Organising Activities & Events

Students’ Union UCL’s facilitates thousands of external speakers every year and has policies and procedures in place to help protect freedom of speech within the law. The Union is committed to empower and support our clubs and societies to organise invitations for a variety of speakers that stimulate debate and further non-academic development for the benefit of students. 

Serving and consuming alcohol at events on campus is regulated under UK licensing laws by Camden Council. Having alcohol at events in UCL rooms where the alcohol will be charged for by tickets either on the door or pre sold must be licensed and cannot happen without permission.

This how to guide will give you all the information you need to run your own events and get the most out of them. Use it as a checklist so you do not forget anything. 

In this section:

• Booking a venue
• Equipment
• Promotion
• Before the event
• During the event
• After the event

Tickets for all club/society events should be sold through the online Union Shop. 

Please note - Eventbrite can be used to sell tickets but only for free events (although this website can do free tickets too!).

Step 1

Make final decisions on all the details of your event. You will need to know:

All current UCL students are automatically members of Students’ Union UCL, however there is also a way that non UCL students, UCL graduates and UCL staff can take part in our club and society activities through a Visiting/Associate Membership.

See below for guidance and criteria:

• Bloomsbury Theatre Guidance & Criteria
• Bloomsbury Theatre Bids - Important Dates & Deadlines

Useful forms:

• Bloomsbury Theatre Bid Form 2019/20

Students’ Union UCL, and therefore your club or society, is a charity. It is against the law for charities to donate money directly to other charities straight from your Club or Society account. However you can raise money for a charity through an event and this how to guide explains how you go about doing that.

It is possible to order catering from the refectory (Sodexo), or from an external caterer.

External Catering

Find out how many people you are expecting, and work out your budget from that.

General guidelines for helping you to do this:

Bids are now being accepted for The Garage Theatre’s Term 2 Season!

The Garage Theatre will be based in Camden People’s Theatre https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/ close to campus, for 3 weeks between 3rd and 22nd February 2020 and applications are open to all Students’ Union UCL affiliated clubs and societies. 

It is important for the Activities Team to know details about your trip or tour, to make sure you’re insured for all your activities. We also want to make sure that Presidents have thought about anything that could go wrong, as ultimately it is the President who’s responsible for any costs, injuries and safety of the Club or Society’s members.

Please note if your event involves a high risk activity, all participants must fill out a High Risk Activity Personal Details Form.

The Activities Network Executive expects that you abide by the following when hosting auditions for theatre productions or for any other auditioned events.

Students’ Union UCL needs to keep a record of all the films shown by clubs and societies, because we are a public organisation, and must pay a license for films to be shown publicly.

As part of trips to places of interest, or just to get you to competitions, you may need to hire some sort of vehicle, whether it is a mini-van, a minibus or a car to transport your members or your equipment to and from your activities. This guide explains how you do this. With all the below methods, make sure you follow the correct financial procedures when paying for the hire of these vehicles.

When running an event for your Club or Society, it is important that you advertise your event. 

You can add Club or Society events to the What’s On Calendar yourself, as long as you are a Club/Society President or Treasurer.

Step 1

Go to the studentsunionucl.org website and go to the What’s On Calendar

Instructor registration happens annually, regardless of how long an instructor has been teaching. No instructing may take place until Instructor registration is complete.

Instructors can be fellow students, members of UCL or Students’ Union UCL staff or completely external people.

No matter what they do for a job, Students’ Union UCL Finance Department consider them as Self Employed – this is to do with tax status.