RATIFY PLAN EVENTS MARKET EVENTS
Financials are important for ratified societies. You need to track your inflow/outflow of monies with cash flows, properly reimburse individuals for payments with receipts and slips, and open and manage a bank account with a specific RBC branch affiliated with SMUSA.
LIABILITY INSURANCE
OFFICE SPACE
ROOM BOOKING
COMMON SPACE
Society Common Space is a room located on the fifth floor of the Student Union Building that is provided for all Societies within SMUSA to use. The Main Space is open and available for all students during regular office hours (you may book the space, too). The Calendar can be viewed here.
The following rules apply for all users:
a) Society meeting space can be reserved in the Student Centre. To do so, the Society executive must contact the SMUSA Front Desk (on the fifth floor or by emailing karla.hodge@smu.ca or society.coordinator@smu.ca) and sign it out;
b) there will be designated times throughout the week where space cannot be booked to allow the space to be freely occupied by all who wish to use it;
c) the Society space must be respected: clean up after your Society. Leave the space as was found;
d) your Society can be held fully responsible for the damages incurred in the Society Common Space during times for which the space was booked or occupied by your Society. Consequences of damaging SMUSA property could result in monetary fines and/or the de-ratification of your Society;
e) rooms can only be booked by the Secretary of your society (or another member designated to book rooms on campus, as approved by the Society Coordinator), and the person who books the space is responsible for it;
f) computers must be taken care of; log off when you are done using them.
FUNDING
MAIL BOXES
FREE PHOTOCOPIES
PRINTING
WEB SPACE
EVENTS CALENDAR
VOLUNTEERS
1.) You can attend the Society Expo, which is always held on the Thursday of Orientation Week from 10am-3pm.
2.) You can post job descriptions for volunteers on our Student Employment Centre website: www.smu.ca/sec by emailing sec@smu.ca.
3.) There is a Volunteer Fair held in January of every year in which you can take part. (Email sec@smu.ca)
4.) You can contact SMUSA’s Volunteer Coordinator (volunteering.smusa@smu.ca) to request volunteers, or to discover what events already exist on campus where you can help out. Other than those options, holding in-class presentations and large social events have been found to be the best ways to attract new members to Societies in the past.
MARKETING/BRANDING
There are many ways you can find help with branding and marketing efforts on campus. You can:
- TV Screens: Use the Voltmedia TV screens to advertise your Society and events. Contact marketing@smusa.ca
- Posters: Place posters around campus or write with chaulk on the sidewalks outside (but you must abide by our poster policy). See poster policy here.
- SMUport postings: Email Shannon.Doane@smu.ca to post under “Community Events” tab on SMUport.
- Info Desk: Post your event info on the announcement board outside of the Student Union building and at the Info Desk (email infodesk@smu.ca)
- Faculty/ Department Distribution: If you operate under a specific faculty, they may have a mailing list and/or display board you can use to distribute info about events. Contact your department Secretary for more info.
- In-Class Presentations: One of the most effective means of getting volunteers is during class, through using in-class presentations and
- Info Booth: book a table in Loyola through Conference Services (conference.services@smu.ca) to showcase your Society. You can book one in the Student Centre through SMUSA (karla.hodge@smu.ca)
- SMUSA Page: The SMUSA page is located on the inside cover of The Journal. Societies can place advertisements and announcements on the SMUSA page for free! If your society would like to make a submission to the SMUSA Page, please contact marketing@smusa.ca before the Friday preceding the next issue of the Journal.
- Journal Feature: The Society Coordinator publishes an article each week in the Journal featuring a different Society each week. If you want to have your Society featured, email society.coordinator@smu.ca to enter.
- Gorsebrook: Societies can book the Gorsebrook on any Friday for events, and they can organizae one of the Trivia nights.
- Participating in other events on campus. There are plenty of other events occurring on campus, so start networking! Have members of your Society attend events of other Societies that may have common interests/similar goals as your own. You may find a way to share volunteers or partner on a large event! Ask other Societies if you can present your event information at their events, or if they can put a plug in for you.
- Get Creative! If you can find creative ways to get the message out, go for it! As long as it’s respectful and not destructive, it should be good to go! Ask the Society Coordinator if you have any questions.






