Events and Website

As a Society you will have a centralised risk assessment in your allocated Microsoft Teams folder which covers all your Society activity. As a Club you will have two risk assessments stored here – one for your sporting activity and one for your social activity. In both cases these will cover your regular activities and will also be required when making room bookings, if the centralised risk assessment covers your planned activity for the booking, then this can be attached when submitting a room booking. If your plans are outside your usual activity and therefore not covered by your existing risk assessment, then you will need to create a brand-new risk assessment and attach this as required.

Please see below a blank risk assessment form which includes a handy guide of what to put in each section. We have also created a 'cheat sheet' which lists a few hazards that could happen at your event and some suggestions of how you could mitigate the risk.

Risk assessment form

Hazard mitigation

If you are doing an event off campus that is not covered by your centralised risk assessment, then you will still need to submit a risk assessment to union.opportunites@uea.ac.uk for review and approval.

We have a whole page dedicated to booking spaces on campus inside and outside. Please check out the Room Bookings page to get all the information about how to book spaces and what to look out for.

If you're in a club or society, you might want to invite an external speaker to come and speak to your members - whether that's for educational, campaigning or social purposes.

To inform us of your external speaker, we need 4 weeks' notice to allow time to run safety checks and approve the speaker.

Guest speakers for an online event

If your external speaker is for an online event, you can inform us via the Online Event Guest Speaker Form. You do not need to write a risk assessment for online events.

Guest Speakers for an In-Person Event

If your external speaker is for an in-person event, you can inform us of your external speaker through the room booking form.

You will need to fill out a risk assessment for in-person events and include your external speaker information on this too. Once your request is submitted, our Activities and Reception teams will get in touch to inform you of the outcome.

For any questions on our guest speaker process, please email union.opportunities@uea.ac.uk or come in to speak to a member of our Activities Team in the SU Office, upstairs from the Hive in Union House!

You can also see more information on the above in our External Speakers Policy.

One of the first things you want to do when planning an event is to put it up on your group page! You have access to create events yourselves through your website admin tools. You can find more information about how this works and what you have access to at the bottom of this page in the website section.

Please be aware that all ticket sales and group events must go through the SU website. Any income from events should only come through the website or SU card readers to ensure that this is correctly allocated to your club or society account and more importantly that this is legally compliant!

You may wish to incorporate providing or selling food at your event in some form. For example, by giving out food to attendees or by selling food to make money for your student group. If you are looking to incorporate food into your event, please read our guidelines on food distribution and preparation for student groups below:

Where can you serve food?

No food can be served in UEA Campus rooms apart from small, cold, pre-packaged snacks. This means no hot food, takeaways, or homemade food can be given out at events taking place in UEA Campus rooms. UEA Campus Rooms include any rooms on campus that aren't located in Union House.

Food, including hot food, takeaways, homemade food, as well as small, cold, pre-packaged snacks can be served in UEA SU rooms (Bookable Rooms, Hive Stalls, LCR) as long as our processes have been correctly followed for this.

Individuals preparing food for distribution at club or society events taking place in a Bookable Room, Hive Stall, LCR or at a BBQ must have a Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate in order to do so. There is no specific Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate needed; any that you find online is compliant as long as this is accredited to this level. They usually cost between £10-£20 and you can claim back this cost from your club or society subs account via the expenses365 app if the committee approve this and you have the funds available.

An example of a Level 2 Food Hygiene Course can be found online.

View course

A Level 2 Food Hygiene Certificate is not needed for events in Bookable Rooms if individuals will be eating their food only and not sharing food with others. This is the same for BBQs.

Information on how to book a BBQ on campus can be found on the University's portal.

Book a BBQ

All BBQs for more than 12 people are only open to clubs and societies but they must complete an Event Permissions Form and fill out a Risk Assessment that can be found on the info page linked above.

If you want to book an outside space on campus you will need to fill out the UEA Open Space Events form. Your form will be submitted directly to the UEA Open Spaces team. Please make sure you apply at least 1 month before the event. Please refer to our Open Space Events Guide to help with planning the event. If you need any assistance in filling out the form, please email union.opportunites@uea.ac.uk.

Trips are a great way to keep your members engaged with your society and provide a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a social or educational activity. We encourage all our societies and clubs to run trips where they can for the benefit of your members. We require a risk assessment and a trip form to be submitted in advance, which are designed to both help you to prepare effectively and to help you to feel confident in what to do in case of an emergency whilst you’re away.

Complete your risk assessment and trip form

Complete a risk assessment form and a trip form. Please send your risk assessment and trip form at least four weeks before your trip to our Activities Team to be approved. You can use the Hazard Mitigation 'Cheat Sheet' to help you complete your risk assessment.

Risk assessment form

Trip form

Hazard mitigation

If this is for an International Trip, please submit these to Richard Graham on richard.graham@uea.ac.uk and James Raywood on j.raywood@uea.ac.uk (Sports Clubs only) at least ten weeks before your trip to be approved.

The Risk Assessment should cover all your activities and consider risks such as:

• Participants getting lost
• Participants becoming ill
• Allergies
• Loss or theft of items
• Transportation
• Accommodation

Your Trip Form should include information such as:

• Whether you have a trip provider organising the trip with you
• Whether you have arranged travel insurance
• Your participant’s names and next of kin details - this is very important

You should now be all set for a great trip! We hope you enjoy it and make sure you take lots of pictures to share with us.

If you are looking to fundraise as part of your events and activity, we have very specific fundraising rules and guidance that you must follow due to our status as a charity. For more information on this, please visit the Finance section of the Committee Hub. Please make sure that you read this ahead of organising any form of fundraising event and if you still have any questions on this, please check in with our Activities Team on union.opportunities@uea.ac.uk.

As a committee member, you have access to 'admin tools'. Admin tools are buttons that enable you to make and update various things to benefit your student group. To access your admin tools for your club or society, click the cog in the top right-hand corner of the SU website, then click the name of your club or society. You will be taken to your club or society admin tools page, which will look like this:

Please be aware that the money part of your admin tools is not connected to anything and will always appear at zero. You will find your groups balance in your Student Expenses App if you are a signatory, more info can be found on the app about this.

The tools Activities, Fundraising, Groups, News, Polls, Resources, Signups, Surveys and Website pages are currently deactivated on ueasu.org.