Starting a Club

Have you ever wished there was a Jailbreak Society or a Book Club?

Starting a USASA club is your opportunity to add to the student culture and meet new people who share your interests. Managing a club is a great chance to develop great skills including leadership, marketing and how to run events.

Before you start, be sure to check out our find a club page. The club you are looking for might already exist. 
 

Here's what you need to know:

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Why should I start a club?

Being a USASA endorsed club gives you access to tons of great benefits:
 

• Priority consideration for USASA Grants
• Waiving of fees for booking university rooms, spaces, and equipment
• Create online products for sale through the USASA eStore
• Free printing of event promotion pack
• Free hire of USASA owned equipment
• Discounted t-shirt printing
• Club management advice and mentoring
• Event management support
• Invitations to participate in USASA coordinated events including the USASA Clubs Awards Night
• Access to training workshops and our Club Training Conference
• Extended professional indemnity insurance
• Provided with continuity of services including a generic email account & record management

For USASA to endorse a club some very important conditions need to be met. Read this document to find out what they are. 

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Naming your Club

A great name shows the purpose of the club and can indicate to potential members if the club is active across UniSA or is campus-specific.

Here are some hints to help you have the best name you can have for you to run a successful club!

• Brainstorm what your club is about
  • Make a list of the activities, purpose and role your club will have
• Break out your thesaurus
  • If you can say something ordinary in an extraordinary way, then your club name will really stand out from the crowd
• Keep your club name short
  • 2 or 3 word names are easy to remember and easy to abbreviate
• Remember that in most cases clubs are listed in alphabetical order
  • you don't have to include "UniSA" at the start
• Acronyms are great... if people know what they mean
  • When a person sees your club name for the first time, they should be able to understand what you do immediately

Club handles you might like to try:

• Club
• Society
• Group
• Assembly
• Crew
• Squad
• Team
• Troop
• Bunch
• League
• Coalition
• Party
• Nexus
• Collective
• Co-op... the list goes on!

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Things to Consider...

Using UniSA Branding

Clubs may not use the University of South Australia branding, logo or name unless approval has been granted by the University’s marketing department. This includes completing this form.
For more information, please contact: ryan.bailey@unisa.edu.au

Clubs with approval to use the University of South Australia’s name or logo are required to comply with the Branding Guidelines.

Associations

USASA will not support clubs that choose to use Association in their title unless they are an Incorporated Association.

This is because the use of this word “Association” implies incorporation, meaning that the club is a single legal entity registered with Consumer & Business Services (CBS) with certain rights and legal protections as well as some additional obligations. To find out more about becoming an Incorporated Association please visit the CBS website.

Full USASA requirements and benefits to incorporated clubs can be found here.

Changing the Name of Your Club

Name changes must be made in accordance with your Rules of Governance. No amendment to this Rules of Governance will take effect unless and until it has been approved by a resolution of USASA Clubs Support Staff.

In general terms:
The Executive Committee will discuss the proposed changes and amend the Rules of Governance accordingly. The Club Secretary will call an SGM or AGM to ratify this change and as a part of this meeting will supply the Rules of Governance as a document, highlighting the proposed changes a minimum of one (1) week before the SGM or AGM is due to occur.

The meeting must be quorate as per your Club's Rules of Governance and a minimum 2/3 of attending members must vote in the changes for the new Rules of Governance to come into effect. You must submit the minutes from this meeting together with your amended Rules of Governance to USASA within 2 weeks of this meeting.

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How to Start a Club

1. Register your details to create a new account on the USASA website.
   Already registered? Sign-in at the top right corner of this page.
2. Your club must meet these conditions within 2 months for USASA to endorse the club. A detailed overview of these steps can be found here.
3. Fill out this form to apply to start a new USASA club. 
4. USASA Clubs Support Officer will be in contact with you regarding your request.
5. That's it!
6. Kinda confused? Contact a USASA Clubs Support Officer: USASA.Clubs@unisa.edu.au 

 

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