Clubs Academy 16 successful societies & exuberant elections

Successful Societies  Introduction  Mapping Your Society  Who Does What?  What Does Who?  What Where When?  Who Which Why?  Wet Wet Wet?  Running an Election  Conclusion

Introduction  What do you want to achieve?  One year, one society, one you  Who else do you have?  Who is on your committee?  Do you know them?  Do you them well?  Do you know them too well?  Balance personal friendships with professionalism  When might this be difficult?  When might this be useful?

Mapping Your Society  Consider what was covered in the year planning  Check that each objective fits into SMART format:  Specific  Measurable  Achievable  Realistic  Time  Example: Increase membership by 10% this semester through running new collaboration events. Get whole committee to promote these events makes it realistic. Reviewed at end of Autumn 2016.

Who Does What?  Your committee can be made of anywhere between 3 and 25 people  Every society has a president, treasurer and secretary  You can always add to this, through a constitution change  Not every position has to be filled at an election  In your experience, do people stick to these roles?  What should each role do?

What Does Who? Presidents  Responsible for guiding societies to its role.  Accountable for overall running of the society  Chairs meetings Secretaries  Room bookings, communication, events, forms.  A leading, and visible, role for all members  Assists in all committee meetings Treasurers  Finance!  Ensure the club’s balance is healthy  Sign off on expenditure  Look to new channels of funding Haud on pal, this isnae exhaustive!

What does a good committee look like? Work in mixed groups 10 minutes, map out a successful committee, consider what attributes, skills and attributes are required?

Which Where When  Meetings are the best way to keep your society developing, ensure the committee are working and that the membership are getting what they want  Good meetings can be productive and inspirational – aim for everyone to leave with a buzz!  Why bother?  Platform to plan and organise future events  Discuss any problems or matters arising  Share information  Generate plans for your aspirations!

Who Which Why  Everyone has their own role  But this should be flexible  Presidents! You have been voted in to guide the society  Don’t be afraid to delegate, everyone does their share  Get off to a confident start! Start meetings formally  Secretaries & Treasurers! Don’t be undermined  Your roles are incredibly important, and often under- appreciated.  You are directly responsible for the quality of your society

Presidents – Chairing a Meeting  Your purpose is to keep control and guide the meeting so that it works:  Summarise – Review each discussion before moving on, to ensure everything is agreed  Problems – Be constructive here, identify solutions  Agenda – Stick to it, it is there to help!  Neutrality – Something passionate coming up? Delegate!  Keep On Track – Watch out for tangents, ensure everything is covered and nobody is getting too excited  Or, in one easy acronym…

Secretaries – Helping Meetings  Your job here is to support the president in making the meeting worthwhile and beneficial:  Democratic – If there is a vote coming up, prepare for it with the president  Attendance – Who was there, and who wasn’t?  Inform – Tell the society about future meetings, and share what was covered  Minutes – Write up a concise summary of each meeting  There should never be a meeting for meeting’s sake!

Wet Wet Wet “I feel it in my toes, love is all around me”

What Does A Successful Society Look Like?  Effective Committee  Work well together, everyone pulls their weight and shares the burden at challenging times  Dynamic and Varied Events  Good Relationships  Collaboration amongst other clubs  Eg. Media Societies winning at C&S Awards Ball…  Laser Quest – Rock Society, Assassins Guild, Paintball Society  Alternative Hustings – Politics Society and Air3 Radio  Queer Disco – Gender Equality Movement, LGBT+ Society, Rock Society

Accreditation  There a multiple platforms for your commitment to your society to be recognised.  Community recognition  Local Volunteer Awards  Saltire Awards  University recognition  Skills Awards  Advanced Transcripts  Union achievements  Clubs & Socs Awards Ball  Earn Your Stripes

Clubs Academy 16 how to hold an election

Annual General Meetings Must be held before 1 st April each year Treasurer delivers financial reports for the year Membership fee for following year is decided Any changes to constitution are agreed upon New committee is elected

Before you even start Tell all your members about the AGM well in advance, and give them the opportunity to stand for election. Only current Stirling Students may stand for committee positions. Make sure your meeting is quorate! This means you have to have a simple majority of 50% +1 of your total membership. Only currently University of Stirling Students have voting status. If you are unsure how to count votes, or how to hold an AGM please ask a Sabbatical Officer, or Part Time Officer to come along. We are happy to help!

Treasurer's report Start of year balance Membership fee/number of members Notable expenditure End of year balance

Membership Fee/Constitutional Changes These are voted on by simple majority. The AGM must be quorum with at least 50% +1 of all paid student members in attendance. Voting is done by show of hands.

Electing a New Committee  Uncontested Elections:  For uncontested elections, give candidates 1 minute to speak. They then leave the room and the vote is cast by a show of hands.  It is a simple, yes/no vote, however people may abstain from voting if the wish.

Uncontested Elections Votes in favour: 32 Votes against: 2 Abstentions: 1 Jenny is elected. Votes in favour: 12 Votes against: 18 Abstentions: 5 Jenny is not elected. Example The law society had 50 members, 35 come to the AGM (the meeting is therefore quorate).Jenny is running as the only candidate for Law Society Secretary. She speaks for a minute then leaves the room.

Electing a New Committee - Contested  A contested election is when two or more people are running for the same position.  Remember to make sure your meeting is quorate!  This means you have to have a simple majority of 50% +1 of your total membership. Only currently University of Stirling Students have voting status.

Electing a New Committee - Contested  The union operates under the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) voting system.  This means that voters number candidates in order of preference. 1 being their first choice, 2 being their second choice and so on.  There is also and extra candidate in every election. RON, which stands for Re-Open Nominations.  This is for voters to select if the do not thin any candidates standing are appropriate.  Each candidate should be offered the same amount of time to speak.

Contested Elections  Alban, Lauren and Wendy are standing in the Drama Society AGM.  They all wish to go for the role of Head of Events. They each speak for one minute and return to their seats. Voters are then each given a piece of paper with which to cast their vote.  Ballot papers should look like this:  Head of Events  Alban  Lauren  Wendy  R.O.N

Ballot papers Head of Events Wendy Head of Events Lauren Head of Events Alban 1 Lauren Wendy 2 R.O.N Head of Events Alban 3 Lauren 2 Wendy 1 R.O.N Head of Events Alban 4 Lauren 1 Wendy 2 R.O.N 3 Head of Events I don’t care

Counting the otes  Once you have counted all the valid ballot papers, write down the total and you can work out the quoracy.  In this scenario Drama have 44 Student Members. 39 are present at the meeting, so therefore the meeting is quorate.  Of that 39, candidates will have to achieve a certain number of votes in order to be successful in the election. There is a simple method of calculating the number of votes required. In this election there are 38 valid votes cast and 1 spoiled ballot. (38/(1+1))+1 = 19+1 = 20 Candidates would need 20 votes to be successful in this election

Counting the Votes  You count the votes with everyone’s first preference.  Alban - 18  Lauren - 5  Wendy - 12  R.O.N - 3 As none of the candidates reached 20 votes, the candidate with the lowest number is eliminated and their second preference is added to the remaining candidates. Votes are then re-counted

Counting the Votes  You count the votes with eliminated candidate's second preference.  Alban - 19  Lauren - 5  Wendy - 14  R.O.N - As none of the candidates reached 20 votes, the candidate with the lowest number is eliminated and their second preference is added to the remaining candidates (if second preference is already eliminated, go to their third preference. Votes are then re-counted

Counting the Votes  You count the votes with eliminated candidate's second preference.  Alban - 23  Lauren -  Wendy - 15  R.O.N - As Alban has passed quoracy (20 votes) he has been elected.

Once you have you new committee  Send a list of your new committee to   Organise a hand-over workshop for outgoing committee to impart their wisdom onto new committee members.  Remind the new committee to attend Clubs Academy so they can get a better idea of how to run a society.

Question!  Tell me what you think about me.

Thank You! Keep an eye out for future club development next semester