Starting a society at uni and expanding it.

Is there anyone who are President's or of authoritive power in their societies? Could they please tell me; How do you expand a new society (advertising etc.) How do you get sponsors (what do you tell them they can benefit from)
and any other info you think that might help.

Thanks :wink:

Reply 1

Spunky

Leafleting and emailing seem to be the main methods of publcising things, especially with students. Here everyone has an individual pidgeon-hole so it makes things a lot easier.

Sponsors are a harder bunch to win over (compared to students), really you need a lot of members before they become interested, or need to be amazing at what you do and get that across to them. Try getting as many members for the society first, it shouldn't be that hard to get a few hundred people to sign up if you use your friends wisely, then start negotiating with sponsors. Also I'd recommend that you know the drill before getting in touch with sponsors, you want to be professional from the offset, you won't usually get a second chance.

Reply 2

ElWilson

Any reccommended years to start a society - 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.?

Reply 3

President_Ben

Casey

Leafleting and emailing seem to be the main methods of publcising things, especially with students. Here everyone has an individual pidgeon-hole so it makes things a lot easier.

How primmy :wink:

Email is dead handy...

it shouldn't be that hard to get a few hundred people to sign up if you use your friends wisely

Depends what you charge for membership... or rather, because we have to charge for membership, it's tricky to make people sign up.

Reply 4

ElWilson

So obviously - you say ___£'s to join several talks from companies/people etc. and say that you have to pay a few more quid to continue and join?

How much on average should you charge?

Anyone?

Its compulsary for us to charge £3, we can go higher if we want though.

I'm the publicity officer for the computing sciences society, which got voted though officially sometime last week. I've got an email going out to all 13,000 students early this week; and some press releases sorted for the various campus publications.

If you've got any more questions, fire away.

Reply 7

Pentatonic

Your university should have a guide book for prospective societies. It'll include the set fee for membership. That's the case in my experiences anyway.

Reply 8

ElWilson

Yes, i've just looked at that.

How should one go by attempting to run for President, is it done democratically or does the present President pass on the royal heir?

Thanks.

Reply 9

Pentatonic

A new president and committee are usually selected at the end of the academic year so that they can prepare for the next year. This applies for most societies at the Queen's University of Belfast. Obviously different universities will have different rules.

Have a chat with the head of the students union at your university. They really should have it on their site.