliate at the end of the academic year. We would usually expect a soceity to have existed for a year (or atleast two terms) before being able to apply.

Other requirements are that they are not duplicating other socieities, have serious aims and are for the benefit of all students. 

To apply, the society will need to come and speak to the relevant coordinator about their idea. Whoever they meet with will help them to work through any initial concerns or questions, this should hopefully prevent the society from being rejected in the meeting based on simple questions that could have been resolved earlier. This has happened in the past and is understandably frustrating for the society so we have now made it a required tick box on the form, with space for them to say who they spoke to.

The window for submitting a form for affiliation will be open from Monday 14 October to Sunday 10 November through the SUSU website. They will need to make sure they give as much detail as possible on the form as this is what the Clubs and Societies Committee will use to make their decision. It is much easier to manage the meeting if societies aren’t attending and so their form needs to speak for them. Also, a tip based on some issues we faced last year is to make sure they put the correct contact on the form as we will use those details to get in touch about the decision and any appeals process. If the wrong email, or someone not related to the society is listed we can’t do anything and it isn’t viable grounds for missing the appeal window.

I hope this outlines  the process for you,

Thanks,

Fiona Sunderland (VP Activities)