How to Start a New Club

Fill out the New Club Registration Form

Got your club idea ready? Great! Start by completing UNE Life’s New Club Registration Form. This form collects some basic details like:

• Your club’s name
• A brief description of the club
• Your contact information

If you’ve already got two other people interested in starting the club with you, that’s fantastic—it’ll give you a head start on forming your executive team. But don’t stress if you’re starting solo, you can still submit the form and get the ball rolling!

Chat with UNE Life

Once you’ve submitted the form, get in touch with our Student Experience Team at clubsandsocieties@une.edu.au to book a time to chat. We’ll help you refine your ideas, explain the club creation process in more detail, and introduce you to TidyHQ—our handy club management portal.

At this stage, you’ll get basic admin access over this portal, with more options released upon completion of Event Planning 101.

Expression of Interest

Once your club is approved, it will appear under the “Pending Clubs” tab on the “Join a Club or Society” page. This means UNE Life is ready to start promoting your idea—and it’s your turn to spread the word (more on this in just a moment!

At the top of this page, you’ll find a Memberships tab.  This is where UNE Life sets up your Expression of Interest (EOI) group—and where you’ll want to point any new people interested in bringing this club to life.

Setting Your Executive

Now it’s time to form your club’s executive team. To start, you’ll require these three roles:

• President
• Secretary
• Treasurer

A Vice President role is optional, but can be helpful. In the future, your club might expand with the formation of a committee and optional roles like:

• Social Media Officer
• Sponsorship Coordinator
• Online Representative
• On-campus Representative

Keep in mind a committee can only be created after the formation of an executive team.

If you don’t already have two others to join your executive team, use your EOI group to find interested people.

Important: All executive members must be UNE students.

Writing Your Constitution

With your executive team in place, the next step is to create a constitution. This document sets out the rules and responsibilities for running your club, ensuring it operates ethically and sustainably.

UNE Life provides a Model Constitution to help you get started.  This document is fully customisable to suit your club’s needs.

Note: all amendments must be approved by the UNE Life Student Experience Team before being adopted by the club.

Where to Start

Now that we have the scaffold of your club in place, let’s make people hear about it.  UNE Life will do our part to announce your club’s launch, but you need to follow this up with further engagement and self-promotion.

Promote your EOI group to as many people as possible via:

• Facebook groups
• MyLearn forums
• Events and activities

Social Media

Consider starting some social media pages of your own.  Our first suggestion would be starting an Instagram page, followed by a Facebook page (not a group, not a profile but a page).

If you do decide to start both these profiles, consider linking them through Meta Business Suite, this way you can essentially half your workload by uploading to both pages at once.

When creating content, remember to tag UNE Life and TuneFM.  When creating an event add these accounts as a cohost and send a link to these pages via messenger, this will help expand your reach to a broader audience.

Wider Marketing Strategy

Also, think beyond digital platforms—traditional marketing can still have a big impact. Some ideas to consider:

• Display event notices, flyers or posters around campus and college, if you have an online club you can also use our digital notice board or Digital HQ.
• Send marketing materials to UNE’s campuses in Sydney, Taree, or Tamworth (simply tagging them on FB and IG can do this)
• Collaborate with TuneFM to advertise your events
• Hand out promotional materials at club events
• Collaborate with larger clubs for joint events

It’s not required, but it can be good to set up a marketing strategy.

• Ask us when your announcement on UNE Life’s socials is planned for
• Plan what you’d want to comment on this post
• Have some content ready on your social media for students to engage with
• Don’t forget to bring everything on socials back to your TidyHQ page

To make sure you’re promoting things on social media correctly be sure to visit our Social Media Guide.

Your EOI numbers will give you an idea of how much interest your club is generating, so go all in on getting the word out!

Online Training Course

As a part of your club’s affiliation, all your executive will want to complete our online executive training course.

This training takes approximately 2 hours to complete and contains a series of videos and quizzes up-skilling you in a variety of topics including:

• Strategic Planning
• Executive Structures
• Membership Procedures
• Constitutions
• Asset & Financial Management
• Meetings
• Risk Management
• SSAF
• Social Media
• TidyHQ

So, before getting into your IGM, consider completing this training now so that you’re as prepared for this meeting as you possibly could be.

For a link to this training ask our friendly Student Experience team at clubsandsocieties@une.edu.au.

Inaugural General Meeting (IGM)

Next, it’s time to organise your club’s first official meeting—the Inaugural General Meeting (IGM). This meeting is key to getting your club on the right track.

For your IGM, make sure to:

• Prepare an agenda
• Track the minutes of the meeting

Both of these should be organised through TidyHQ, the club management platform.

During your IGM, you’ll need to cover the following:

• Discuss your club’s aims and purpose
• Adopt your club’s constitution
• Elect your executive team
• Decide on opening a club bank account

Need help running the IGM?
Don’t hesitate to reach out to our Student Experience Team at clubsandsocieties@une.edu.au. We’re happy to guide you through the process or even chair this first meeting for you.

Creating a Club Bank Account

After your Inaugural General Meeting (IGM), it’s time to dive into the operational side of your club, and the first big step in this direction is going to be creating a centralised club bank account.

UNE Life recommends using Regional Australia Bank for maximum possible support.  When signing up you’ll want to request an unincorporated association bank account.  From here you’ll receive a form to fill out with your personal details as a signatory and some questions about how you’d like to setup the account.

We advise opening two accounts, one for your main cashflow and another as a petty cash account, this way if you would like a club card you can transfer into this account and pay as needed.  Note, this setup does come with some inherent risk, but more details about risk mitigation in regard to financial security can be found in the online training course.

As always, reach out to the Student Experience Team at clubsandsocieties@une.edu.au for assistance with this process.

Managing Club Finances

Important Note: Managing your club’s finances is the responsibility of the entire executive team.

Ensure your elected Treasurer is keeping track of all financial activity through TidyHQ and that all executives are informed of the club’s financial standing.   Financial liability is a full-executive concern.

As a non-profit, your club is expected to reinvest any funds back into club activities—none of the funds should benefit individual members or executives.  This doesn’t mean your club can’t turn a profit, but rather that any profits should be used to finance future activities of the club.

While SSAF funding can help support your events, it’s not guaranteed, so don’t rely on it alone. Look into other ways to fund your club, such as membership fees, ticket sales, or creative fundraising initiatives.

Talking Club Events

Now comes one of the fun parts of club administration—planning your first event! It’s time to demonstrate your club’s commitment and planning skills.

Start by organising a meeting with a member of our Student Experience Team, ensuring your entire executive team is present. Come prepared with a potential event idea your club would like to host.

During this meeting, the Student Programs Coordinator will guide you through the entire process of event planning and hosting, helping you understand the commitment, time, and preparation required to run a successful club event.

Further Discussion

Once you’ve completed Event Planning 101, we’ll have a conversation where the following will be covered:

• Navigating and using the clubs management portal (TidyHQ)
• UNE Life’s affiliation procedures
• Learning about funding opportunities for your club
• Accessing club discussion forums and helpful resources

We’ll wrap up the meeting by answering any lingering questions you might have. If any questions arise during the club’s creation process, make sure to jot them down so we can address them in detail.

Submitting Your Details into TidyHQ

After Event Planning 101, it’s time to gather all the details you’ve collected along the way and submit them via the “Projects” tab in TidyHQ.

In this process you’ll want to complete 2 projects:

• 2026 UNE Life New Club Affiliation
• Setting Up Your TidyHQ Account (New Clubs)

These will work you through submitting details such as:

• Your executives contact information
• Your clubs constitution
• Your IGM minutes

You’ll also complete tasks such as:

• Adding your constitution to your homepage
• Granting your executives proper admin access
• Updating your clubs homepage
• Agreeing to UNE Life’s Rules & Regulations
• Creating an event in TidyHQ
• Agreeing to use TidyHQ for your clubs administration