Strategic Planning Guide

Strategic Planning Template

The Bristol SU Code of Conduct sets out the expected behaviour of all members and affiliated groups when participating in any activity under the name of Bristol Students’ Union (Bristol SU), both in-person or online. It includes expectations around Bullying, Harassment and Initiations and outlines potential sanctions.

Please note that any student at the University of Bristol (UoB) is also subject to the University’s Code of Practice and disciplinary procedures, as well as (of course) to the law.

Other key documents, including the Bristol SU Byelaws, Articles or Association and EDI Policy can be found here

• Connecting with Alumni Slides (Committee Fest 2023)
• Connecting with Alumni Recording (Committee Fest 2023)

Bristol Connects is an online platform for Bristol alumni, students and staff.  Alumni can volunteer through the platform to support students and alumni by registering as a Career Expert, they can volunteer as a career e-mentor and at university events.

As a club & society committee member, you can access to our alumni Career Experts via our Career Expert Directory. You can filter by profession, education and other information provided by alumni as part of their Career Expert profile. Our event volunteer Career Experts have indicated which events they would be interested in supporting. Once you have found a Career Expert that would be a good fit with your event of activity, send them a connection request to introduce yourself and tell them more about the opportunity that you'd like to invite them to be part of. 

The Career Expert Directory is an ideal way to find 3 to 4 alumni to support your activity. For activities requiring more than a few alumni, get in touch with the Alumni Volunteering Team by completing the Working in Partnership form. 

Academic Society Handbook

• All student groups must elect their committee in free and fair elections. Interviews, screening of candidates and/or a written application process are not allowed.

• Your group must be student-led in its decision-making and democracy. Non-members (such as staff members, instructors, or external organisations) should not be involved in determining role descriptions, timing of elections, or having any say in who is elected to your committee.

• You must follow the rules set out in your group’s constitution – this will determine which roles should be on your committee (and whether there are multiple positions for any of these roles).

• Your constitution should be freely available for members to access throughout the year, but particularly for your AGM.

• You should be able to find your constitution in the Committee Hub. If you are having trouble finding it, please email us – bristolsu@bristol.ac.uk

• We recommend holding you AGM in person where possible. You can book a University room (info here), an SU room (info here) or use an external venue. You should make sure you choose an accessible venue that is big enough for your members to attend. Consider how to get lots of members to attend for a more democratic event – organising a social event immediately afterwards can be helpful.

• You can hold your AGM online if you would prefer. If doing so, we recommend holding a live meeting (e.g. on Zoom) as this is more flexible. Online meetings can run similarly to in-person meetings, but you’ll need to think about how members will vote (and avoid anyone being able to vote twice) and what to do if there are technical issues. We recommend running a practice online AGM as a committee to ensure the real event runs smoothly.

• Once you have the main details of your AGM sorted, you should contact your members via both email and social media, giving at least 2 weeks’ notice of your AGM.

• When announcing the date, time, and location of your AGM, we recommend also publishing a provisional agenda, providing a link to/attaching your group’s constitution, explaining whether proxy and postal voting will be possible (and if so how), asking members to submit any agenda items (such as constitution changes) and opening nominations.

• Minutes must be taken by the group's Secretary during the AGM and circulated to your membership after the meeting. They are an important document and should be stored by the group for future committees. Your minutes are also used as evidence of your democratic election process at Reaffiliation. We have a short guide on writing minutes and agendas here. A template for AGM minutes can be found here.

• We recommend electing the core roles for your group before electing other roles. Each core role must be filled by one individual only and different individuals must fill each of your core roles.

  • Societies: President, Secretary, Treasurer and Equality Officer

  • Sports Clubs: Club Captain, Secretary, Treasurer and Equality Officer

  • Volunteering Projects: Project Coordinator and Treasurer

• If you want to add or remove a committee role, change the role description of a committee role, or change the number of positions available for a committee role, this is a constitutional change, and you’ll therefore need to vote on this change at the start of your AGM or at an EGM (Emergency General Meeting) beforehand. If a vote to add a role is successful, you can take nominations from those in the room and vote to fill that role in the same meeting.

• We advise against Vice President roles (as these tend to have unhelpfully vague role descriptions such as ‘supporting the committee’ or ‘stepping in when the President is not available’) and having multiple positions for a role (as it’s usually more effective for committee members to have clear individual responsibilities).

• Consider how you advertise your roles. Detailed role descriptions and an estimation of the time commitment required per week can be helpful. It can also be helpful to mention any other expectations of those running for committee e.g. you should aim to be available to represent the society at Welcome Fair.

• Only registered members can nominate themselves for a committee position.

• Only full members (i.e. University of Bristol students) can nominate themselves for a core committee position.

• Treasurers must not be in (or, when elected, going into) their final year at the University so you should encourage those going into their final year to run for other roles instead. However, if given approval by the SU before the election, a final year student may take the position - they should contact bristolsu@bristol.ac.uk before your AGM to seek approval.Groups are unlikely to be given approval if their group is of high financial risk.

• You may want to consider limiting the number of roles that an individual can nominate themselves for.

• We advise against any requirements for members to be nominated/seconded by other members as this is additional bureaucracy that is likely to reduce the number of candidates.

• Your constitution may state that nominations should be submitted before the AGM. This can be helpful if you want to share manifestos, videos etc. in advance, particularly if you want to allow postal voting.

• You could collect nominations through an email to a committee member (usually the Secretary or a committee inbox) or a form. You shouldn’t collect any personal information that isn’t required at this stage – asking for a name and email is appropriate but you shouldn’t be asking for a candidate’s year of study, phone number etc.

• If an outgoing committee member is running for a committee position, it’s advised that any details of nominations from other members are kept secret from them.

• A list of candidates and the number of candidates for a committee role should not usually be disclosed until nominations have closed but if you’re concerned that there are no candidates or only one candidate for a role, you could let your members know part-way through the nominations period which roles have a lack of nominations.

• If you don't have any candidates for a role, or if there is a request to allow late nominations, you could vote during the meeting on whether you should allow nominations ‘from the floor’ i.e. additional nominations from those in the room. We particularly advise doing this if you have no nominations for a core committee role.

• Most constitutions do not state how candidates should campaign for committee positions – this may be something you vote to change so that each year has consistent campaigning rules. You should be clear on what candidates can and can’t do as soon as possible.

• It's important that your election is free and fair. Candidates must not use personal finances or other means that aren’t also equally available to every other member. You should also ensure that candidates are equally limited e.g. limiting speeches to 1 minute or manifestos to 500 words.

• If an outgoing committee member is running for a committee position, they should not use their position to support their campaign. We advise that they are not involved in chairing the AGM or counting votes at the AGM.

• We recommend using manifestos rather than speeches to allow for postal voting and because speaking in front of a room may be a barrier for some people. Some groups have used videos as an alternative.

It is good practice to prepare a report about the events and activities of your group over the last year. This should include things related to your groups’ development, for example:

• Recruitment of Members
  • How do membership numbers compare with last year
  • Are there any trends you can share
  • Participation in Give it a Go! / Welcome / Refreshers
• Strategic Plan
  • How have the groups aims and objectives changed over the year
  • What do future plans look like
• Events
  • What events have you run this year
  • What has been successful
  • Plans for future
• Financial Report
  • Breakdown of income and expenditure
  • Outstanding loans or debts
  • Grants and funding awarded over the year
  • Sponsorships
• EDI
  • Report on Equality Officer's work over the year
• Awards and Accreditation
  • Has the group won any awards or gained accreditation

There should be time for your members to ask the outgoing committee any questions about the report

• Only full members (i.e. University of Bristol students) can vote in your elections.

• Your constitution will state the voting method you should use (usually this is either First Past the Post or Single Transferable Vote). For First Past the Post, the candidate with the most votes wins so you only need to ask for each member’s first choice. For Single Transferable Vote, candidates are eliminated until a candidate is voted by the majority. In this case, you’ll need to ask members to rank the candidates. You may want to prepare ballot papers in advance or set something up to vote digitally.

• Remember that you should provide a Re-Open Nominations option for each election. If Re-Open Nominations wins, you should allow additional candidates to run, either at an EGM (Emergency General Meeting) held a few weeks’ later, or during your AGM, after all the other roles have been elected.

• It can be helpful to decide on a few vote counters to count the votes for each candidate/go through the ballot papers. Vote counters should not be running in any elections etc. so that your membership has confidence that they are sufficiently neutral. However, vote counters still have the right to vote themselves if they are a full member of your group.

• You should determine and state in advance (if not specified in your constitution) whether your group will allow postal and/or proxy voting. If not, only those attending the AGM can vote. Postal voting is where members can vote in advance if they can’t attend the meeting. This works best if manifestos are published in advance, so voters can make an informed choice. Proxy voting is where a member votes on another member’s behalf. If allowing this, we recommend that no member can act as a proxy for more than one non-attending member.

• Constitution changes require 2/3rds of members to vote for the change. You should be specific on the exact wording of changes being proposed and have the opportunity for members to speak for and against the proposal. You might also want to consider voting on whether to amend the wording of a proposal before you vote on that proposal.

• Some groups vote on other matters at their AGM, such as how much membership prices should be increased or a chosen charity to fundraise for over the next year.

• You will need to submit your AGM minutes and the details of your new committee members on the Committee Hub when reaffiliation opens. We recommend doing this as soon as possible. For elections at other times in the year, please contact the Student Services Team.

• If you have a vacant core committee role after your AGM, you will need to hold an Emergency General Meeting as soon as possible afterwards to elect someone to this role. We recommend making it clear to your members that unless this role is filled, your student group will not be able to continue being affiliated to the SU.

• If you have a vacant non-core role after your AGM, we recommend holding an Emergency General Meeting if you feel that is likely someone will run for the role. Filling a role earlier ensures that person can get a good handover, attend training and plan over the summer. However, you’re welcome to wait until October if you think this would work better for your group.

• If your constitution allows it, the (newly elected) committee may co-opt someone into a vacant role. This is where the committee votes that a particular member should fill a vacant role for the rest of the year. You shouldn’t choose this option if it’s likely that you would have multiple candidates if you held an Emergency General Meeting to fill this vacant role.

• Your should avoid any swapping (or similar rearrangement) of committee roles. If a member voted for someone to fill a particular committee role, this does not mean that they also think they would be good for another role.

• Prepare for a comprehensive handover. Make sure you have the contact details of successful candidates and get in touch with them soon after whilst they are excited and motivated!

All group elections should give the option for voters to express their wish that nominations for a role should be re-opened. Voting for this option is usually taken when voters do not feel as though any of the candidates offer viable or credible policies. This is why you will see R.O.N listed as a candidate.

If RON wins an election, nominations should be reopened for the role and another election should take place at a time deemed suitable to gain the maximum number of voters. This would usually be at an EGM (Emergency General Meeting), a week or two later but, if felt to be a suitable option, you could hold a second vote at the end of the meeting, allowing members to nominate themselves and to take a vote immediately. Any candidates who lost to RON should be able to rerun for the same position.

Get in touch with the Development Team – bristolsu-development@bristol.ac.uk – if RON does win and you want to talk next steps.

If you're concerned you might struggle to fill your committee positions this year, please get in touch with us!

A Development Meeting may be particularly helpful where we can help you decide on the best route forward for your group - this may include reducing your committee size, ways to encourage more nominations, merging with another group or closing your group.

Our Top Tips:

• Sell what's great about being on committee
  • Talk up all the things that make being on committee great and all the fab things that can be done next year!
• Invite members to a 'candidate academy' 
  • Give potential candidates a chance to ask questions and find out from the current committee what it's like
• Let them know support is available
  • From Committee Fest to Development Meetings, support is on-hand for all committee members - let candidates know!
• Be honest with your members
  • If you're struggling to find next year's committee, let your members know. It might just be the push someone needs to step up and run for a role.

Your constitution will tell you which system is used to count votes for your election. This will usually be either First Past the Post (FPTP) or Single Transferrable Vote (STV)

Bristol SU uses Single Transferable Vote (STV), a representation system in which a person’s vote can be transferred to a second or third choice (according to their stated preference) if their first choice is eliminated during the vote count.

If you want to understand more, take a look at this YouTube video explaining how another SU used STV. 

First Past the Post is the system used at UK General Elections where voters cast their vote for a candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. This video explains the system.

Once a group has held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the 2024/25 committee have been elected, the outgoing President, Club Captain or Volunteer Coordinator should access the Committee Hub to notify us of their successor. Check your emails - a bespoke link will have been sent with your Committee Hub log-in details. If you haven’t received this email please get in touch at bristolsu@bristol.ac.uk

The incoming President, Club Captain or Volunteer Coordinator is then automatically sent an email asking them to complete a number of tasks including:

Groups are asked to tell Bristol SU what ‘type’ of group they are during reaffiliation – a sports club, a society or a volunteering project. For some this is obvious, for others it can be less so.

Our definition of a Sports Club is a group meeting any of the below criteria:

• Group participation in BUCS
• Group affiliated to a recognised national sporting body
• Primary activity is a martial art

OR meets all of the below:

• Primary activity expresses or improves physical fitness
• Group self-identifies as a sport (and not a dance / performing art)
• Primary activity is done competitively against external groups

A Volunteering Project will be listed on our website here. Everyone else is a society.

The below table illustrates expectations for each group:

Your group's constitution sets out how you plan to operate, and what your members can expect from your committee. If you wish to make amendments to your constitution these should be done at your AGM with at least two thirds of those present voting in favour of the change. Minor changes such as removal of old policy or references to old systems can be made without consultation at AGM.

If you need a copy of your current constitution, please email Student Services

Template constitutions can be found below:

• Society Constitution Template
• Sports Club Constitution Template
• Volunteer Project Constitution Template

Usually this is because the person being named is either not a member of the group, or has only become a member very recently. The portal can take a couple of days to catch up with new memberships so give it a few days and try again.

As soon as possible! Starting the reaffiliation process as early as possible is good practice and can serve as a useful handover tool for groups

We ask that Student Groups start reaffiliation as soon as possible.

• All groups must have started reaffiliation by Friday 17 May
• All groups must have finished reaffiliation by Wednesday 5 June