YouAlberta
Maybe you’ve found yourself saying “gee, the University of Alberta is missing this one club that I think would be absolutely perfect and there are so many of us who would be interested in it! What do I do?!”
Well, you start a club.
“But how do I do that?” you ask. Well, that’s exactly what I am here to help you with! During my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, I started two different clubs (a poetry club and the History and Classics Undergrad Society). I am here to impart all of my club-starting wisdom with you so that you too might embark on the amazing journey of being a University of Alberta Students’ Union club president (it’s worth it, trust me).
Find interested people
There is a minimum amount of people you need to have for your club to be recognized — it’s 10 people. Reach out to professors if you’re having trouble finding people to join your club. When I was starting up my poetry club, I reached out to creative writing professors asking them to let their classes know about it and I gathered enough people to actually start the club.
Safe Walk’s poster service to advertise your club! Seriously, it’s a great way to get posters out across campus! You really never know who is going to be interested in your events. Even though I was co-president of the History and Classics Undergraduate Society and most of our events were themed around our degrees, I had chemistry majors and engineering majors come to my events. You really never know.
Know the SU rules
Make sure that you are very familiar with them. Seriously. Know them inside-out. You can find them here.
Write the constitution
Use the template the SU provides. It will be extremely helpful. If you can, look at another club’s constitution to see how they do things, too. It can be helpful to see things like whether they hold their AGM in September or April (sometimes people hold the AGM in September so that they can have students new to the U of A be on their executive) and things like that.
Set The first meeting
Exciting! Be proud! Hold elections! Have fun! Review your constitution with the members and then submit it. (Remember, you should review your constitution once a year with your members!) Remember that this meeting doesn’t just have to be serious, it can be fun and exciting and everything in between.
Apply to the SU
Your first application might not actually be approved by the SU and that’s okay. They will tell you what’s wrong and then you just have to resubmit the applications with the changes made. It can be a long process, but it will work out in the end. You should also apply for a ccid for your club through IST.
Stay organized
Start a team drive in Google Drive and share it with everyone on your executive. Put everything in it (including your constitution, agendas, attendance etc.). This way, things will never get lost and everyone will have access to something if they need it (or forget something and need to go look it up later). Keep a binder hard copy of everything in the Google Drive and pass it on to your successor. You never know when technology is going to fail and it’s nice to have a backup.Plan ahead
I recommend planning all of your major events for the year in September. This will save you so much frustration when you need to submit them. Also, you should SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS EARLY! I had events canceled because I didn’t submit them early enough in Bearsden to get approval. Don’t be like me. (Also, you have to submit events though Bearsden, there is no other way to submit them).Get to know your team
Apply for awards!
Speaking of SU Awards…. apply for them and for all the awards you can like Student Group awards, OASIS awards, and external awards. For one of my clubs we didn’t have any budget, and it made coming up with event ideas a bit tougher. It was nice to have a budget (we also got a bit of money through OASIS for being a department association) and to be able to order pizza for the events.Be persistent
Don’t give up hope if people don’t come to your events at first. I spent many, many days sitting alone in rooms waiting for people to come to my events. It took a long time. But after so many events where this happened, people started to come. One of the most rewarding feelings was when over thirty people showed up to the History and Classics Undergrad Society’s first event of the year and we all laughed and ate pizza and played board games together. You will have that moment too, it might just take a while (mine took a year).
Plan for the future
When you leave your post, make sure that you give your successor all your tips and tricks. It’s scary stepping into someone else’s role without any background info, so make sure that you pass on all your wisdom.
Have fun!
Remember that everyone here is a student, and so are you. It can be tough to balance being a president and being a student, but give yourself a break once in a while and don’t be afraid to delegate. One of the mistakes I made was trying to do everything myself. Not only did I burn out, my executives weren’t super motivated because I was literally doing their jobs for them.
Enjoy the process. You’re doing something amazing and you’re going to make fantastic friends doing it.
Be sure to check out the FAQs on the SU’s website, too!