Management Group Manual v1.3

Management Group Manual

imperialcollegeunion.org/trainingimperialcollegeunion.org


Management Group Manualimperialcollegeunion.org/training

ContentsContents 2

Introduction 3

Imperial College Union 4

General Financial Information 9

Processing Claims 12

Approving Budgets 18

Other Finance Things 21

Dormancy 23

Frozen Accounts 24

Updating Mailing Lists 25

Online Resources for Groups 25

eActivities for Management Groups 27

Meetings 33

Management Group Meetings 37

Documentation Deadlines 43

Appendix 1 – Useful Contacts 48

Appendix 2 – Union Structure 52

Appendix 3 – Honorary Senior Treasurers 53

Appendix 4 – Transaction Codes 55

Version 1.3 - 23 February 2011


imperialcollegeunion.org/training

Introduction

Congratulations on being elected to be a Management Group officer or if you are thinking of becoming one, good luck. This is a really great opportunity to help the students running Clubs, Societies or Projects which are under the control of your Management Group, as well as getting really involved with the Union. Your work does not go unnoticed!

Being a Management Group officer can be demanding at times, but it shouldn’t ruin your degree; it is important to find the right balance for you. The good news is that you aren’t alone, and you’re part of a big team, some of whom have been doing this for years. This means that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help, particularly if you have any big deadlines or exams coming up, and hopefully be in a position to help some of your peers if they get into the same situation. Similarly, if there is something you don’t know, please don’t be afraid to ask- it’s much better to ask beforehand if you are unsure than do something wrong, and there is always bound to be someone who knows the answer.

Heather JonesDeputy President (Clubs & Societies)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 1763, extension: 41763

Ravi PallDeputy President (Finance & Services)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 8060, extension: 58062

Charlotte IvisonDeputy President (Welfare)E: [email protected]: 020 7595 8064, extension: 58064


Imperial College Union

The Sabbatical Officers

The Union is run by students, for students. Every year, during the spring term, a campus-wide election takes place where every full member of the Union (i.e. a full-time UG/PG student) can stand and/or vote for who will be running their Union for the next year. There are five Union Sabbaticals.

The Sabbatical Officers are:• President: Ultimately responsible

for everything in the Union. As a Management Group officer you mainly come into contact with the President at meetings, such as Union Council, or a cheque of over £1000 needs counter-signing.

• Deputy President (Clubs & Societies): Responsible for looking after and representing all the Clubs & Societies in the Union. Also organises Freshers’ Fair. This is the Sabbatical with whom you have the most contact and to whom you should address all your Club-related queries, unless they are specifically finance things.

• Deputy President (Finance & Services): Responsible for the Union’s money and budgets. If you have any financial queries from clubs that you cannot answer, they are the one to ask. They also run the Ents Committee which is a termly meeting that reviews and approves Clubs holding events in Metric.

• Deputy President (Welfare): Responsible for looking after all welfare related activities the Union undertakes, as well as looking after CAG & RAG and therefore all the Projects. This is the Sabbatical to whom you should address all your volunteering, Project-related and Equal Opportunities queries, unless they are specifically finance things.

• Deputy President (Education): Responsible for all the academic representation the Union carries out. You will rarely need to contact them on Club, Society or Project matters.

There are two other officers on sabbatical who work for the Union for a year: • Felix Editor: Responsible for ensuring

that Felix, the student newspaper, is



written and printed every week. As a publication which is read by nearly everyone in the College, this is an excellent place to encourage clubs, societies or projects to advertise.

• ICSMSU President: Responsible for running the Imperial College School of Medicine Student Union.

While the Sabbatical team work full time, as a Management Group officer you are the most important link between Club, Society & Project officers and them. For the majority of the time, you will be a group’s first port of call if they have any issues, but it’s also good for you to be aware of when groups are doing well which they sometimes forget to tell you! You should familiarise yourself with the types of potential challenges likely to affect your Clubs, Societies or

Projects and be ready to offer advice and guidance, or be able to redirect them to someone who can. For this reason, you need to ensure that all of your Clubs, Societies or Projects know your officer email address (eg. [email protected]), and you should check this regularly. More often than not, you’ll receive emails with some of the more day to day questions, like how to hand in paperwork or when will a cheque be ready. If information gets sent out to groups from someone other than yourself, please make sure to read it as well because you may receive questions about it later.

On the other hand, the Union does appreciate that you’ve got a degree to do. If there is anything, like questions that you don’t know how to answer or an


issue that you don’t have time to resolve, feel free to pass these up to the most appropriate member of staff or Sabbatical who will be able to help you out. Often you won’t be the one specifically making a decision, but more helping to implement those decisions that have been made.

Management Groups

There are close to 300 Clubs, Societies & Projects, which are generically known as ‘groups’, in the Union. They are divided, according to theme, into Management Groups. There are 14 Management Groups which include Clubs & Societies Committees (CSC), Faculty Unions (FU), Constituent Unions (CU), President’s Committees (PC) as well as the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). With regards to groups these all sit at the same level Constitutionally. Some Management Groups have other additional responsibilities, and structures to reflect this. As a Management Group officer, you play an integral part in the Union in helping with the administration of groups.

Clubs & Societies Committees• Athletic Clubs Committee (ACC) looks

after all competitive sports and martial arts Clubs & Societies.

• Arts & Entertainments Board (AEB) looks after all arts and entertainments type Clubs & Societies for anything like music, performing or visual arts.

• Media Group looks after all the media Clubs & Societies.

• Overseas Societies Committee (OSC) looks after all the overseas Clubs & Societies.

• Recreational Clubs Committee (RCC) looks after all recreational type sports & activity Clubs & Societies.

• Social Clubs Committee (SCC) looks after all common interest Clubs & Societies (including religious, political and discussion based).

Imperial College Union cont...



Faculty UnionsImperial College Union is divided into three Faculty Unions. These student organisations are a fundamental component of the Union’s welfare and representation provision. Each Union represents the students within that Faculty:

• Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) represents student scientists.

• City and Guilds College Union (CGCU) represents student engineers and students in the Business School.

• Imperial College School of Medicine Students’ Union (ICSMSU) represents medical students.

Together these three organisations represent every Full Member of Imperial College Union.

Constituent Unions• Royal School of Mines is a constituent

Union of City & Guilds College Union. It looks after the Clubs & Societies with a historic connection to the Royal School of Mines.

• Silwood Union is a constituent Union of the Royal College of Science Union and looks after the activities of the Clubs & Societies which are based at the Silwood Park campus.

Graduate Students’ AssociationThe GSA is like a Faculty Union in that it covers much of the same areas, but its

members are all Postgraduate students. It looks after Clubs & Societies that have specific links with the postgraduate community, either geographically or course specifically.

President’s Committees• Raising & Giving (RAG) looks after

projects of a charitable nature and raising money for charities itself.

• Community Action Group (CAG) looks after projects of a volunteering or outreach nature.


Imperial College Union cont...

Group Chair TreasurerACC Monya Zard

[email protected] [email protected]

AEB Adam Khamis [email protected]

James Geraets [email protected]

CAG Nicolas [email protected]

Christopher [email protected]

CGCU Victor du Mensil du [email protected]

Tsz Shing [email protected]

GSA Deena [email protected]

Llewellyn [email protected]

ICSMSU Clubs & Societies Officer – Adam [email protected]

Benjamin [email protected]

Media Matt [email protected]

Brigette [email protected]

OSC Ahmad [email protected]

Chia Wei [email protected]

RAG Naida [email protected]

Tessa [email protected]

RCC Nathaniel [email protected]

Michael [email protected]

RCSU Scott [email protected]

David [email protected]

RSM Benjamin [email protected]

Mark [email protected]

SCC David [email protected]

Kajann [email protected]

Silwood Mark [email protected]

Jennifer [email protected]

Management Group



General Financial Information

Financial Responsibility As a Management Group officer, you should be familiar with the levels of Financial Responsibility that officers have. This is shown in the diagram below:

The way these levels of authority practically translate are when you are processing claims and carrying out a cheque run. Depending on how much a claim is for will determine who needs to authorise it. Most of the time, claims will be within your financial responsibility limits, but see the section on processing claims for full instructions.

Training Quizzes & Forms

In order to gain financial responsibility, and thus be able to authorise any expenditure, either as a Management Group officer or at a group level, you must first do some training. This should create an awareness of how the Union’s systems work. Details of the training required can be found online at www.imperialcollegeunion.org/training. As

Club/Society/Project Chair or Treasurer

Management Group Chair or Treasurer

Deputy President (Finance & Services)

Executive Committee

Trustee Board

£0

£200

£1,000

£50,000

£500,000

a Management Group officer, it is necessary to do the Key Information, Principal Officer, Finance Overview and Finance Operations training, both so you know the content for yourself and so that you can answer any questions that groups may have.

After completing the eLearning for Key Information, Finance Overview and Finance Operations, it’s necessary to validate learning by doing the associated quizzes that have a 70% pass mark. These are open book, and can be done as many times as necessary in order to pass.

Only once these are done can an officer sign a Financial Responsibility form. These are one of the few pieces of physical documentation the Union still requires, most other information is collected by online submission. By signing this form, it holds the person responsible for that year’s accounts, for the following seven years so it must be taken seriously.

Budgeting Advice & Helping Groups

Every year, a couple of groups struggle with their finances for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s a case of mismanagement, other times it’s a combination of unfortunate factors. Either way, the Union takes groups in debt very seriously and relies on Management Group officers to help groups to try to avoid that situation.


General Financial Information cont...

It is important to make clear to groups that if they don’t have the money in their account then they can’t spend that amount – the Union doesn’t run an overdraft service.

If a group that has been having trouble wants to spend some money, the first thing to do is ask to see a budget, or get the group to put one together if they haven’t already got one. If they’ve suffered from mismanagement in the past, this is a good exercise for them. A template for this can be found at imperialcollegeunion.org/forms. For some groups, this will be enough for them to see where their shortcomings are. You may have to help them by prompting them to think of all their expenses- some aspects like post-event cleaning get forgotten; or help them to think of other methods of getting income. Encourage them to think creatively, but realistically.

Helping Groups with Internal Grants And Sponsorship

The Imperial College TrustThe Imperial College Trust is a registered charity which partly fulfils its objectives of acting for the benefit of the College through the support of students and activities that would not otherwise receive funding. The Trust provides a grant to the Exploration Committee and in the past has supported dramatic

productions, equipment, events and activities. They also make a contribution to the Union’s Tours Fund, so Clubs & Societies should not be advised to apply to the Trust for something that would qualify as a Union tour.

Harlington Grants CommitteeThe Harlington Grants Committee has money to award to Clubs & Societies, which has been accumulated from money received from gravel extraction at Harlington Sports Grounds. The awards from the Harlington Grants Committee are given to support any type of activity, not just sport. The awards help to finance new or improved facilities and equipment but will not meet the running costs of a Club or Society. Additionally, it will not support tours. Each year, the Committee awards approximately £50,000. The Union President is a member of the Committee.

TipsFor both of these sources, there are a couple of points to note:

• It is worthwhile for a Management Group officer to read over a Club or Society application before it is submitted. With some oversight of which Clubs or Societies have applied for what, it may be the case that you can help share best practise between potential applicants.



• If an application is successful, then a Club may only apply to the same fund in three years time. There are some situations when this can be overlooked, but its best to consult with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) if a Club or Society thinks this might apply to them.

• Open applications – no deadline, but the committees do meet a couple of times a year, so check with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) when the next one is.

• Money is sometimes quite slow to appear in the accounts of a Club or Society which has been given an awarded money from these sources. However, it’s helpful if an application is successful, to forward the confirmation email to [email protected], so that the Union can chase this up if necessary.

• A Management Group Executive Committee can also apply for money from these sources, but all of the Clubs, Societies or Projects in the Management Group should have access to the benefits equally, e.g. a Sports First Aid course open to anyone in an ACC Club.

Sponsorship

Clubs, Societies & Projects should always be encouraged to look for sponsorship because the less they rely on the Union to keep costs down, the better. The Union runs a Sponsorship

workshop at certain times during the year, and there is a sponsorship booklet with stepwise instructions and advice at imperialcollegeunion.org/training. The best way that you can help groups is by looking at their covering letters and the packages they are offering companies in return for sponsorship. You can be the impartial reviewer to say whether you think this is realistic and offer improvements, particularly once you’ve seen a couple from your clubs and have seen what’s worked.

If there is a deadline that a group needs the money for, they should really start the process around six months before that deadline to give themselves enough time to prepare the application. Encourage groups to keep you updated if they do get sponsored and remind them to fill this in on the form when it comes to budgeting. Any sponsorship contract must be signed off by the Deputy President (Finance & Services).

Finally, remind them that they should not spend any sponsorship money until it is in their account as it sometimes takes a lot of chasing up for this to happen. If groups have any queries about invoicing companies or chasing sponsorship money, these are best directed to the Deputy President (Finance & Services) via email or in a booked meeting. Information about raising invoices can be found in the Finance Operations training.


Processing Claims

Management Group Chairs and Treasurers have Financial Responsibility over all of the Clubs, Societies or Projects contained within that Management Group, have Financial Authority up to £1000, and have a very important role in getting cheques written, authorised and returned to individual Clubs, Societies & Projects. This work is primarily the responsibility of the Treasurer, though often the Chair will need to assist during busy periods. This forms a large part of the role of a Management Group, and it is crucial this work is carried out accurately and efficiently.

Definition: “Cheque runs” are the magical process by which the Union turns a Claim Form into a cheque to reimburse a group member or to pay a company for goods or a service.

Reviewing Claim Forms

A Management Group Chair or Treasurer will review all Claim forms from the Clubs, Societies or Projects in their Management Group; together with giving approval to any over £200. There are some things to remember when reviewing expenditure forms are:

• Make sure that the Club, Society or Project has the money they are trying to claim in their accounts, if they don’t then say NO. You should have the

online transaction pages open when reviewing Claim Forms. Make sure there is money where they are asking for it to come from. If there isn’t money there, you should reject it, and ask them to contact you regarding whether they would like to take the money from somewhere else, or make other arrangements.

• Make sure the receipts or invoices add up to the total amount that they are claiming for on the form. Sometimes the better trained clubs start to make this confusing by separating things out into an item funded by Grant and the rest of the same item’s cost being made up from Self Generated Income (SGI). While this is perfectly acceptable, it takes a bit of getting your head around, this level of attention to detail is to be encouraged. Though, it might be worth asking them to leave you a note in the ‘notes’ box on the form just to clarify what it is they are doing.

• Make sure that the person approving the Claim Form isn’t the person receiving the cheque – there are two people Financially Responsible for a Club, Society or Project for a reason! If they think this is going to be a problem eg. if the other person isn’t around at the time, then someone else from the group should be doing the purchasing.

• Make sure the Club, Society or Project hasn’t got frozen accounts- you can tell if they have frozen accounts because there will be a red box at the top of the



online transaction page telling them what documentation they are yet to submit, or which committee members have not completed the correct training. Don’t approve or process the Claim Form until they have done that paperwork.

• Don’t approve Claim Forms for under £20! Under this amount it costs the Union a high proportion of the total amount to process. Claims for under £20 should be claimed as petty cash – this can be done from the Reception Desk in the Student Activities Centre.

• Groups have financial authority of up to £200. Anything up to this you shouldn’t really interfere with, unless

it’s something dodgy – eg. they are claiming from Union Grant for food & drink (see finance regulations). In that situation feel free to amend the form rather than reject it outright. You can bring up that sort of thing in your next Management Group meeting and give your groups pointers on the things they are consistently getting wrong.

• For Claims between £200 - £1000, the group Chair or Treasurer approves the expenditure, but someone at a Management Group level also needs to sign it off i.e. either the Management Group Chair or Treasurer. At this stage you’re putting your name on it, so best to be doubly sure of all of the above. If you are a Management Group officer, and the claim is for you, then you should let the other Management Group officer sign off the claim.

• Above £1000, all of the above still applies, but the Deputy President (Finance & Services) also needs to sign it off. This usually works by you processing all of the claim forms that you have for that session and then bringing those over £1000 in a stack to their office for them to check in one go. In the event that the Deputy President (Finance & Services) is absent that day, you should go to the next Deputy President in the following order: Clubs & Societies, Welfare, Education. The ICSM President and Felix Editor do not have this ability. The Union President also cannot sign Claim Forms.


Processing Claims cont...

Raising Cheques

After reviewing all the Claim Forms, as per the previous section, the next stage is to write cheques and have them approved for all suitably authorised claims.

Set a day and time that works for you to process claims and write cheques – groups should also regard this as a time when they can come talk to you about their finances. If this day changes for any reason eg. a different day or you have to miss a week, please email your groups to tell them this!

Process:1. Go through all the Claim Forms which you have received, checking the points

discussed in the previous section – particularly the supporting paperwork.

2. For Claims Forms over £200, sign the Management Group box if you are happy. Over £1000, put them to one side and bring them as one pile to the Deputy President (Finance & Services) to approve.

3. Ask the Clubs & Societies Finance Officer for your Management Group cheque book and write out cheques which correspond to the suitably approved Claim Forms you have. Don’t forget to write the cheque numbers on the corresponding expenditure form. Once you’ve written the cheque, tuck the expenditure form in front of it in the cheque book so that the Honorary Senior Treasurer (HST) can refer



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Processing Claims cont...

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to it in the next stages.

4. Call your Honorary Senior Treasurer and make sure that they are in to sign the cheques. If yours isn’t in, then try one of the others but yours should be the preferred one that you try first. This is partly why it helps to have the same time each week. Contacts for all the HSTs can be found in Appendix 3.

5. Go and see the HST who usually will sign the cheques there and then with you there. Sometimes they are pretty busy and ask to look after the cheque book until the following morning.

6. Come back to the Union. If you have cheques over £1000, you now need to see the Union President who will counter-sign the cheque (i.e. you’ll have 2 signatures on one cheque). If the President isn’t in, then the other person who can do this the Union Operations Manager.

7. Tear out all of the signed cheques and deposit them in your Management Group pigeon hole where representatives of Clubs, Societies & Projects should pick them up from.

8. Make sure the Claim Forms are still in the correct order tucked in the cheque book, then give this pile back to the Clubs & Societies Finance Officer.

9. Please send an email to your Clubs,

Societies or Projects to say that you have completed your cheque run and if they are expecting cheques they can come to pick it up. If there were any that you rejected you must email those groups with the reasoning so they can remedy the problems. This is the end of your involvement in the process.

10. The Clubs & Societies Finance Officer will process all of the Claim Forms within the next week, before you do this all again, making the deductions appear on the relevant Club, Society or Project transaction pages.

Aziz BilgramiClubs & Societies Finance OfficerE: [email protected]: 020 7594 1514, extension: 41514


Approving Budgets

If a Club, Society or Project is hoping to put on an event or activity which incorporates expenditure and income they should be putting together a budget. If the total expenditure comes to over £200, then the Management Group Chair or Treasurer will have to approve the budget, and similarly if the expenditure comes to over £1000 then the Deputy President (Finance & Services) also needs to approve it.

A budget template can be found online at imperialcollegeunion.org/forms. The template has space for fixed and variable income and expenditure. Examples of each of these are as follows: • Variable expenditure: Number of

dinners. This will depend on how many people attend an event, and should be a cost per person.

• Fixed expenditure: Venue hire or deposits. No matter how many people attend, the price of the venue won’t change, and deposits won’t always be refunded if the event doesn’t end up going ahead.

• Variable income: Ticket sales. Each person coming will buy a ticket, so you have to make sure you charge enough that in a scenario where fewer than expected people attend, your fixed costs will still be covered.

• Fixed income: A sponsorship deal. If a group does manage to secure a sponsorship deal, it is usually for a lump sum, rather than per person. Hopefully

this will be able to reduce the cost for the attendees.

The template form then puts together a graph of how many people need to attend to break even or make a profit, as well as the cost of the event per person. Clubs, Societies or Projects should not be running their events or activities with the intention of making a loss even if they are aware of this in advance. If the Union has provided money to subsidise an event through the group’s annual Grant allocation then this amount should be entered in the fixed income section, in the same way as sponsorship would.

When looking over a budget that a Club, Society or Project has put together, make sure that all of the expenditure and income has been put in the correct sections. Feel free to question the group



and see if they’ve thought of everything - sometimes they forget to include things like setting up or cleaning up costs which take place before or after the event.

Other things that you can look for is whether they have looked for competitive quotes for their areas of expenditure which can be a good way of keeping costs down.

As a Management Group officer, you can remind the group that the amounts that they have used to put together the budget should be the amount that they give to the other officers on the committee of what they can spend. For example if another committee person is in charge of decorations, they could be given a budget of £100 for decorations. That officer should then not exceed that value with their spending. Sometimes costs or values do change though, and there are two ways of

minimising the risk to the event or activity. The budget can include an expenditure line for a contingency amount to give some flexibility, which is a pot of money in the budget that can be dipped into if things do turn out to be more expensive. The downside of this is that this can lead to a false sense of security. Alternatively, groups can budget in a ‘worst case scenario’ way, for example, budgeting for the more expensive option, though seeking the less expensive option where possible. This can lead to prices being higher than necessary for attendees which can put some people off. If done successfully however, this method can result in a significant profit margin if the flexibility is not used.

Finally, it is important to remember that once a budget is done, it doesn’t have to be set in stone. If things change as time progresses, then the budget can be updated to reflect this. If things are projected to be more costly than the initial estimate, then a Management Group Officer should take another look at the budget as you have effectively approved the expenditure up to the amount that they originally stated. If it looks lower than original estimate, then it is advisable though not essential. Assuming appropriate caution was taken in the early stages, this should only serve to give the group a more accurate picture of the financial outcome of the event.


Common Things to Look out for

ToursIn some instances, Clubs, Soceities & Projects who are organising major tours will appear on the transaction pages to have a very healthy SGI balance. You need to be careful that the money being collected as payments for the tour, which will appear under their tour activity code, isn’t masking their true SGI balance. Their general funds, under activity code 00 could be well into the red, being covered up by a large positive balance elsewhere when you look at all the totals. Deduct any money in a tour activity code from the SGI total to see if the group is overspent or not. If it is, don’t let them spend any more money!

EventsFor every event Clubs, Societies or Projects within your Management Group run and within your authorisation limit, you should receive a budget. It’s up to you to scrutinize this budget and give it your approval. There are unforeseen circumstances which may occur like the event costing more than what was originally budgeted for, or not enough people turning up to the event to break even.

Another thing to note is that sometimes a Club, Society or Project may wish to run an event at a loss, and break even by using some of their SGI. This is fine,

but the amount by which the group has agreed to subsidise the event by should appear in the budget as a fixed income item.

GeneralSometimes Club, Society or Project members will pay for something and try to claim it back later. You may be inclined to think that even if this would lead their group into a negative SGI situation, we would have to pay them back. This is true, however it needs to be noted that the Club, Society or Project Chair and Treasurer are responsible for paying this money back, as they would have signed the claim form before it reaches you. In the worst case scenario the group’s Chair or Treasurer won’t qualify to graduate university until this is rectified.

Approving Budgets cont...



Other Finance Things

Purchase Order Processing

As well as approving expenditure using Claim Forms, Financial Responsibility extends to using approving purchase orders up to the same levels. Purchase orders are a formal agreement between the Union and a supplier to supply goods or services for an agreed fee, and a guarantee that the Union will pay the bill for these goods or services when the invoice arrives.

Chairs and Treasurers of Management Groups have a responsibility to approve Purchase Orders for over £200, in the same way they have a responsibility to approve Claim Forms. The process for doing this however is very different. During 2011 the Union will be rolling out an extension to the eActivities online system for creating and approving purchase orders. Full details of this system can be found in the booklet entitled eActivities – Purchasing.

The advantage of using Purchase Orders is that once the order is approved and the goods have been received a Club, Society or Project does not need to worry about arranging payment for the invoice – this will be taken care of automatically by the Union’s finance staff. This also means that Management Group’s will not need to write a cheque for the payments.

Payment by Credit Card

Financial Responsibility also entitles holders to approve payments by the Union’s Credit Card, up to the same limits. Paying for items by the Union’s Credit Card is encouraged to secure the best online deals; details of the process are given in the Finance Operations booklet.

Often the amounts will be for more than £200, therefore the forms will need approving by a Management Group Chair or Treasurer. Once someone who wishes to use the Union’s Credit Card has completed the request form they must take this to the Union Head of Finance, who will process the payments.

Online Sales

By default all Clubs, Societies & Projects should be taking payments online, not by cash or cheque. Taking payments online is quicker, safer and automatically generates receipts for the purchasers and reports for the Club, Society or Project Treasurer.

Items can be added to the online shop on the Union’s website imperialcollegeunion.org, details are given in the Workbench booklet. Money from online sales is transferred to the accounts of the respective Clubs, Societies & Projects twice a week. If


anyone believes money from online sales is missing, or has been sent to the wrong place they should email [email protected].

Invoicing

If a Club, Society or Project wishes to raise an invoice they must speak to the Clubs & Societies Finance Officer. The most common need to raise an invoice is for Sponsorship payments. To raise an invoice the Club, Society or Project will need to have an official purchase order or sponsorship contract from the company they intend to invoice.

It is the responsibility of the Club, Society or Project to chase the company to pay the invoice – the Union will not do this automatically. If after three months the

invoice remains unpaid the Union will begin to chase the company for payment – when payment is received a charge of 10% of the value of the invoice will be levied.

Issues, Comments & Complaints

You are likely to come across small issues and have comments about the whole system, and your part within it, during your time in office. Matters which could improve the efficiency or accuracy of the system should be raised with the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) or the Clubs & Societies Finance Officer – whoever you feel is more appropriate.

More serious matters, or if you wish to make a complaint, should be raised with the Union President.

Other Finance Things cont...



Dormancy

Definition: A “dormant” group is one that can be closed after a stipulated length of time, but has no reduced abilities eg. can still make room bookings, pay money into their accounts and receive cheques. The only difference is that they will not appear on the list of eligible groups to donate money to when voting in a Union election.

As set out in the Clubs & Societies Policy, a Club or Society may be made dormant if they do not meet the following criteria:• Do not attend (or send apologies) to

three consecutive Management Group meetings (unless otherwise stated in the Standing Orders of the respective Management Group).

• Do not have the minimum of 20 members

• Have outstanding Naughty Officers i.e. people on the committee who have not paid to become members of the Club or Society after 1st November.

A Club or Society is made dormant by being voted upon at a Management Group general meeting where a dormancy review is scheduled. These should be once a term and Clubs or Societies up for dormancy review should be notified at least a week in advance because it is in their interest to send a representative to the meeting to defend themselves.

Once a Club or Society is eligible to be made dormant, you should have a vote on whether to make them dormant, and then you can also choose to have another vote on whether this should be for one, two or three terms. You might propose one term if it hasn’t got a committee or members and didn’t turn up to Freshers’ Fair, or reasons like this. If you don’t specify the time, it will be assumed that the dormancy is for 12 months. If you make a Club or Society dormant should must tell the Student Activities Centre by emailing [email protected] so this information can be recorded on the systems.

For Clubs & Societies made dormant, it is prudent to offer them the opportunity to sit down with the Management Group Chair and discuss any barriers to their success that could be mediated. If a Club or Society subsequently satisfies the criteria they failed to meet that made them dormant eg. getting 20 members, then they should notify their Management Group Chair who will notify the Student Activities Centre and they will have their dormant status removed.

If a Club or Society doesn’t satisfy the criteria that made them dormant in the time that they were given, then they can be closed by voting in a Management Group General Meeting. Alternatively, a Management Group General Meeting can vote to extend the period of dormancy.


Frozen Accounts

A frozen account for a Club, Society or Project means that the group is unable to complete any financial transactions until it becomes unfrozen. Reasons that a Club, Society or Project can have frozen accounts: • Naughty officers: this is when a

member of the committee hasn’t bought membership to the Club, Society or Project. As soon as they join, this flag will disappear.

• Incomplete documentation or training: Accounts are usually frozen either because of naughty officers or incomplete documentation. If the Principal Officer or Treasurer has not completed the appropriate training their accounts will be frozen until they have. Club officers have until 1st of November to join their club before the club budget becomes frozen.

Each Club, Society or Project must submit documentation throughout the year in line with Union policy. If the forms are not filled in on time a group’s accounts will be frozen until they are complete. There are three main deadlines. By the 1st August the Financial Responsibility and Contact Details forms are due and groups who have not completed them may not perform transactions. On 1st November the Risk Assessment, Instructor Registration and Affiliations forms are due, though some groups are exempt from Instructor Registration and many will just have to resubmit identical information to the previous year. Finally on 18th March the Code of Conduct, Constitution and Next Years Committee Details forms are due. As soon as documentation is submitted a group’s accounts are unfrozen and normal financial transactions may occur.



Updating Mailing Lists

Online Resources for Groups

As a Management Group you should have a mailing list containing all the contacts for the various Clubs, Societies or Projects under your care. Most Management Groups have a couple of different lists, so make sure you are familiar with the passwords for these. You can access them by going to www.mailman.ic.ac.uk and then searching for your particular one. Your predecessors will have given you the passwords for these lists.

You need to update the mailing lists at the beginning of the year, don’t forget to update these lists if you get a new Club, Society or Project during the course of the year, so that they too can stay in the loop. For new mailing lists contact the Deputy President (Finance & Services).

There are two different online interfaces which the Union provides to help Clubs, Societies & Projects administer themselves. These are Workbench and eActivities.

Workbench

Workbench can be accessed by going to the Union website at imperialcollegeunion.org and logging in using the group’s log in details. From here there is an option called: ‘I am a member of’. By clicking on this, the only result it will produce is ‘Workbench’. Clicking on this takes groups to the main Workbench interface.

On Workbench it is possible to: • Put items in a group’s online shop.


• Send emails to all members.• Register activities that are taking place

off campus.• Design the group’s portal on the Union

website.

eActivities

eActivities is accessed by navigating to http://eActivities.union.ic.ac.uk, where users can log in using their College login details.

They will then be provided with the option of choosing which officer role they wish to use, ie: you could be both the Chair of one society and the Treasurer of another – you can manage both groups from eActivities.

On eActivities it is possible to: • Check club finances• Submit documentation• Check outstanding documentation

requirements

eActivities contains various functions which are specifically designed for the officers of the Management Groups.The next section details what can be done in the Management Group Overview section of eActivities.

For information on the entirety of what is contained in these interfaces, separate booklets are available for each one called the Workbench booklet and eActivities booklet respectively.



eActivities for Management Groups

eActivities contains a section called Management Group Overview specifically for Officers of Management Groups. To access these pages, first login to eActivities by heading to https://eactivities.union.ic.ac.uk/. You should come to the page pictured below, where you will see a red box at the top of the screen labelled Log in.

Click on the Log in box and a window will pop up requesting you to enter your College Username and Password.

Click on the red Log in box to enter the eActivities site

Enter your College Username and Password


If you are an Officer of more than one Club, Society or Project within the Union, you may want to view the eActivities area of each group. This is easy to do on the eActivities site as all the groups you are a member of are tied to your College username.

The first page you see when you log in to eActivities is pictured below. At the top of the screen is another red button labelled Change Role.

Clicking on the Change Role button will make a drop down list appear, where you can choose which Club, Society or Project’s eActivities pages you wish to look at.

Click the Change Role button to switch between the

groups you are a member of

A small drop down list appears

eActivities for Management Groups cont...



Once you have selected which group you wish to administer, click on the Club & Society Admin button on the lefthand submenu, then click Management Group Overview.

The first page you are presented with is the Budget Submission page located within the Budgeting tab. Here it is possible to view how much subsidy has been allocated to each Club, Society or Project within each Management Group.

Budgeting


The next tab is Membership Cost Adjusting. Here you can view each group’s membership target and also determine how much each club ought to be charging for membership based on the amount of subsidy they receive.

The final tab under the Budgeting section is Budgeting Categories. This table shows the total amount of money requested by all of the groups within each Management Group and how much money has actually been allocated after the Management Group has met to discuss the budgeting.




Club Reports

The Club Reports tab contains general information for Management Group committee members on all of their groups. Users can find out information such as the club’s website address, contact email address, how old the club is and much more, including whether the group has failed to submit any required documentation. This is a useful page for getting a lot of information about a group with a quick glance. It is also possible to view the same information from previous years.

Click the dates to read the group information from previous years


Transactions

Tour Applications

Finally, the Tour Applications tab shows which groups have organised tours including how many members are due to travel, the dates of travel and the cost of the trip.

The Transactions tab contains a table detailing important financial information about each group. Here, you can see a group’s SGI and how much their Union Grant was as well as any other external grants the group may have received.




Meetings

As part of representing your Clubs, Societies & Projects, there are a number of meetings to attend in the Union and in some cases also in College. These are always a good way of staying up to date with what is going on in the wider Clubs & Societies, Projects and Union, as well as being a platform for getting things done for the benefit of your groups.

Meetings are a two way road: you can escalate a matter to the appropriate person at them if you feel you aren’t able to handle it or similarly you might be given information to disseminate. For these reasons you should always aim to send someone from your committee (preferably the Chair or Treasurer). If no one can attend, then do send apologies and make arrangements to be able to receive the information or action points that you’ve missed soon after the meeting.

College Meetings

Some Management Groups have College departments that complement what the activities their Clubs, Societies or Projects undertake. For example, the Arts & Entertainment Board have regular meetings with ArtsImperial, as they are complementary to one another. You should have been told by your predecessor if this applies to your Management Group, but if not then the Management Group Chair should receive

invitations to the meetings in their officer email account.

It’s very important to attend College meetings if you can, because representation on them is not a natural right. It comes across very badly if you, or a representative from your Management Group, consistently do not attend a College meeting as it is one of a few forums for College Staff to communicate directly with students and get feedback quickly.

The Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) should also attend all of these meetings across all Management Groups so you won’t be alone. While you are instrumental in providing more detailed information about specific groups that may have raised problems or be of interest to the College, the Union appreciates that you have a degree to do at the same time. Therefore, if any action points come out of the meeting for the Union, these will normally be given to the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) as they are employed full time.

Union Meetings

All Union meetings have a set membership of officers, who get voting rights as a consequence. However, being an open, democratic organisation any Full Member of the Union is welcome to attend any Union meeting as an


observer, and sometimes others are invited to come to meetings, such as Club or Society officers when applying to the Clubs & Societies Board for Tours Funding.

Union CouncilCentral Union body that decides on policy for the Union, or essentially ‘what the Union believes’ as a whole. This meets monthly and has representatives from across the Union including all Sabbaticals, Faculty Unions and members of the Representation & Welfare Board, as well as Ordinary Members. This is chaired by the Council Chair ([email protected]).

Clubs & Societies Board (CSB)Only Management Group Chairs, and the Sabbatical Officers are members of this committee. It discusses anything pertaining to Clubs & Societies, so

arguably the most important for members of the committee to attend. It’s a good forum to share best practice or escalate issues that might be occurring across the Clubs & Societies spectrum. You also find out about up-coming deadlines or opportunities from it. There is a termly meeting of CSB specifically focussing on Tours applications and one of the meetings in the spring term is the budgeting meeting when all1 club budgets are set for the following year. This is chaired by the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) ([email protected]).

1 Departmental societies may also have the option of applying to the Representation & Welfare Board for funding towards Freshers’ induction activities, as this is seen as a welfare role.

Meetings cont...



Representation & Welfare Board (RWB)The RAG & CAG Chairs sit on this committee, along with the FU Presidents, FU Academic Affairs Officers, Welfare Officers, Portfolio holders, and the Sabbatical Officers. This committee, held approximately once a month, looks at anything concerning academic representation and Welfare which does include outreach and charitable work and hence Projects.

Therefore, in a similar way to CSB, it is an ideal place to bring up anything regarding the work of Projects. RWB does have money that it can allocate to Union activities which are charitable (though not to give directly to another charity) or doing outreach, such as t-shirts or badges for volunteers. Applications for this money can come from any group or individual student, in the form of a paper to the committee.

Projects however, have no parallel ability to apply for tour funding in the same way as Clubs & Societies. RWB is alternately chaired by the Deputy President (Welfare) ([email protected]) and the Deputy President (Education) ([email protected]).

Executive CommitteeThis is the paramount committee of resource allocation (and in particular money) sitting at the same level as Union Council. Two representatives are elected from the membership of CSB to sit on this committee, at the beginning of the year. It meets about once every three weeks, though if something urgent arises may be called to meet sooner. Other people on the committee are two representatives from the Representation & Welfare Board, the Faculty Union Presidents and the Sabbatical Officers. This is chaired by the Union President ([email protected]).


New Clubs Committee (NCC)As the name suggests, this is the body that has the ability to set up new clubs. In a similar fashion to the Executive committee, the officers that comprise it are elected in the first Clubs & Societies Board of the year. It is made up of one CSC/CU representative, one Faculty Union representative and another person from either. From these three people, a chair is chosen. The Committee meets at least once per term, or more often depending on the number of applications. The Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) arranges and attends these meetings, mostly in a secretarial capacity and does not get a vote in the proceedings. Other functions of the New Clubs Committee are deciding on which Management Group a new club would join, and allocating any start up grant to clubs

which they have set up. It has a parallel committee, called the New Projects Committee.

New Projects Committee (NPC)This body is able to start Projects under RAG or CAG. It is comprised of the RAG & CAG Chairs, and one other individual elected from the membership of RWB in the first meeting of the year. The Deputy President (Welfare) also attends in a secretarial capacity in a similar way to the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) for the NCC. One of the committee then chair the meetings. The Committee meets at least once per term, or more frequently if required. Other functions are deciding on whether Projects should fall under RAG or CAG and allocating any start up grants to Projects they do approve.

Ents CommitteeThis is a sub-committee of the Executive Committee. As a Management Group officer you are not eligible to stand to be a member as it could cause a conflict of interest. The role of this committee is to decide on which groups will be hosting events in Metric for the following term, and as such it meets at least once per term. It is comprised of three members elected in the Summer elections, and a first year student elected in the Autumn elections. The committee is chaired by the Deputy President (Finance & Services).

Meetings cont...



Management Group Meetings

Overview

As a Management Group, you should be holding regular Management Group meetings. Each Club, Society or Project in a Management Group is represented in these meetings and the meetings are a chance for all the groups to meet and discuss things relevant to the members. As a Management Group officer, these are also your opportunity to pass on important information from the Union, highlight upcoming deadlines and any policy changes and big events going on which may be of interest to your members.

For this reason, it is good to send out the agenda in advance so that individual groups can consult their committees on any issues, or have time to think of any questions they may have. It is also the forum for Groups to air any particular problems affecting them which need to

be addressed by the Union. Other things which regularly come up are: • Budget appeals (normally after the

budgeting meeting in the Spring term)• Approval of any changes in a Club or

Society Constitution• Contingency claims.

The Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) may well also attend these meetings, so they can help answer any questions or raise matters with them directly.

Frequency: Once a month. The Management Group Secretary will need to notify your Clubs, Societies & Projects of the date, time and location of the meeting at least two weeks in advance.

Who Attends: Every Club, Society or Project in the Management Group is required to send one representative. This is usually the Chair; however, other Committee members can attend in their


place. More than one person from a Group can attend if they want to.

Important: It is the Club, Society or Project, not the group’s officers who are members of the Management Group. Therefore, if more than one representative from a group attends, there will still be one vote per group. Any member of the Union can attend a Management Group meeting and observe.

Tip: try to decide a provisional timetable of meetings for the following term and send this around at the beginning of the year. That way your Clubs, Societies or Projects have plenty of time to organise themselves.

Chairing the Meeting

Generally the Chair of the Management Group is the chair for all meetings of that Management Group.

Chairing meetings can be hard at first, but it’s a very useful skill in life so this is a great opportunity to get some practice. There are lots of things to bear in mind when chairing a meeting but here are a few useful pointers: 1. Speak up and speak clearly If your committee can’t hear or understand you, they are quickly going to loose concentration and respect for your authority. 2. Keep things moving. Quite often if a contentious point comes up, many people will want to give long or rambling points. Feel free to give people a time limit like one minute, or if they’ve been going on for a while ask them to stop and you can summarise concisely the salient points of what they’ve said before moving on to the next person or the vote. 3. Keep track of people wanting to speak. Make it clear that to speak, members need to raise their hand. Once you’ve seen a hand go up acknowledge that person and don’t forget to come around to them when it’s their turn. A helpful technique is to number people as their hand goes up which helps them to know when it will be their turn. 4. Do give people a chance to ask questions. Whatever you are discussing,

Management Group Meetings cont...



it’s good if people feel they can get clarification on the rules or surrounding facts. If no one present is able to answer the question, it’s ok to say that you don’t know but follow up, find out from the appropriate person who does know and get back to either the whole committee or the person who asked. 5. Don’t lose control of the meeting. If people are being distracting or unhelpful, use an appropriate means to make them stop or ask them to leave if it’s very bad.6. Maintain your neutrality. As a chair of a meeting, it’s important that your members feel that you aren’t trying to sway decisions in any particular direction. If you do feel that there is a misunderstanding or need for information, make sure that you deliver this in a manner that sticks to the facts. Voting in a Meeting

When making a decision as a Management Group, it is important for the chair to state the exact thing that they are voting on in a clear and concise manner. It’s also advisable to ask if anyone has any questions before proceeding, as you don’t want the committee to be confused about what it is voting on.

Single Transferable Vote (STV) is recognised as the most fair way of voting when there are more than two options. If it is a case of for or against a motion, then normally a show of hands or ballot

papers will suffice, though members of the committee should always be given the third option of abstaining from voting. It is also possible to choose not to vote at all. The chair of a meeting does not get a vote.

Common Terms in Meetings QuorumThis is the minimum number of people required to make a meeting, and it’s decisions, valid. The concept is that if you have an attendance of below this number the committee is in fact not being representative and so can’t make decisions to reflect its membership. For Management Groups this is normally


50% of the membership. Importantly, each Club, Society or Project counts as one member, so it doesn’t matter how many people a group sends, each group still only has one vote. A proxy vote does not count towards quorum.

Proxy VotesIf a Club, Society or Project is not at all able to send a representative then they should send apologies. Ideally, they will also nominate another group or person to vote on their behalf and this is a proxy. Another group or person can only hold one proxy (i.e. they can have a maximum of two votes). For this to be official, the Club, Society or Project unable to attend should send their apologies and the name of their chosen proxy to the Management Group Secretary in advance, who should note this in the minutes.

Common Agenda Items

Dormancy ReviewsThe Union has an obligation to provide Clubs, Societies & Projects to serve the interests of the current student population. In some cases, the interests of the student population fluctuate leaving some groups with low or non-existent memberships suggesting that our students are no longer interested enough in that activity to merit it being a Club, Society or Project.

If the Club, Society or Project isn’t able to meet the basic requirements of being

a Club, Society or Project, then the Union should not waste valuable time and resources on maintaining it. Having said this, it should be noted that every effort should be made to make the most of the existing groups that exist before making a new one, as it is similarly bad practice to start and close groups that we don’t believe will last that long due to the admin of getting everything ready.

There are also some Clubs & Societies that are exempt from being made dormant. The mascot Motor Clubs which are maintained as a service to the student population and College. Departmental Societies are also exempt from being made dormant which can




make it hard to determine if they are successfully serving their members.

For Faculty Unions looking after Departmental Societies, it is important to make frequent contact with those Principal Officers and find out what events they are putting on, and seeing budgets for these. The Union also runs some specific Departmental Society training which is designed to share best practice and brainstorm the range of activities these groups could be undertaking.

Contingency ClaimsContingency Claims can be defined as ‘an unexpected, and unbudgetable expenditure’ and should apply where the functioning of the Club, Society or Project would be compromised if the cost was not met.

When reviewing a Contingency Claim paper in a general meeting, it’s important to remember that there are two potential votes. The first is whether the committee believe that the proposed expenditure is a valid contingency claim. This should be regardless of the amount of money that the claimant is asking for as well as how much the Management Group has as remaining in their Contingency Grant. If there are mixed feelings, it is also possible to vote on the amount being awarded, if it is within the means of the Management Group. In some cases it can be appropriate to award some, but not all of the money asked for.

Alterations to ConstitutionsConstitutions often get lost or forgotten, but they are important to have to hand in case any disputes do come up. They are the backbone of a group, defining what it is fundamentally there for and can be referred to in situations when officers are unsure of official protocol. They are also totally democratic, so members of a Club, Society or Project should be able to see it on request and suggest alterations to it if they think necessary.

There are two main reasons that a Club, Society or Project would alter their constitution, both of which are cause for


review by the entire Management Group at a general meeting.

1. Adding/taking away members of the Committee or aspects of their respective roles2. Changing the aims, objectives or description of their activities

In the first case, the Management Group can share best practice. The Management Group also have a vested interest in what other groups in it are doing due to the fact that grant money from the Union is allocated as a Management Group. If a group creates new positions in their committee with poor job descriptions which are unlikely to be filled in following years, it is likely that this will end up being a ‘Naughty Officer’, which then means that their budget will be frozen. If a group’s budget stays frozen for a long time, the other Clubs, Societies or Projects in the Management Group may well have benefitted from that money had it been allocated to a different group. Having said this, reviewing the positions and roles of a committee and making sure that they are well defined and efficiently distributed should be encouraged.

If a Club, Society or Project is altering their aims, objectives or activities it is important for the Management Group to oversee this to ensure that they are not being changed to overlap with the

objectives or activities of an existing group as this is a fundamental point in the Clubs & Societies Policy, in order to eliminate duplication. As such, it is important as a Management Group Officer to be broadly aware of what each of your groups do, though more information could be sought as and when necessary.

Appealing Decisions of a Management Group General Meeting

Every full member of the Union has the right to appeal any decision made in a Union meeting. They can do this by writing a paper to the Committee which sits above the one that made the decision:

Trustee Board|

Executive Committee|

Clubs & Societies Board/Representation & Welfare Board

|Management Group

|Club, Society or Project

For help writing an appeal paper, it is best to ask the Chair of the Committee the appelal paper will be presented at or the Governance & Administration Coordinator to ensure that the wording of the decisions being requested are correct.




Documentation Deadlines

Due to the vast number of Clubs, Societies & Projects, it becomes necessary to document what each of them are doing since there are too many things to keep track of and remember. Most pieces of documentation are now done online through the Union’s eActivities, which allows groups to just update information from previous years. As a Management Group officer, your job is to notify your groups in advance and enforce these paperwork deadlines.

To submit most documentation, unless other instructions are given, the Club, Society or Project should go to https://eActivities.union.ic.ac.uk and log in using their personal account- not their Club, Society or Project account. The database will then recognise which group they are an officer of.

Why & When

Document DeadlineFinancial Responsibility

Signed by the Chair and the Treasurer having done the requisite training and validation quizzes and state that they will adhere to the Union’s Financial regulations. This needs to be done before an individual can spend any money on behalf of a Club, Society or Project. By signing it, it holds an officer responsible for the year’s accounts for the following seven years.

01/08/2010

Contact Details

Contact details of the current committee. 01/08/2010

Naughty Officers

All group officers must be members of their group by this date. This is because all groups are democratic – officers are not exempt from buying membership. This also is true of groups that do not charge membership as officers still must join.

01/11/2010

Risk Assessment

Evaluates group activities for potential risks and outlines prevention measures to avoid them. When helping groups to write this, its good to think about this in terms of identifying risks, how to minimise them and how they would be dealt with if they did occur so that they would already have a plan in the case of an emergency.

01/11/2010


Document DeadlineInstructor Registration

Provides details of any instructors used by a group so that the Union can know who is coming on campus on a regular basis.

01/11/2010

Affiliations Indicates external organisations to which a group is affiliated. An affiliation should be something that is the same for all affiliates (as opposed to sponsorship), and provides some sort of benefit or accreditation such as specialist insurance. The Union must report all affiliations by Law.

01/11/2010

Inventory List of all items owned by the group whose combined worth is £200 or more. Importantly if a group wants to make a contingency claim for an item of their equipment, then it should be on their inventory with its value prior to making the claim.

27/03/2011

Code of Conduct

Outlines the expected behaviour of a group on Health & Safety issues with regards to the Risk Assessment. This only needs to be done once, though if anything changes in a group or as a result of advice of a national governing body, they can update it to reflect those changes.

27/03/2011

Constitution This outlines the structure of a group and the way in which it is run. It defines the aims and objectives, membership, committee structure, officer duties, electoral procedures and policies of a group. Any changes to the Constitution can only be made at an Annual General Meeting of a group and must be approved by the relevant Management Group. Amended Constitutions must be resubmitted to the Union. More details on Constitutional changes in a Management Group meeting can be found in the ‘Meetings’ section.

27/03/2011

Next Year Committee Details

Filled out after the AGM to indicate the contact details of the committee for next academic year.

27/03/2011

Handbook/Profile Entry

One longer and one shorter promotional abstract about a group’s activities for the Handbook in the next academic year.

04/06/2011

Documentation Deadlines cont...



It’s good to be aware of the policies that concern Clubs, Societies & Projects as these are effectively the rule book on which you base your decisions. The only document that supersedes these policies is the Union Constitution. As long as you stick to the policies, it makes your life a lot easier if someone wants to appeal your decision in an official context, or if they would like clarification on an issue. In these situations, you are there to uphold and explain the policies. If there is something that you come across that you think should be changed for the benefit of all Clubs or Societies, then the Clubs & Societies Board is the best place to bring this up in the first instance, though Union policies are all eventually voted on in Union Council. Likewise for Projects, the place to discuss issues in the first instance is the Representation & Welfare Board. Clubs & Societies Policy

This is the policy governing Clubs & Societies. It includes the processes for setting up a Club or Society, making Clubs or Societies dormant and how to close them if they are struggling to fulfil the necessary criteria. It also contains what Clubs & Societies are entitled to from the Union, various rules and regulations on how they should function and how they can be disciplined (though more information can be found in the

Union’s Disciplinary Policy) if they break the rules. It’s worth being very familiar with this policy.

RAG & CAG Policy

This is the policy governing Projects and how they operate within RAG and CAG, and is parallel to the Clubs & Societies Policy. In the same way as the Clubs & Societies Policy, it includes the processes for setting up Projects. Projects can be closed by a vote of the Management Group or the RWB. It also contains what Projects are entitled to from the Union and the rules that regulate how they function. It’s beneficial to be aware of what it contains to know the subtle differences between Clubs, Societies & Projects.

Tours Policy

This policy comes into practice for Tours meetings of CSB which is held once per term. Important points in this are that all applications from Clubs or Societies are submitted through their Management Group Chair. This is to ensure that you have seen it first and have checked it over. In this case, you are looking to make sure it meets all the basic criteria of the Tours policy so it’s good to know what those are. Though this won’t guarantee its success in the meeting, it will mean that you are familiar with its contents.

Policies


Poster Policy

The poster policy states the rules with regards to putting up posters around campus. It goes into detail about the size of posters, language, adhesives to put the poster up with and importantly the locations that they are permitted. As a senior Union officer, you should be familiar with these rules so that if you see a poster that contravenes these rules (particularly if the offending poster is from one of your Clubs, Societies or Projects) you can take it down and/or forward the details to the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies).

Similarly, if a poster is out of date on a poster board, then feel free to take these down as well. It really helps to have many people making sure that all groups are doing this correctly.

Others

There are two other policies that are effective over fairly short time frames, but that do involve Clubs, Societies & Projects. The Trading at Freshers’ Fair Policy says that there is to be no trading at Freshers’ Fair, either Club, Society or Project merchandise or from commercial stall holders, in order to protect our students. The Colours Policy takes effect at the end of the academic year when considering students for Union Colours. All Management Group Chairs are a

member of the Colours Committee, so if you do attend, you should read this policy as it gives the criteria for each level of award. The Equal Opportunities Policy applies to everything that the Union does, so it’s worth reminding your Clubs, Societies & Projects of this. If a group does have someone wishing to be a member that requires some adaptations to your activities, such as a disability, then please contact the Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) in the first instance.

Documentation Deadlines cont...


Appendix 1 – Useful Contacts

Sabbatical Officers

The Sabbatical Officers can be contacted by email or by coming up to the Union Offices on the first floor of the Union Building, Beit Quadrangle, during office hours. The Felix Editor's office is in the West Basement of Beit Quad.

Alex Kendall,President

[email protected]

Alex Dahinten, Deputy President (Education)

[email protected]

Ravi Pall, Deputy President (Finance & Services)[email protected]

Charlotte Ivison, Deputy President (Welfare)

[email protected]

Heather Jones, Deputy President (Clubs & Societies)

[email protected]

Kadhim Shubber, Felix Editor

[email protected]



Union Finance Office

Sports Contacts

Refer to Robin PittHead of Union Finance [email protected] 58069

Aziz BilgramiClubs & Societies Finance [email protected] 7594 8069Ext 41514

The Union’s Finance Team is led by the Head of Finance. General enquires can be directed to the Finance Office which is located on the first floor of the Union Building. The Head of Finance is available to deal with more complex financial matters as well as any significant queries.

Aziz is the main point of contact for Clubs, Societies & Projects with technical finance queries.

Hannah Blandford Sports Partnership Administrator [email protected]: 020 7594 3479

Hannah is the main point of contact regarding fixtures and booking facilities for fixtures and practice. Results of all competitions in all BUCS events will need to be sent to Hannah.

Anthony [email protected] Development Officer Phone: 020 7594 1164

Anthony liaises with Clubs & Societies and Management Groups to allocate funding from Sport Imperial for sports teams. This can include funding for kit, affiliation, travel, instructors and ground hire.

ULU Leagues Co-ordinator [email protected] Sports Administrator Phone: 020 7664 2009

All League results must be sent here and this is your main point of contact for any queries to do with the London Leagues & Knockouts.


Appendix 1 cont...

Student Activities Centre (SAC)[email protected] Ext 48066 Fax: 020 7594 8066

The Student Activities Centre team can assist with any queries about the day-to-day running of Clubs, Societies and projects including room bookings, key lists and collection of minibus keys.

Olle AkessonStudent Activities [email protected] Ext 43496

Olle’s role is being responsible for supporting the activities of Clubs, Societies & Projects and for looking after the Union’s minibus fleet.

Richard CollinsFunctions Coordinator [email protected] 58060

Get in touch with Rich if you need stewards or catering at an event being run in the Union. He is also the person to contact about using equipment such as projectors, screens, or obtaining sound or light equipment, a late licence or DJ for events at the Union.

Alex McKee

Central Services [email protected] 48091

Alex is responsible for looking after the Union’s communications output. He is in charge of the promotion of all the Union’s services and events. Speak to him if you need help with communication plans for your events or are planning to liase with external printers for publicity materials.

Union Contacts



Robin PittOperations [email protected]. 48097

Robin can deal with any issues relating to the Union’s buildings.

Malcolm MacPherson Entertainments & Promotions Manager [email protected] 48060

Malcolm organises ents at the Union. Get in touch with him if your Club or Society is interested in hosting a big event in the Union.

Francesco AtanasioCommercial Services [email protected] 48090

Francesco is in charge of all bar logistics and operations. Get in touch should you require alcohol for a Club or Society event.

Union System [email protected]

The system administrators look after the running of the Union webserver that hosts all the Club & Society websites. Get in touch with them if you need any help with websites hosted on that server.

Phil Power Membership Services Manager [email protected] Ext 48125

Phil is the person to contact if you have any queries about insurance or Health & Safety.

Union Web [email protected]

For any enquiries relating to WorkBench or imperialcollegeunion.org


Appendix 2 – Union StructureTr

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Appendix 3 – Honorary Senior Treasurers

Name Email Address & ExtensionMr Malcolm Aldridge [email protected] Room 314, Finance Division,

Sherfield Building. Ext: 48683

Dr Simon Archer [email protected] Room 211, Natural Sciences, Bio-chemistry. Ext: 45368

Dr Shaun Crofton [email protected] Room 552, Dept of Mechanical Eng. Ext: 47085

Mr Colin Kerr [email protected] Room 440A, Skempton Building. Ext: 46044

Dr Richard J Murphy [email protected] Division of Biology, SAF Building, Room 511, SAFB. Ext: 45389

Name Email Address & ExtensionDr Simon Archer [email protected] Room 211, Natural Sciences,

Bio-chemistry. Ext: 45368

Prof Robert Schroter [email protected] Dept. of BioEng, Room 4.15, Royal School of Mines. Ext: 45175

Mr Malcolm Aldridge [email protected]. Room 314, Finance Division, Sherfield Building. Ext: 48683

Dr Richard J Murphy [email protected] Division of Biology, SAF Building, Room 511, SAFB. Ext: 45389

Mr Colin Kerr (ACC) [email protected] Room 440A, Skempton Building. Ext: 46044

Dr Christos Papavassiliou (A&E)

[email protected] Room 915, Dept of EEE. Ext: 46325

Dr Shaun Crofton (CGU)

[email protected] Room 552, Dept of Mechanical Eng Ext: 47085

Mr Matthew Smith (Media)

[email protected] Room 553, Dept of Mechanical Ext: 47008

Dr Peter Clark (ICSMSU)

[email protected] SAF Building Room 375. Ext: 43163

Union Honorary Senior Treasurers

Club Honorary Senior Treasurers


Appendix 3 cont...

Name Email Address & ExtensionDr Simon Leather [email protected] Division of Biology. Room E23, Lees

Building, Silwood Park. Ext: 42316

Silwood Honorary Senior Treasurer

Name Email Address & ExtensionProf David Stuckey (OSC)

[email protected] Room 205 ACE Extension. Ext: 45591

Dr Andrew Walton (RCSU)

[email protected] Room 539 Huxley Building. Ext: 48514

Dr Lorraine Craig (RCC) [email protected] Room 1.32, Dept of Earth Sci. Ext: 46436

Mr Barry Coles (RSM/GSA/RAG/CAG)

[email protected] Room 2.56, RSM Building. Ext: 46381

Prof Dr John Cosgrove (SCC)

[email protected] Room 3.33, Royal School of Mines. Ext: 46466



Appendix 4 – Transaction Codes

Event CodesCode Name Description00 General Day-to-day transactions.21-29 Tour For example, Winter Tour.51-69 Event For example, Freshers Ball.

Funding Codes

Consolidation CodesCode Name Description0 External Outside College and the Union1 College Outside the Union, within College2 Internal Within in the Union

VAT Codes – ExpenditureCode NameP1 Standard ratedP0 Zero ratedPE ExemptPN Outside Scope

VAT Codes – IncomeCode NameS1 Standard ratedS0 Zero ratedSE ExemptSN Outside Scope

This is comprehensive list of the codes that you may use on various items of documentation such as income forms, claim forms, purchase orders, etc.

Income CodesCode Name430 Donations550 Sponsorship580 Ticket Income590 Travel450 Goods and Services

Expenditure CodesCode Name600 Acts605 Affiliation Fees640 Consumables725 Copyright & Royalties650 Cultural Activities655 Decorations680 Entrance Fee Competition675 Entrance Fee Conference685 Equip purchase (not cap)690 Equipment Hire705 Goods for Resale710 Ground Hire730 Hospitality735 Instructors820 Printing Costs825 Publicity860 Stationery870 Subscriptions895 Travel Expenditure

Code Name Description

0 Grant Union money allocated by your Management Group

1 Self-Generated Income

Club money generated through trips, goods and services, etc

2 Harlington Trust Money from the Harlington Grants Committee

3 IC Trust Money from the IC Trust

4 Faculty Grant Income from a College Faculty

Imperial College UnionBeit QuadranglePrince Consort RoadLondon SW7 2BB

Tel: 020 7594 8060Fax: 020 7594 8065Email: [email protected]

Management Group Manual v1.3

Documents

Transcript of Management Group Manual v1.3