Committee Portal

Trips and events are a great way to showcase your Society and give enriching, memorable experiences to your members.

This section aims to give you all the information you need to plan a Society trip or event.

It is important that you follow the correct process for hosting Society activities and meet the specified deadlines in order for the Students' Union to support your event.

You must submit a Trip/Event Proposal form at least 4 weeks prior to your event! Please note we currently review all trip/event proposals, funding requests, and paperwork on Mondays, so please submit paperwork by 4pm on a Friday to have it reviewed the following Monday.

Society Event and Trip Proposal form

The sooner you can submit your proposal, the sooner we can support you to make your activity a success!

Planning a trip is a great way to engage members; a trip can help create a stronger sense of community amongst members, give the society something to plan towards throughout the year and make the most of what the wider Community has to offer.

In order to make your trip as successful and safe as possible you should follow the Society Trip Planning Process.

Before you begin planning your trip or event here are some things you should be considering:

What is the purpose of your trip? (social, educational, developmental)
When and where would you like your trip to take place?
What equipment do you need?
How many people are you expecting to attend?
Is your trip inclusive and accessible?
How will you fund this trip
Is the trip ticketed?
How will you promote your trip?

For any trips (activities requiring travel outside of Sheffield), you must complete a risk assessment and a trip registration form. Risk assessments and trip registration forms must be submitted to activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk within the following time frames:

Single day trip or event - 3 working days' notice
Overnight trip in the UK - 5 working days' notice
Trip abroad - 10 working days' notice.

Large costs, including accommodation, should be requested through the Societies Team a minimum of 3 weeks in advance. Any trips or accommodation not booked through SHSU will cause the Society to be liable for costs and may lead to disciplinary action. Please refer to the finance tile for full details on financial and booking procedures.

If you want to organise a trip abroad for your society, it is strongly recommended that you go through a tour operator. This offers you some extra protection, and makes it significantly easier to plan! Why not have a look at our trips abroad guidance for useful tips?

Check out these resources for more information on planning a Trip and how to register when you're ready:

Trip Planning Guidance

Trip abroad guidance

Guest Speaker Registration

Food Safety Disclaimer

Trip registration form

Planning an event is a great way to engage new members, showcase your society and bring people together. In order to make your event as successful as possible you should follow the guidance below.

It is important that you follow the correct process for hosting a Society event:

Before you begin planning your event here are some things you should be considering.

What is the purpose of your event?
When and where would you like your event to be held?
What equipment do you need?
How many people are you expecting to attend?
Is your trip/event inclusive and accessible?
Is the event ticketed?
Are you catering your event?
How will you promote your event?

All other events will require a risk assessment and where necessary a room booking request and/or guest speaker registration form.

You will also need a film license if you are intending to screen a film - our staff can arrange this for you.

If you are selling any tickets, this must be organised through the Students' Union website

This is to ensure easy access and simple financial procedures. If your event requires an external ticket provider, get in touch with the Student Groups team for support!

All trips, events and socials can be planned with support from the Student Groups Team. We also have a dedicated Events team who would be happy to share their expertise.

Check out these resources for more information on planning an Event and how to register when you're ready:

Event planning guidance

Room Bookings

Guest Speaker registration form

Food Safety Disclaimer

We wanted to collate all the resources and forms you might need in one place. Check out the relevant section of the Committee Portal for more information and guides.

In the case of any emergencies, follow the below procedure:

Contact the nearest first aider or official who will treat or stabilise the casualty
Ensure the immediate safety of all members of your group
On campus: Call SHU 24 hour security on 0114 225 2000 and ask them to call the Emergency Services
Off campus: Contact the Emergency Services by telephoning 999 or 112
In office hours inform the Students' Union of what's happening on 0114 225 4111, for evenings, weekends and holidays contact SHU 24 Hour Security on 0114 225 2000
Await further instruction and support from the Emergency Services, Students' Union and/or University. Do not comment to the press if approached, and keep all information off social media in case of sensitive incidents
All accidents, incidents and near-misses must be reported to the Students' Union within 24 hours

If you wish to provide your own food at an event or fundraiser, you must complete and return a Food disclaimer to us. Your committee can be liable for any illness caused by food or drinks provided or sold at Society events. Please note that external catering is not permissible at SHSU - contact us to see what our catering staff can do for you!

Food Safety Disclaimer

Risk assessments must be submitted for all events and trips that your Society offers. Risk assessments (and trip registration forms) must be submitted to activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk within the following time frames:

Single day trip or event - 3 working days' notice
Overnight trip in the UK - 5 working days' notice
Trip abroad - 10 working days' notice

Risk Assessment Guidance

Example Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment Template

If there is an incident or near miss during a society activity/trip/event you need to let us know (whether it happened in The HUBS or not!). This is so that we can advise on insurance (if necessary), offer the relevant support and take steps to prevent it reoccurring. Please fill in this form and send it to activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk

Incident Report Form

So what happens when you need more funding?

Societies can apply for funding to help support one off trips or events. All funding is 50% matched funded; this means that the Student Union will only fund a maximum of 50% of the cost of the purchases. Please see Societies Funding Guidance for more information.

To apply for funding, fill in one of the forms below and email it to activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk, we review applications weekly so make sure that you are applying for funding at least 2 weeks prior to making any purchases.

Society Funding Request Form

You could also explore Sponsorships…

Sponsorships are the arrangement for external companies to provide support to a society (this could be financial, for a service or for goods) in exchange for promotion or business. Societies don't need to be sponsored but it can be beneficial.

The committee (typically the President or Treasurer) are responsible for creating a sponsorship agreement in collaboration with the sponsor. We have a sponsorship template available to download below. Some companies will have ready made sponsorship agreements, these are fine to use but don't sign them until you a member of the Societies team has checked it.

When you have your sponsorship agreement and both the committee and the sponsor are happy with the terms, you must email it to activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk to be approved by the Societies Team. This is to stop you from agreeing to anything you're not allowed to do and to make sure everything necessary has been covered.

When everyone is happy, you can sign the contract and you must save it in your society Google folder.

Read the following sponsorship guidelines carefully before you explore sponsorship options and complete the Agreement form.

Sponsorship Guidelines

Sponsorship Agreement Form

Once you have your funds, how do you spend them?

You can spend your Society funds in two ways, firstly a Committee member can make a purchase and be reimbursed directly from your Society Account. We recommend that this is done for small, one off transactions. You must be able to provide evidence of the purchase such as a receipt for a refund to be processed. View Claims Form Guidance to find out how to do this.

Claims form

The second way you can spend funds is through a Purchase Order. There are a couple of steps to this:

Fill in the PO Request form
If you are setting up a payment with a new supplier, you will be prompted to provide their details so we can set them up on the system.
The Societies team will create a purchase order for you, the supplier will send us an invoice and we will pay it directly from your Society account.

Committee members can only remain in post for 1 academic year and they must be democratically elected through an election held on your SU webpage. Every year (around March/April) we will run an election period. We do this early to give you time to handover to the new committee before summer. Check out the dropdown buttons below for more information on the Election process and Committee Handovers.

Elections and By-Elections

All your committee members must be elected into their role through an election on your SU webpage. An election consists of a nomination period (where members can nominate themselves for a committee role) and a voting period (where members vote for the student they want to be elected). Only current students who are a member of your society can nominate and vote in elections.

Students have the option between four core roles: President, Secretary, Treasurer and Equality and Diversity Officer. A student may only hold one of these roles at any one time.

Your Committee may have additional roles such as a Social Secretary or Health and Safety Officer, a student can hold a combination of these roles including one of the core roles mentioned above. You may also have multiple positions available for the same role, so you could choose to elect two Health and Safety Officers for example.

Check out the Committee roles and responsibilities tile of the Committee Portal for more information on these roles and their responsibilities.

There are two types of elections, the main Election all Societies will participate in that are held around March/April, and a By-Election.

For the main elections, there is a two-week timeframe. During this period, all Committee positions will be open for election for the new Academic year. There will be one week where members will nominate themselves for committee positions and one week where members will be able to vote for who they want to get the role. After these two weeks we will communicate the results to you. Failure to elect a committee during this period may result in your society closing down. You may choose to organise an Annual General Meeting to coincide with the Elections. For more information on the AGM, check out the Governance and Democracy Tile on the Committee Portal.

A By-election is held when you have a vacant position that needs to be filled, either because it wasn't filled in the March election or because a Committee member has stepped down. The time frame and positions opened (only vacant positions can be opened for By-Election) on a bye election is decided by you. We have created a google form that allows you to choose when each stage of your elections will take place. It is important you read the form thoroughly, as incorrectly filled in forms will delay how soon your By-Election can be held. If you have any questions regarding this form, contact activitiesadmin@shu.ac.uk.

To nominate themselves your members will need to go to your society page during the nominations period, click on the role they want and press nominate. They will be given the option to upload a photo and a manifesto. Their status will show as pending until SU staff approves the candidate before voting starts. Other members will not be able to see who has been nominated yet.

To vote, your members will need to go to your society page during the voting period, they will be able to view all the candidates for each role and read any manifestos uploaded. They will then be able to vote for who they want in each role. Candidates can vote for themselves.

When voting has closed, your coordinator will communicate the results with the committee.

Committee By-Elections Request Form

The handover must include:

Logins and passwords for the email account and social media accounts
Adding the new committee to the google folder and explain what is kept in there
Any information about key contacts/ suppliers
A financial overview of the society's current position (Keeping the Finance Tracker up to date will be helpful here! Check out the Finance Tile for more information)
Information about equipment (what do you have, where is it kept, does anything need replacing/ servicing?)

We have created a document full of other considerations for you to work through that will get you thinking about the types of things they may need to know. But don't limit yourselves! The point of a handover is that it is personal to each Society and to give the new committee the information they need and that you wish you had at the start of your term. It is good practice to work on this continuously throughout the Academic Year, so reflect on the successes and challenges your Committee has faced.

Society Handover Considerations

Society Handover Planning Template

Society Inventory