The steps below give you a complete guide on how you can set up your own society:

1. Email the Societies Officer – socs@st-andrews.ac.uk - about your wish to start a new society.

Include the name you wish for your society and an outline of what your society’s aims would be. Feel free to carry on with the other points here, this step is just to ask initial questions and in case there seem to be any big problems with your aims.

Have a look through the online A-Z of societies to make sure that your constitution will not clash with the aims in another societies' constitution.

2. Get at Least 25 paid members
The minimum amount people must pay for membership is £3. Make a list of the members: include their names, matriculation numbers and e-mail addresses. It would be advisable to buy a cash-box (you can get them from the Union shop ‘Bess’) at this point to keep the membership money in. It will come in handy later when your society is up and running!

3. Write a constitution for your society
You need to write a constitution that will outline the aims and proposed activities of your society. You can either fill in a model constitution (which is probably easiest), or write your own. There must not be significant overlap between your constitution and another affiliated society's constitution.

4. Set up a Committee
Your new society will need people to run it if it is affiliated successfully. You must select a President, Treasurer and Secretary (these will form you executive committee) and are welcome to add more committee positions should you wish. You can either elect the committee or appoint people into certain positions. You do not need to inform the Member for Societies Elections about this.

5. Get a non-personal e-mail account
This should be relevant to your society. To do this email helpdesk@st-andrews.ac.uk, and ask for a non-personal account for a society. Also email the Director of Student Events and Activities, David Graves, on dosda@st-andrews.ac.uk and let him know as he will be asked for verification by the IT Services.

6. Set up a bank account for your society
This bit will probably take the longest and is the most complicated. Go to the bank of your choice and ask for a treasurer’s account application form. At the very least the treasurer and president should be on the account as signatories. The address that your bank statements are sent to must be:

<Society Name>
Students’ Association,
St Mary’s Place,
St Andrews,
Fife
KY16 9UZ

Hand in the forms to the Cash Office at the Union as Jillian Cowan (the Union's Management Accountant) and Dave Whitton (the Union's General Manager) will need to sign them, as you will need two union signatories to be put on the mandate.

Take the signed forms back to your bank for them to process. You won’t get an account number until they have set up the bank account and this may take a few weeks. In this time, when you have everything else sorted, you can come to see the Societies Committee.

7. Complete a Risk Assessment form
Fill out and submit the Risk Assessment Form (which can be found under the Forms tab on the left hand side). If you have any questions on how to fill out this form, please email sochealth@st-andrews.ac.uk

8. Complete and Asset Declaration
Fill in and submit and asset declaration form (which can be found under the Forms tab on the left hand side). This will ask you to list all assets (and their value) that your society owns and is for insurance purposes.

9. Attend The Societies Committee Meeting, Tuesday 5pm, Music Room (first left, top floor of the Union)
A member of your society - preferably the President - must attend a meeting of the Societies Committee, held every Tuesday 5:15pm in the Music Room of the Union.

The Societies Committee will discuss your application with you, then after the meeting, will vote on whether you are eligible to be affiliated. You will be notified of their decision by 10am on Wednesday via e-mail (an e-mail will be sent both to the society's non-personal account and the President's account).

Make sure you bring a list of your paid members so we can make sure that you have at least 25, and any other paperwork you think may be relevant (including a paper copy of your constitution) (NB If you wish to come to see the Societies Committee at any point while trying to affiliate then please do).

10. Training
If the Committee votes to affiliate you, your president (or secretary, if president is unable) must attend Health and Safety training and your treasurer must attend Treasurer training before your society can complete affiliation. Treasurer Training  will be taking place on Tuesday the 4th October 2011 between 3pm and 5pm in Venue 2, and on Friday the 9th October 2011 between 2pm and 4pm in the Salad Bowl (both on the top floor of the Union). Health and Safety Training will be taking place on Friday the 9th October 2011 between 2pm and 4pm in the Salad Bowl. For those societies who can not make these sessions, please contact sochealth@st-andrews.ac.uk and socgrant@st-andrews.ac.uk in order to arrange a training session.

NB. Newly-affiliated societies shall receive £75, to spend on basic running costs

Further training in other skills relevant to societies can be accessed through the Professional Skills Curriculum - further details available here.

11. Success! Upon picking up your cheque, and completing Training, your society becomes successfully affiliated!
If you do become affiliated, please look at the rest of the societies website for details on how to run your society and how your society will work within the Union