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This page details key information, dates and updates for clubs and societies. 

President & Treasurer Training

In order to re-register your club or society with the Students’ Union, you must complete core training and annual registration documents on behalf of your club or society. This year we have developed a new online system for club and society training, which lets you complete your training from the comfort of your own home at a time that is convenient to you! You’ll also be able to track the completion of your training and registration documents on the Students’ Union website. 

Core Training

All presidents and treasurers are expected to complete the following core training modules online:

  1. Intro to the Students' Union
  2. Democracy & Membership
  3. Finance
  4. Running Activities Safely

You can access these training modules by logging in to the Students’ Union website, clicking on ‘My Profile’ and going to ‘Courses & Training’. You can view training, and instructions for how to access the relevant modules on this page: https://studentsunionucl.org/club-society-committee-training-2020-21.

Some officers such as sports club presidents are also required to complete additional training modules specific to their roles. Check your profile on the Students’ Union website to see which courses you’ve been enrolled on.

Annual Registration Documents

Presidents and treasurers are expected to complete the following annual registration documents on behalf of their club or society:

  1. Annual Registration Contract
  2. Core Risk Assessment
  3. Constitution

You are expected to upload these documents through the following webform: https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/club-society-registration-forms.

Please read through the instructions in the webform carefully. If your documents are not completed correctly, your submission will be rejected and you will be required to re-submit the form.

Core Risk Assessments

  • Before any club or society activity can take place, your core risk assessment must be approved. Details on how to complete your risk assessment are provided in the training and webform above.
  • You should not need to make many changes to your core risk assessment, but if you do we can provide you with further support. Societies should contact Carl ([email protected]), and sports clubs should contact Katie ([email protected]) for any queries relating to core risk assessments.
  • Please note that at this stage you are not required to consider any COVID-19 or social distancing related risks. We will assess club and society activity within the context of COVID-19 as a separate exercise closer to September, once further guidance is available to us.
Welfare Officer Training

Welfare Officers are required to complete core training on behalf of your club or society. This year we have developed a new online system for club and society training, which lets you complete your training from the comfort of your own home at a time that is convenient to you! You’ll also be able to track the completion of your training on the Students’ Union website. 

Core Training

All welfare officers are expected to complete the following core training module online:

  1. Welfare Training

You can also optionally complete the following training module available online now:

  1. Active Bystander Training

You can access these training modules by logging in to the Students’ Union website, clicking on ‘My Profile’ and going to ‘Courses & Training’. You can view training, and instructions for how to access the relevant modules on this page: https://studentsunionucl.org/club-society-committee-training-2020-21.

Keeping Communities Connected

Access to website & email

Once you have completed all mandatory training, and received confirmation that your annual registration documents have been approved, you will be granted website admin access. If you do not receive website admin access after you have completed training and your annual registration documents have been approved, please email [email protected], and we will be able to investigate any issues.

Remote Memberships

Remote members will count towards your minimum 30 members and will be able to engage with all democratic processes within your club/society. A remote membership can be ‘upgraded’ at any point in the year - you will be able to view which type of membership someone holds by viewing your membership list.

Welcome Fair Update

Welcome Week

As you all know, to ensure our activities and events are as accessible as possible we are taking an online first approach to welcoming new students in September. Please continue to add your virtual events to the what’s on calendar - we know that a major part of new students experience of university is attending club or society events and joining your amazing communities, so if you haven’t already now is the time to start getting your events online. We will continue updating our online events guide over the next month and if you’d like to talk to us about your ideas, just get in contact.

Digital Welcome Fair

As you know we’re hosting our first ever Digital Welcome Fair this year and at the centre of the event, on both days, will be a four-hour live broadcast from campus (rules permitting). During the live broadcast our hosts will introduce live society performances, club demonstrations, interviews with committee members, pre-recorded videos and host games and competitions for our viewers to take part in.

If you are interested in being part of the live broadcast this is your opportunity to put your group centre stage. If you want your group to be involved make sure you complete and submit this form by 31 August.

We will contact you by 4th September to confirm if you have a slot and the next steps.

Black History Month

UCL’s Black History Month is coordinated by the BME Network, but can only happen with your support.

This year, we’re continuing with the theme of BLACK FUTURES, building on the conversations, events and ideas shared in 2019. We would love you to get involved and support this amazing project by running a variety of events, projects, exhibitions, talks or anything which focuses on learning about and celebrating Black History.

Applications are open for club and society led events – just complete this form before 13 September and we’ll be in contact.

Restarting In-Person Club and Society Activity

As you know, we have been working to develop in-person activity guidance which will allow you to restart face-to-face activity in a safe, controlled and COVID-19 secure manner. This guidance puts safety first, drawing on government and UCL regulations. It is designed to support you running a range of in-person activities in a way that benefits the communities you support. Our guidance has been approved by UCL and can now be found here: https://studentsunionucl.org/students-union-ucl-clubs-and-societies-covid-19-secure-activity-guidance. We ask everyone to read this guidance in full and play your part in ensuring it is followed to protect you and your peers, and ensure we can continue to support a wide range of in-person student activity.

We still believe that an online first approach is sensible, and we know that you have all been working on great online event ideas for welcome, but we can now confirm that you will be able to run in-person activities that fit within and are compliant with the guidance we have produced. We are currently working with UCL to ascertain which spaces will be available for club and society activity on campus, and we will update you as soon as possible with a simple booking process. These will include some large outdoor covered spaces on campus including the Wilkins Terrace as well as many rooms as possible in the Bloomsbury building, Lewis building and other sites.

In order for us to approve in-person activity you will need to copy your core risk assessment into our new core risk assessment template which includes new sections about COVID-19 control measures – a guide to how to use the new template can be found here. Please note that while we will support all groups to put on safe in-person activity, if you would like to stick to a totally online approach we completely understand and support this. If you do not wish to run in person activity you DO NOT need to edit and resubmit your core risk assessment.

Club and Society COVID-19 Risk Assessment Submission

If you would like to restart in-person activity you will need to do the following before any activity can take place:

  • Have read and understood the entirety of the guidance found here.
  • Have updated and resubmitted your core risk assessment by following the guidance and submitting here – we have added additional ‘COVID-19 control measure’ columns into a new template and provided guidance on how to edit your risk assessments – we will review and approve these regularly.
  • SPORTS CLUBS ONLY – have submitted your NGB Return to Play Guidance alongside your risk assessment here.
  • SOCIETIES ONLY – if your activity is taking place off campus it is not covered under our guidance and you must submit an additional risk assessment for prior approval – more details about this process will be provided shortly.
  • You must list all your activities on the What’s On Calendar here.
  • You must ensure all activity leaders have read your updated core risk assessment once it is approved.
  • You must ensure all participants are members.
  • You must have measures in place to ensure that the maximum capacities detailed in the guidance for each activity are not surpassed.

Please note there is no specific deadline for submitting your updated core risk assessment and we will review submissions periodically throughout the summer and Term 1. However if you want to restart activities for mid-September you will need to re-submit your risk assessment before 4th September and a minimum of 10 working days before your planned activity. As it will take time for us to review your risk assessments, we recommend that you get them to us as early as possible before your planned first in-person activity.

If any of the above steps have not been met your activity cannot take place. We will publish a list of clubs and societies who have been approved for in-person activity on the Union website – if your group is not on this list then your activity cannot go ahead under any circumstances.

This is new territory for us all and we recognise that our guidance and policies may need to adapt and change at short notice – the guidance page on the website will be updated regularly and if there are any major changes we will let you know. We want to support you to run a wide range of in-person activity from the welcome period onwards, but always ensure we uphold the guidance we have produced as it is designed to keep your student community safe.

Welcome Period Update

Membership Products

All clubs and societies will automatically have a free ‘remote’ membership. This will allow students to join in with your club/society from wherever they are, and take part in online activities. You will get to decide what is and isn’t included with this membership, as long as all remote members are able to connect with your social activities online.

In order to help support you for the upcoming year, you will also be given the opportunity to review the other membership products and prices that you would like to have for your group. In the next few weeks, we will circulate a webform where you will be able to let us know which membership products you would like to set up for your club/society, and the prices you would like these set at. This is in addition to your free remote membership, and can be different from what you listed in your annual registration form.

Please also note, membership products are currently disabled on the Students’ Union website, to ensure students do not purchase membership for the 2019/20 academic year. Your club/society page may be showing a membership price which you don’t expect – please don’t worry as this is most likely a previous product price and does not reflect the products which will be set up for the 2020/21 year.

Room Bookings

As mentioned in our recent training, in light of the current situation UCL will not be granting presidents access to book UCL rooms this year. However, we have been working with UCL to get as much space as possible allocated for clubs and societies on campus. We will be handling the booking of these spaces centrally and will send out a guide on how you can book them as soon as our room allocation has been confirmed.

Welcome Period Stretch Tents

We are putting up two stretch tents for the welcome period to give you a chance to run a variety of in-person activities in a sheltered outdoor space. We’re pleased to confirm we are now taking applications for slots between 28th September and 9th October – this will be a great opportunity for you to safely showcase your activity. To apply for a slot please follow the guidance and submit your request here.

Union Website Access and UCL App

If you have completed your mandatory training and had all your registration documents approved you should have access to edit your webpage and add events to our What’s On Calendar. We are aware that some of you are experiencing issues which we are working through as quickly as we can.

In a previous email we mentioned that you will have the opportunity to have your events added to the ‘Welcome to UCL’ app. We will regularly upload events from the Students’ Union What’s On Calendar to the app over the next few weeks, so don’t worry if you haven’t been able to get your events online yet.

COVID-19 Guidance

You will have been emailed our COVID-19 Secure Activity Guidance. Please ensure you have read this guidance fully.

In order for any in-person activity to be approved you must read this guidance, then review and submit your COVID-19 core risk assessment here. To reiterate, you MUST NOT put any in-person events on the What’s On Calendar, or attempt any in-person activity until you have written confirmation that your COVID-19 core risk assessment has been approved. It will take a few weeks for your risk assessment to be reviewed after submission, so please bear this in mind. All groups who are approved for in-person core activity will be listed on this webpage.

Please note that social activities (e.g. picnics, parties, dinners, pub crawls etc.) cannot go ahead in-person at the moment. Please make sure you read all the guidance in detail as certain activities are not currently permitted (e.g. off campus events such as trips to museums, walking tours etc.). If you would like to host an activity not covered by the guidance, please email Dan at [email protected], and we will be able to discuss options with you.

Digital Welcome Fair - Editing Your Stall

It is now possible to edit your club or society stall for the Digital Welcome Fair! Please note, if you do not have access to edit your webpage on the Students’ Union website, you may not be able to edit your stall yet. We are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.

You can edit your club/society stall by following the instructions on this page: https://studentsunionucl.org/staff/systems-it-resources/digital-fairs-for-union-admin/digital-fairs-stallholder-guide.

Please expand and read all the sections on this page before getting in touch with any questions. This page will be updated on a regular basis with frequently asked questions.

Although you will be able to edit your stall up to the day of the Digital Welcome Fair, we recommend updating your page as soon as possible before the 11th September. We will be checking over content, and we will be able to assist with any content uploaded before this date. Remember, you will need to make sure your content is not offensive or inappropriate, in line with the Publicity Statement you signed as part of your Club/Society Annual Registration Contract. If you upload content after the 11th September which breaches these terms, the Union reserves the right to take down this content without further consultation with your club or society.

If you would like to discuss the content for your Digital Welcome Fair stall, please email Henry on [email protected], who will be happy to help.

If you experience a technical issue and cannot find a resolution on the page above, please email [email protected]. A member of staff will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Please note, elements of the Digital Welcome Fair website (such as the ‘view’ function) are still under development, so don’t worry if everything isn’t working perfectly right away. We’re working hard to ensure everything will be up to date in time for the Digital Welcome Fair.

Grant Applications

We are happy to announce that applications for 2020-21 Grant funding can now be submitted.

In previous years both Grant and Additional Grant funding has been available to clubs and societies, however in light of the current situation we have changed the way we allocate this funding for 2020/21. We have instead introduced a rolling Grant application process for the year opening on the 1st September. 

To apply and for further guidance, please visit the following webform: https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/grant-application-form-2020-21. This page includes the guidance and criteria you need to meet in order to apply for Grant funding. 

If you have queries about the process, please email [email protected]

Deadline Reminder

In order for your club or society to have a stall at the digital Welcome Fair, and to have your membership on sale – you must have completed the club and society registration process and compulsory training by 9am 21st September.

This means:

If you have not reached the required 80% pass mark for a training module, you will receive a separate email inviting you to join a catch up training session on Microsoft Teams.

Please note that you MUST NOT submit your ‘COVID-19’ core risk assessment until you have had your core risk assessment approved.

As you know the original deadline for completion was in June, and so we are unable to extend the deadline any further. In light of the current situation we have been as lenient as we can, however any group failing to complete registration and training by the 21st September will not be able to take part in the digital Welcome Fair.

We’re really excited to welcome both you and new students back for the new academic year, and so we encourage you to complete all the requirements above before the 21st September so we can support you as best we can.

Membership Products

As mentioned in our recent training, the way clubs and societies host activities in Term 1 will need to be adapted in line with social distancing. This gives us an opportunity to review the membership products that your group would like to set for the next year.  

You can request the membership products you would like to set for the 2020/21 academic year through this webform: https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/club-society-membership-products.  

If you would like to request more than one membership product, please re-submit this webform as many times as needed. 

All clubs and societies will automatically be set a free ‘remote’ membership. You do not need to request a free remote membership through this webform. 

Please note if you have not changed the price of your membership products, you still must submit this form.

Your standard membership product should not cost less than last year unless agreed in advance with the Students’ Union. Please also note, if your standard membership product is free, in most cases you will not be eligible for Grant funding from the Union. 

Students will be able to upgrade from free remote membership to paid membership by purchasing the relevant product at any point during the year. If any students would like to upgrade from one type of paid membership to another type of paid membership, they will need to request a refund for the first product before purchasing the next. 

The deadline for submitting the membership product webform is 4.00pm Thursday 17th September. If you do not submit your request on time we cannot guarantee that your membership products will be online before the start of term. 

Digital Welcome Fair & Room Bookings

Digital Welcome Fair

With the Digital Welcome Fair fast approaching we wanted to get in touch to remind you to make sure you don’t miss out on the biggest opportunity of the year to attract new members and showcase your activities on 30th September and 3rd October. You can edit your club/society stall by following the instructions on this page: https://studentsunionucl.org/staff/systems-it-resources/digital-fairs-for-union-admin/digital-fairs-stallholder-guide.

Please expand and read all the sections on this page before getting in touch with any questions. This page will be updated on a regular basis with frequently asked questions.

You must have logged on and edited your welcome fair stall by 9am on 28th September. After this deadline we will be deleting all stalls that have not been edited in advance of the first fair going live on 30th September. 

If you would like to discuss the content for your Digital Welcome Fair stall, please email Henry on [email protected], who will be happy to help.

If you experience a technical issue and cannot find a resolution on the page above, please email [email protected]. A member of staff will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Room Bookings

In light of the current situation we have made the decision to open room bookings for Bloomsbury and Lewis Building from 1st October. If you have been approved for in person activity you will be given access to book our spaces in the next week, and we will approve bookings for the 1st October onwards as soon as possible. 

For bookings in the Wilkins Terrace stretch tent (max capacity 30) you can request the schedule so far. If you would like to book a slot (max 1 hour 45 minutes) between 28th September and 9th October please complete the following web form: https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/stretch-tent-application-form

Remember that only activities specifically approved in your COVID-19 risk assessment can take place in this space. We are also monitoring the new government guidance released today, and we will update you with any affect this will have on your activities as soon as possible. 

COVID-19 Update

Updated Information

https://studentsunionucl.org/students-union-ucl-clubs-and-societies-covid-19-secure-activity-guidance 

COVID-19 Officer 

The club or society president will be the designated COVID-19 Officer. They must do the following: 

Hold all attendee data for any in person activity held within the last 28 days. Be contactable on mobile and email. It is expected that you will respond within 3 hours of receiving urgent requests for data from the Union. Have full understanding of your approved COVID-19 risk assessment and ensure it is followed at all times. Ensure that the specified capacity for your activity (in line with your risk assessment, return to play plans and room capacity guidelines) is never exceeded. Report any concerns about activity, potential breaches or issues to the Union as soon as possible. 

There are no exceptions to this rule and any group found to have been allowing non-members to be involved in activity will have all in-person activity immediately stopped. 

If there is a legitimate reason why the president cannot be the COVID-19 Officer you must inform us by email as soon as possible providing details of which committee member will be taking on the role.  

Attendance Recording 

In line with new UCL guidance attendee data from all in person activity now needs to be kept for 28 days (rather than 21) days. 

Society Activity and ‘the rule of six’ 

Following the newly introduced legislation please ensure you have read and understand our approach which has been updated in our guidance. A summary can be found here: https://studentsunionucl.org/articles/our-on-campus-activity-in-term-one.  

Important Reminders

Based on questions we have been receiving and feedback we have given on risk assessments we wanted to remind you of the following: 

COVID-19 Approval  

You may not arrange any in person activities until you have confirmation that your COVID-19 Core Risk assessment has been approved. All clubs or societies who are approved for in-person activity are displayed here:  http://studentsunionucl.org/clubs-societies/approved-for-in-person-activities.  

If your club or society is not on this list then you MUST not arrange any in-person activity under any circumstances. 

Once you have in-person activity approved you MUST ensure all in-person events are on the Union What’s On Calendar.  

Capacity Control 

Along with the other specific controls in included in our guidance, it is important that every COVID-19 risk assessment includes specific detail about how you will ensure that the capacity allowed for each activity is never exceeded. 

Membership 

Please note that no one can attend any in-person activity (including taster sessions) unless they hold current club/society membership. 

Remote membership is sufficient for students attending taster sessions. Should someone choose to continue attending in-person activity, they should upgrade to the relevant membership via the Union website. 

COVID-19 & Storage Update

COVID-19 Update

As you may be aware the Government has announced that London will be moved into the ‘High’ COVID Alert Level as of Saturday 16 October.  This means a number of new rules have been introduced, including:

You must not socialise with anybody outside of your household or support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place You must not socialise in a group of more than 6 outside, including in a garden or other spaces like beaches or parks (other than where specific exemptions apply in law). 

Sports Clubs

These changes do not effect Sporting activity organised by Clubs in line with approved COVID-19 risk assessments. Unless specifically contacted by us you can continue your activity.

Societies

We still believe that the majority of the Society core activity should be exempt from the new rules about household mixing as it is so central to students educational experience. However, as there is a lack of clarity in the government guidance we unfortunately have to pause INDOOR in person activity both on and off campus with immediate effect.

Approved activity conducted OUTSIDE either on the Wilkins Terrace or off campus (when approved by an additional risk assessment) can continue with a Maximum of Six individuals attending. We are also doing everything we can to secure additional bookable outdoor space on campus. 

These are not changes we wanted to make and appreciate how frustrating this might be. However, we are working hard to get more guidance on which activities are exempt from the new rules, and we will restart Indoor in person activity as soon as we can.

To discuss the changes, and for support putting on in person activities within the new rules, please join our briefing session on Monday at 17.00 – you can join the Teams link here

Thank you for everyone’s continued efforts to follow the COVID-19 guidance we have put in place. You are all playing your part in keeping our community safe.

 

Buy Your Membership Now 

It's really important that you and your committee members purchase membership of your club or society as soon as possible. This can be free remote membership or a paid membership. You cannot be a committee member for a club or society without membership. 

We will also shortly be hosting elections - in order to stand for election or vote, students will need to have membership. Encourage students trying out your activity to purchase their memberships now, so as many people as possible are able to stand and vote in Term 1 elections. Remember - remote membership gives students the right to stand for election and vote!

 

Storage 

In line with COVID-19 guidance you can now access storage areas in the Bloomsbury Theatre building following the process below.

Please note that in line with COVID-19 guidelines only one individual may attend to access storage and must:

Email [email protected] at least 5 working days in advance stating the individual needing access, date, time and storage area – please be as flexible with timings as possible. We will then contact you with a time slot as close as possible to the time you have requested when we can meet you in the Bloomsbury Theatre building to open the storage area. If your request for storage access is after 4pm, security on the front desk of the Bloomsbury Theatre building may need to let you in – we will let them know and you will need to show your student ID. Please note that we are unable to grant access to storage unless you have booked in advance. Use sanitiser stations provided before entering the storage area and after leaving. Wear gloves where possible. Wear face coverings at all times. Avoid touching any surfaces or equipment other than the specific items being collected. Maintain 2m social distancing at all times. The maximum capacity of each storage space is 1 individual.

 

Activity Reps Election – Deadline 19 October 12:00 

We’re looking for 15 Activities Reps this year to join the Activities Zone. Reps were crucial in UCL and Union decision making going into the pandemic, and they’ll be crucial as we emerge on the other side too… This is an opportunity to make a real difference. If you’re a current member of a club or society you can nominate yourself in your respective category: 

Sports Non-portfolio representatives (x6) 

Societies representatives (x9)

Student Media Performance Art Non-Performance Art Societies Non-Portfolio Rep (x6)

 

Nominate yourself here.

 

Under 18's Training 

If your club or society has any members who are under the age of 18, presidents must attend one of our training sessions on Teams. If you’re the president of your group and you can’t attend - your treasurer or welfare officer can attend in your place and pass on the key information to you. This compulsory training will provide you with important information about the specific responsibilities to students under the age of 18 who are involved in your group.

To find out if you have Under 18s in your group please check your membership list on your page on the Union website

To join an Under 18’s training session, click on the Teams link below:

Wednesday 21st October | 2.00 - 3.00pm | Join the meeting here! 

 

Club & Society Elections 

As you will know, we will be hosting an online election later in Term 1, to fill all outstanding committee positions and interim roles. This election will take the same format as Term 3 last year, where nominations and voting will happen at the same time for everyone. This helps increase engagement with your elections, because students can see all the positions they're eligible to stand and vote for in one place.

You won't be able to have an EGM or online by-election in the meantime, as in order to stand or vote in an election - students need to have been a member of your group for at least 28 days. As yet, no-one will have held membership for 28 days. 

We will be sending around information about our Term 1 election in the next few weeks - so do keep an eye out. 

 

Navigating the New Normal – Skills Sessions 

In light of the circumstances in the UK and around the world, we recognise that for students leaders this year looks and feels very different. We know the vital role that you are all playing in keeping communities connected, and recognise the challenges the current situation brings – that’s why we have reconfigured our Skills Programme this year.

Working with a professional training consultancy we have developed a new skills development programme - Navigating The New Normal. The programme is designed to support you to successfully navigate the current situation by focusing on three key areas: Leading, Resilience, and Running Successful Events. You can choose if you would like to attend just one, two or all three of these interactive sessions which will be repeated throughout the term - they are all delivered via Zoom so you access them wherever you are. To book your free place go to our website.