1. Setting up a Club or Society
i. What Clubs and Societies are and How to Start One
A club or society is a student association which revolves around a common interest. This can be as broad as a society of people who share the name Seán to as narrow as a specific sport. They can really be about anything you and your peers think is fun or interesting.
To start a club/society, you must register it with the Students’ Union for the purposes of funding allocation. Each year, the committee must re-register the club/society.
A club/society, like most organizations, is made up of the ordinary members and the executive committee, who are the representatives and organizers of the club/society.
In IADT, ordinary members of clubs/societies do not generally have to register or pay a fee, but this varies across clubs/societies. While the exact number and specifics of roles on the (executive) committee varies, a minimum of 3 filled committee positions is required.
All club/society committee positions must be elected by members of the club/society at least once per year once they have been established. A formal election process is not required.
ii. Building up your new Club or Society
A club/society without any members is just an idea.
The first step in building a new club/society up is getting people involved, either as members or as part of the committee.
Some key ways to get people involved:
Reach out to friends/coursemates who might share a mutual interest
Register a table at the Clubs and Societies Sign-Up days which happen twice per year
Gather sign-ups around campus
Put up posters around campus with a QR code to your WhatsApp group
Create a Tiktok/Instagram page and follow some people
Ensuring each new member signs an interest form is incredibly important as part of your application to show there is an interest in your club/society from the student body.
Once you have members, your club/society will need to meet. Consistency is one of the key similarities across all successful clubs/societies, so focusing on what will keep the club/society going in the long term, over the course of the year and into the future, is more important than big events that take a huge amount of time and planning.
Regular open meetings, typically weekly, are how the longest running clubs/societies keep membership up and build community. The first few meetings will be quiet, but if you keep at it, people will start coming by.
iii. Submitting your application
Registering a Club/Society is facilitated by the Students’ Union for the purposes of the Clubs and Societies Oversight Committee, who review applications.
Links to document examples, templates, and the application form can be found on the committees hub.
ALL Clubs and Societies will need to provide the following:
Society Constitution OR Terms of Reference
Budget Proposal
Names, roles, and contact details of 3 committee members
Logins for any Club/Society social media and/or email accounts
Confirmation that 3+ committee members will attend mandatory trainings, if they have not already
NEW Clubs and Societies will need to provide the following:
A brief description of the Club/Society and how it will benefit IADT
Interest Form with signatures
CONTINUING Clubs and Societies will need to provide the following:
Previous year’s spending accounts
A report of the previous year’s activities
A new (or renewed) committee for the upcoming/current academic year
iv. Key advice for running a Club or Society
Running clubs or societies should be fun.
If it has stopped being fun, you should take a step back.
There will always be someone interested in maintaining a club/society. You are not an island and you should ask for help when you need it.
As much fun as they are, try not to forget that your other life responsibilities such as your studies/work come first, which goes for your entire committee.
If someone in the club/society isn't able to fulfill their roles, be understanding. It’s unpaid and done in your free time, so be kind to one another!
2. How (nearly) everything works
i. The Oversight Committee
The Clubs and Societies Oversight Committee is made up of the following:
Students’ Union Clubs and Societies Officer
2 other Students’ Union Officers, including the President
3 Class Reps, elected at the first Class Rep Council every year
The Oversight Committee is responsible for reviewing and overseeing clubs/societies, and allocating their funding. They monitor club/society spending and activities, and make sure they are fulfilling their obligations.
One member of the Clubs and Societies Council is allowed to sit in on Oversight Committee meetings, for the purposes of transparency, if requested.
Following the close of the applications deadline, the Oversight Committee will meet and review applications and decide what proportion of the overall budget each club/society will get for the year, as well as whether they will be deemed recognised, probationary, or unrecognised by the committee.
After this, each committee will be informed of their result, which may be a number of weeks following the close of applications. In this email, the process for receiving the funding will be explained.
ii. Clubs and Societies Council
The Clubs and Societies Council is a semi-autonomous body of the Union, responsible for representing the members of Clubs and Societies on club and society matters.
It meets at least 4 times a year, but generally more often, where the representatives from clubs/societies can meet and discuss issues relevant to them.
In cases where a vote is taken, each club/society has one delegate (voting member).
In order to change the policy outlining the Clubs and Societies Council, which also contains most regulations surrounding clubs/societies, amendments must be approved bi-laterally by the body itself and the Students’ Union Class Rep Council.
iii. Rights and Responsibilities of Clubs and Societies
Clubs/Societies are expected to adhere to the following responsibilities:
Carry out activities, events, and/or meetings, on a regular basis, which enrich the college community.
Have a functional committee, made up of at least 3 students, each of which have an active role in the management of the Club or Society.
Follow all Union policy in regards to spending and engagement.
Keep track of all spending throughout the year, and provide complete per-semester accounts including bank statements and receipts to the Oversight Committee.
Provide its members with the ability to elect its committee, at least once per academic year.
Ensure the wellbeing of its members at all events and meetings
Have a constitution or terms of reference for its members as approved by its members
Complete any mandatory trainings or procedures as determined by the Oversight Committee
Clubs/Societies have the following rights explicitly outlined:
May remove any atteendee from events/meetings in the interests of their or other attendees’ welfare
To spend its budget or seek reimbursement from its budget
To store property in the designated storage space
To request an appeal to decisions of the Oversight Committee
iv. Key advice for running a Club or Society
While IADT has significantly less resources for clubs/societies than other colleges, there are 2 key facilities committee members can take advantage of:
Clubs and Societies Storage Room
The storage room is on the left when you enter The Chapel, and can be unlocked on request by one of the Students’ Union officers. It is very small and used by most clubs/societies, so care must be taken to keep it tidy and clean, for the purposes of both safety and hygiene.
Clubs/societies are each entitled to a box, which must be labelled, and kept free of non-shelf stable food. Bigger items can be stored too, but it should be cleared with one of the officers first.
Students’ Union Clubs and Societies Officer
The Clubs and Societies Officer is elected to represent and assist clubs/societies. They’re there to answer questions, give you a hand, or put you in contact with the right person.
This is an unpaid role that is occupied by a full-time student, so please be nice to me… I mean them. :-)
If the Clubs and Societies Officer is unavailable or hasn’t responded in a timely manner, just check in with the Students’ Union full-time officers during office hours.
v. Booking Rooms and The Chapel
If you want to book a room in the college, email Sandra Newell (sandra.newell@iadt.ie). She will respond within 1 to 3 working days.
If you want to book the Chapel, contact the Students’ Union full-time officers by email (info@iadtsu.com) or swing by the office.
Make sure to get bookings in as soon as possible, as both Sandra or the Students’ Union officers receive a lot of correspondence and occasionally miss emails. Additionally, they do not work weekends, so if you reach out on Friday, you will not get a response until Monday.
Recurring bookings need to be renewed each semester.
3. Understanding Committees
i. Committee roles and what they mean
The exact roles within your committee will vary depending on your needs. This is a list of the most common ones, explaining what they are, their function within the club/society, and what their roles/responsibilities might be.
President / Chairperson
This is the lead coordinator of the club/society, who will have varying levels of authority in different committees, with some clubs/societies having Co-Chairs rather than a single leader.
In general, they are not responsible for deciding the direction/aims of an existing club/society, which would be decided by the membership, but to help execute them.
Key Responsibilities: Keeping meetings on task, identify plans, delegate/assign tasks, key liaison with college/students’ union.
Secretary / Vice-Chair
This is generally the second-in-command of the club/society, serving as the president/chairperson’s deputy and focusing on logistical organization.
Key Responsibilities: Take minutes (notes) at meetings, handle emails and paperwork.
Treasurer
As this is the person chiefly responsible for the club/society’s budget, this should be someone you can fully trust not to improperly spend club/society money.
Key Responsibilities: Creating budget, keeping spending accounts, holder of the club/society debit card, keeps receipts/seeks reimbursements, make financial reports.
Communications/Media Officer
This should be your club/society’s “people person” with a good eye for what is and isn’t effective communication, and is a role that benefits from strong visual design skills.
Key Responsibilities: Managing the club/society social media accounts and other publications, keeping club/society pages up-to-date, create and upload posts for social media, public relations and answering queries for the club/society.
Events Officer
In clubs/societies where events are a secondary focus, or that carries out larger/more complicated events, this role might be present.
Key Responsibilities: Contacting venues, booking rooms, creating running orders, organising materials like food/equipment, liaising with acts/crew
1st Year Rep
Most clubs/societies are made up of 2nd and 3rd years, so having a specific role for 1st years on the committee is an effective way of ensuring freshers are integrated with your club/society as best as possible. They also generally have more free time than other committee members due to a lesser course load. This role is often an informal, unelected role.
Ordinary Committee Member
With larger clubs/societies, it benefits to have committee members who are on board to help with any work that comes up, without having a specified area of focus.
Topic-Specific Role
Almost every club/society will have a role or roles that is specific to their area of focus, such as a music society’s technicians or journalism society’s editors. This is to ensure that if there is an essential skilled task that must be done, there is someone on the committee who is dedicated and trained to carry it out.
ii. Effectively working as a team
Efficient, effective, enjoyable teamwork is based on a few principles: open communication, clear planning, and respect.
However your club/society runs is up to you, but working well as a team means finding what works well for your team, and can and should change based on that team and changing circumstances.
Committee members need to feel like they can freely share their ideas, everyone will be respected, and that decisions will be reached fairly.
For every committee meeting, it’s useful to have the meeting “chaired” or directed by a specific person, to keep discussions on track and that notes are taken so key take-aways are available after the fact. This can be done on a rotating basis or by committee role (i.e. the secretary). This person, ideally, isn’t speaking much, and is instead focused on ensuring everyone else is able to have their say, asking quiet people what they think, making sure everyone is on the same page, and ensuring disagreements are resolved openly and non-confrontationally.
If a consensus can’t be reached through discussion, particularly in the case of complex decision, it’s often necessary to put it to a vote.
An effective vote can only happen if everyone is clear what they are voting on, with each option and its potential result laid out explicitly by the meeting chair, and that everyone is happy with the options being presented.
This can be done verbally, directly ia the meeting chair, or using an online poll system, depending on level of privacy required/location.
iii. How to get things done (well)
Everyone on the committee needs to be on the same page, or at least working with the same information; what is happening, when, where, and who is responsible.
Delegate tasks: Everyone should have a little to do, and nobody should have too much to do
It’s essential to play to people’s strengths, even if that means divvying tasks counter to committee roles, or slightly unequally.
Meeting notes should be detailed, clear, and concise so they can be read quickly
Announcements, either to the committee or public, should be clear and succinct
Maintain a tidy, accessible file system: make a shared online drive for file sharing that everyone on the committee has access to, and everything should be stored in that one place.
The committee should keep in touch consistently, ideally with regular in-person meetings or video-calls. If calls aren’t possible for a period, the president/chairperson should check in with individuals and post updates to the committee.
Keep the committee chat clear of off-topic chatting!!!
Plan ahead: for big projects/events, put together a timeline of smaller deadlines, make a shared calendar that everyone has access to, and give everyone as much time as possible.
iv. Communicating with your team
Be kind. There's not much else to be said here.
It’s not always easy to disagree with your committee, especially when you’re friends, and especially when you feel strongly, but as long as everyone does their best to make decisions fairly and stays true to the fundamental principles of the club/society, that’s okay. As part of a group, the goals and decisions of that group is more important than your individual preferences.
When criticising someone, consider using the “sh*t sandwich:”
State one thing they've done well
State one thing they're not doing well
Close with something else they're doing well
This is not a manipulation tactic, but is intended to make your criticism more effective: strictly negative criticism does not create a healthy environment and undermines your peer’s confidence.
When receiving criticism, try not to take it personally. It’s understandable to be upset, especially if you’ve made a mistake, but focus on listening and understanding to what they are saying, and why they are saying it (hopefully to make the club/society/you better). By doing so, you are respecting them, and by speaking up, they are respecting you.
4. Working with your budget
i. Making a budget
When submitting your application for funding, you’ll create a draft budget of all of the costs you expect your club/society to have for the year. However, the actual amount your club/society will receive will likely be different to this sum, so you should create a final budget for internal use based on that figure.
How that amount is divided is dependent on understanding what purchases will need to be made during the year, so when compiling your budget your treasurer should research what exactly you’ll be buying, where you will be buying it, and how much that will be to ensure your budget is useful.
Early in the year, an entire committee meeting should be held to make not just a plan of your events, but to brainstorm any potential expenses that might arise, such as food, venue bookings, food, equipment, tools, resources, and most importantly, food.
ii. Making purchases
There are two ways to spend your club/society funding:
Using the debit/credit card from your club/society bank account where your budget is deposited
Using your own funds, and seeking reimbursement from the students’ union office with receipts
You must keep a receipt for every purchase you make for your club/society, and physical ones should be scanned/photographed and stored digitally.
Every purchase you make should also be logged in a spreadsheet, of which there is a template available, to keep up-to-date with how much of your budget is being spent, and from which categories. Ideally, this will be a spreadsheet your whole committee can access.
DO NOT LEAVE THIS TO THE END OF THE SEMESTER/YEAR — it is much, much easier to keep track of these things as you go. It’s less work, and you make less mistakes.
More importantly, you will need to submit spending accounts at the end of the semester/year, and the institute has the right to audit a club/society at any time. Clubs/societies are funded using public money, which the institute has a legal responsibility to keep track of.
iii. Creating a club/society bank account
Your club/society will not be directly given its funding as a lump sum unless it has a club/society bank account. This is to ensure that the funding can be accounted for if necessary.
The students’ union has worked with CORE Credit Union in Dún Laoghaire to ensure that the account/funds can be easily transferred to future committee members if necessary.
Go to CORE’s website and click “Join Now” on the homepage.
When asked how you meet the “Common Bond” requirements, select “Other,” and write the name of your club/society, i.e. “IADT Example Society.” You must include IADT here.
Have the following required documents ready:
Proof of attendance in IADT (you can get this from info@iadt.ie)
If requested, proof of club/society registration with IADTSU (you can get this from clubsocs@iadtsu.ie)
Proof of address (i.e. bank statement dated within 6 months)
Photo ID (i.e. passport)
For queries regarding your account setup, you can contact Eoin Ryan (eryan@corecu.ie) or if you are asking in person/on the phone, mention Eoin Ryan’s name to ensure your query is handled by the right person.
5. Events and how to run them (safely and effectively)
i. When to hold an event
College is stressful, life is busy, clubs/societies are meant to be fun, nobody is paying committee members to host events, and nobody is paying anyone to attend. The key to club/society events is understanding that everything surrounding them requires people being willing to give up their free time.
Some clubs/societies host meetings every week and some only hold a couple of big events every year. Some do both.
What is important is that the quantity and variety of the events your club/society hosts is based on what people actually want to engage with for your particular club/society- otherwise you’re just wasting your time and energy.
Every event starts with an idea and a decision to make that idea reality. How you do that varies wildly, but a good start is to figure out the following:
What is my event?
Who would be interested in it, and how many?
When is a good date/time to hold this event?
Will there be external factors (i.e. exams, life stuff) that might affect my ability to work on this or people’s ability to attend?
What do I need to accomplish/prepare before this event, and how long will that take?
How will I promote the event?
Will this be a fun thing for me to do?
Understand when attendance will be low. Avoid doing events near deadlines if you can, and understand fewer people are around in the second semester.
Regardless, make it worth their while! Your club/society has a budget for a reason – incentives like free things & snacks can help new people attend your meetings or events. Consider charging a small ticket fee at bigger events so people feel like they have more of an obligation to go, having spent money.
ii. What you need to get ready to get ready
When planning an event, it is absolutely essential to consider the capacity of your committee itself. If there are just a couple of people running everything, you have less manpower and thus can do less. If you have a big ambition and small team, you’ll need to adjust for that and plan harder and give yourself longer.
When working with external resources, you have no guarantee of urgency, quality, or availability, so get these things sorted as soon as possible.
Where you host an event is more important than anything else, especially because if you lose that location, you have no event. Booking a room/venue should be your first priority. Consider how much the rental fee will be, how close it is to transport links/college, whether people will want to stick around past a certain time, whether people like/dislike the location.
Events take people, and that manifests differently depending on the event. A music/performance event will usually need acts booked before you can promote it, whereas a regular meeting just needs a couple of committee members to supervise. If the event is big enough, an events crew is essential, even if it’s a small one. Spreading out the workload of planning an event, and ensuring you have people around to help carry equipment, scan tickets, answer attendee questions, ensure everyone is safe, isn’t just about making things easier, it’s also about doing things properly and safely.
Equipment specifically can be hard to work with, as who you borrow from (such as the Students’ Union) will determine a lot of how you can use it, for example you might have to hire a sound engineer, or have it in a specific location. Find this out as early in the process as possible to plan accordingly. If you damage someone’s equipment, it is your responsibility to fund replacement/repair, so avoid this by ensuring anyone using the equipment is trained to do so.
For people to attend your event, people need to know it’s happening, what means advertising.
Include all relevant information as clearly as possible. What the event is, when it is, where it is, any perks (i.e. food, raffle, etc.) of attending, and any cost (i.e. ticketed or free).
Visually striking social media posts, especially with a face in the image, do best.
When putting posters around campus, try make them stand out not just in design but in placement.
Reels are promoted more in the Instagram algorithm, but they need to be snappy and fun to be effective.