//. START A CLUB

What First?
So you think you'd like to start a new club? Before you do this, it's a good idea to ask yourself a few questions:

What is the purpose of the club/society?
How will the club/society benefit the student members?
Do similar clubs/societies already exist? (and if so, are they active?)
What will you club/society's special appeal be?
Who is the potential membership?
What services will your club/society provide to members?
What will be the level of initial and continual support for clubs?

Talk to the CDO
Have a chat to the Clubs Development Officer (CDO) about your proposed club. They can make sure right from the start that your club isn't the same as an existing club, that your aims fit in with those of UCSA affiliated clubs, and whether any similar clubs have been run before. If any similar clubs have existed before, and gone defunct, the UCSA may be holding assets and/or money for such a club in trust, which may be available to help your club get a head start.

The CDO can also give you advice about getting your club off the ground, and give you information on how to run it successfully.
You can email the CDO at: cdo@ucsa.canterbury.ac.nz

Recruiting Members
To start a club on campus, all you need are at least 20 Canterbury students who are keen to be members. With 20 members, you can affiliate your club to the UCSA, and gain access to free rooms, equipment hire, grants and more...
The easiest (and most enjoyable) way to recruit members for your club is to take part in Clubs Day which is held shortly after the start of Term 1 every year.
If you decide to start a club later in the year and miss out on Clubs Day, you can try things like:

putting a notice in Canta asking people to get involved
booking a table in the UCSA and encouraging people to sign up
putting up posters around campus

Affiliation
Once you have at least 20 student members, and have met with the CDO to discuss your idea, you will need to decide on a mission statement and some objectives for your club. You will also need to meet with your members early on (an Inaugural General Meeting) to discuss the mission statement, rules and objectives, to decide on membership fees and activities, to plan for the year and the future, and to elect a president, secretary, and treasurer (the club committee).

Once you have done this planning, and have elected a committee, you need to fill out an affiliation form and club constitution (Available from the Club Forms page). These should be fairly easy to fill in if your Inaugural Meeting went well (it might be a good idea to take copies of the forms with you to the meeting to make sure all the points on the form are discussed by the members). The information required in these forms are needed for legal reasons, so it is important that you fill in the forms fully and accurately, that you make sure they are signed by the committee members, and that you don't change the forms in any way. You will also need to set up a club bank account (see 'Setting up a Bank Account' below). The CDO is there to help you, so if you get stuck while filling in the forms, just ask!

Once all that is done, just hand your form over to the CDO in the UCSA Building, and it will go for approval by the CDO and the Exec.

Setting up a Bank Account
When you set up a new club, you will also need to set up a bank account for that club. You will have to do this after you affiliate for the first time, as the UCSA will provide you with a letter of affiliation to take to the bank with you.

What you need to do is make an appointment with the bank, and the club committee (or whoever they have elected as account signatories) should go along and open a club account. You should then let the UCSA know your account details and the names of the signatories (as per the affiliation form) so that your club records here are kept up to date.

Running Your Club
Most of what you need to know about running your club is in the Clubs Handbook. The CDO is also there to support and assist you. There are some funds available for new clubs too. It's all quite easy really, so get out there and have fun with your new club!