{"id":12482,"date":"2012-07-19T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=12482"},"modified":"2014-09-09T10:09:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T14:09:09","slug":"club-transition-and-what-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2012\/07\/19\/club-transition-and-what-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Club Transition and What You Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"Student life is alive and kicking on campus. More new clubs are sprouting each year, and, contrary to popular (dis)belief, students at U of T actually<\/em>\u00a0go out and do things like - no, not study - like... Like go out! And have fun! Every year, we have tons of events and initiatives started and run by people like you and me. That's the amazing thing about student life.\r\n\r\nBut can you imagine the amount of planning and thought that goes into putting a club together and running it throughout the year? For old and new clubs alike, the summer holidays is when club leaders do their paper work and planning. Transition is a long and tedious process, but it helps make sure that the club full of awesome during the year.\r\n\r\nI'm in the process of wrapping up my own club's transition from the old exec to the new exec. It's not as simple as just saying \"There you go! Huzzah!\" (though I wish very very<\/em>\u00a0much that that were so). I wanted to share some reminders and things to keep in mind as clubs - whether you're a veteran group or looking to start a new one<\/a> - get ready for the new school year! Hopefully \u00a0I don't miss anything. Lezgo!\r\n

\"\"<\/p>\r\n1. Apply for club recognition.\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOn the St. George campus, you need to apply for recognition in two places - UTSU<\/a> and ULife. What's the difference? ULife recognition is done through U of T's Office of Student Life. You get UTSU recognition, which\u00a0helps you get funding from the union. You should do both.\r\n\r\nBoth recognition processes need to be done every year - think of it as renewing a license. UTSU recognition<\/a> happens in June while ULife recognition<\/a> happens in September.\r\n\r\n2. Check your finances.\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n

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Very important if your club is planning on being financially ambitious.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nReality dictates that in order to run a club, you need money to do it. Fortunately, booking campus space is free most of the time, save for special days or holiday\/weekend rates. UTSU also provides club funding if you choose to apply for it - which is why it's so important to apply for recognition!\r\n\r\nMake sure you know where your money is, and who's in charge of it. This usually falls under the jurisdiction of your club's treasurer and the signing officers. The signing officers are necessary especially when you keep your club money at one of the banks around campus that works with student clubs. Those accounts are called community accounts, and have multiple safeguards - like having more than one signing officer - to protect against mutiny. Okay, maybe not mutiny. It does help with accountability and transparency though, which are very important if you want to have your club running like a well-oiled machine.\r\n\r\nIt is also important to establish good budgeting practices. Treasurers everywhere - I know it's tedious to record everything as soon as it happens <\/em>but trust me when I say it will make life a lot easier come June, and you need to present your budget to get the final installment of your UTSU funding. Trust me.\r\n\r\n3. Plan! Plan! Plan!<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhat my (old) board and I did was come up with a year plan, divided into semester and month. It can be a chronological list or you can print out blank calenders<\/a> and fill out dates accordingly. My club did both. The list was just a long list of events we know are going to happen or want to make happen from August to \u00a0May. The calendars were made and planned semester by semester - once in August for Fall term, and end of December for Winter term. It's less overwhelming and much more realistic if you break it down.\r\n\r\nWhen you have your list or calendar, fill it in with things you know are going to happen first. It's a good idea to fill in holidays, exam dates and annual events that you know your club is going to do. Then fill in meetings - if you can't pinpoint an exact date, highlight the week it's going to happen. My club meetings are biweekly, so this was especially important for me.\r\n\r\nNow that you've got the dates set, mark down when you're going to start planning\/organizing\/mobilizing to make those events a reality. It can be as simple as a reminder for so-and-so to buy cookies for this particular meeting, or as extensive as multiple dates spread over\u00a0three months assigned to many people for a giant charity gala you are planning.\r\n\r\nMost important: Be realistic and make sure everyone knows that there needs to be room for flexibility. We're students. Things happen that might make it hard for some to meet a deadline or attend an event. Keep in mind that, at this point in the summer, no one really knows their exam and assignment schedule.\r\n\r\n4. Don't forget Clubs Day.\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nClubs Day<\/a> is organized by UTSU every year and is the<\/em>\u00a0time to get your club out there. Froshies will be led there by their frosh leaders, eager and bright-eyed. That means you need to put your best food forward. Basics would include having some sort of display, some pamphlets (keeping in mind the amount of paper you're using) and a sign-up sheet<\/strong>. By Clubs Day, you should have the location, date and time of your first meeting set so that potential new members can come out and see what your club is all about.\r\n\r\nThis year, UTSU is having two Clubs Days<\/a>. Twice the fun!\u00a0Remember to register ASAP<\/a>.\r\n\r\nSeasoned club leaders, do you have anything else to add? New club execs, do you have any questions, comments, concerns? Share them in the comments below!\r\n\r\n- Crystal\r\n

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\nStudent life is alive and kicking on campus. More new clubs are sprouting each year, and, contrary to popular (dis)belief, students at U of T actually\u00a0go out and do things like - no, not study - like... Like go out!…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Club Transition and What You Should Know”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Club Transition and What You Should Know”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,70,69,58,67],"tags":[135,7269,339,6532,377],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12482"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21213,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12482\/revisions\/21213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}