Most Successful Clubs and Society Program
Successfully run Clubs and Societies provide a vital link to a connected student experience. They offer opportunities to develop extracurricular skills and help create vibrant, healthy student communities. They can be like a family away from home, bring students closer to like-minded people, and often become an important part of their university experience. They are also the perfect platform to learn lifelong skills.
Most clubs and societies face common challenges to success such as good governance, executive succession planning, running effective meetings, managing finances, applying for grants, hosting events and activities, managing relationship, understanding risk management, driving memberships, and engaging and supporting their members to name a few!
Effective support for clubs and societies, and their executives, is vital and can make or break their success.
This award recognises excellence in a Club or Society Program, run by a SEN member organisation, that supports the essential and critical elements of running and maintaining a successful club or society, as listed above. It can be a new program or a recurring one that has been held on or off-campus, or online during 2022/23.
Programs can include but are not limited to; Clubs and Societies’ training & development programs, executive socials, networking or other events, or the introduction of tools and processes to further enable clubs and societies to activate the student community and ensure their continuity.
The Jury will be looking for entries that demonstrate excellence in the following:
- Astute recognition for the type of program required to best meet Club and Society needs on your campus
- Good adaptability to the changing needs of the student community
- Tangible and measurable goals and objectives
- Evidence of strong strategic planning
- Creative techniques used to deliver the desired outcomes
- Effective use of resources (teams, funds, assets)
- Inclusivity, diversity, and environmental considerations
- The quality of the program
- Student engagement and experience factors
- Evidence of success and positive impacts with measurable results
- Innovation, leadership, and recognition* (applies to top tier ‘Best of the Year’ submissions only)
Award Submission Criteria
Submissions need to address each of the following criteria:
- Name of Organisation
- Organisation logo
- Name and contact details of the person completing the submission
- Full-time student load (total student enrolments)
- Name of the Program
- Number of participants or clubs in the program
This category of the SEN Awards has two levels of recognition – ‘Award of Distinction’ and ‘Best of the Year’.
For your submission to be considered for an ‘Award of Distinction’ you will be required to complete the first 3 sets of criteria PLUS provide supporting evidence.
For your submission to be considered for the ‘Best of the Year’ Award you will be required to complete all of the ‘Award of Distinction’ requirements, PLUS the additional Innovation and Leadership criteria.
Tell us the WHY of your program.
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- Describe the program or initiative
- What were you aiming for and why?
- What were your goals and objectives?
Tell us the HOW of your program.
- What key strategies were identified and used to deliver on the goals and objectives of your program?
- What creative techniques, and effective use of resources were applied
- Was there student input into the program and if so in what capacity? Did you engage with any external partnerships and if so, what was their input?
- What communications and marketing did you use to promote your program?
- How did you ensure your campaign was inclusive and responsible? You can reference details such as diversity, inclusivity, accessibility to the program, WGAC guidelines, use of environmental and sustainable materials/products/collateral, sustainable event management, social or start-up company as a program partner, etc.
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
- What was the outcome of your program?
- Which of your goals and objectives did you achieve?
- What were the overall engagement and experience outcomes of your program for the participating clubs and societies, students, and campus community?
- How have you determined the program’s success? What were the tangible and measurable positive impacts for your organisation, the participating clubs and societies, students, and the campus community?
- Financial Overview
This section may be used to support your submission by providing evidence of your claims, it is not a substitute or an additional opportunity for answering the criteria in your submission.
The quality of your supporting documents will be measured against the rubric.
Relevant examples will include documentation that adds value and validation to your submission which could include links to:
- Before and after comparative data (quantitative & qualitative)
- Hero photos that capture the success of the program
- Program website page or feature
- Program social media platforms or campaigns
- Program video files
- Program PR or media
- Storyboards
- Financial documents
- Feedback forms
- Written articles
- Evidence of innovation, leadership, and formal recognition* (applies to top tier ‘Best of the Year’ submissions only).
You can collate supporting documents into a word doc to minimise the number of your uploads.
To progress your submission for consideration at the ‘Best of the Year’ level, you will be required to complete the following criteria.
- What was innovative about your Program?
- What stands out about this program from other Clubs and Society Programs you have offered or seen before?
- What did you incorporate into your Program that has not been offered or seen before?
- How was it coordinated or promoted in a completely innovative and different manner from anything you have offered or seen before?
- How does this program provide meaningful and significant leadership outcomes for your organisation, your club and society community, your participating students, and/or within the sector?
- How has this program gone over and above in addressing and delivering on an identified need within your organisation?
- How is it positively influencing other organisations in the sector?
- How is the program replicable and are you offering support for its development at other organisations?
- Have you received official recognition for your Program within your own organisation, within the sector or broader industry fields?
Please ensure that you uploaded adequate supporting documentation to support your claims including any reference to formal industry and/or organisation recognition.
Each category has a rubric that will be used as a scoring guide by the Awards Jury Panel against criteria responses in your submission.
Please note:
- Criteria Responses that are a direct copy and paste from previous criteria fields in the same category submission will be marked as Basic.
- Submissions that do not provide supporting evidence of the stated claims will be marked as Basic.
- In the event of multiple applications achieving equal scores, the award decision is at the discretion of the Awards Jury Panel.
- In order to be eligible to win ‘Best of the Year’, your application will need to achieve a score of at least 13 out of 15.
- Applications submitting for ‘Best of the Year’ that do not meet the higher score ranking required to win can also be considered for an ‘Award of Distinction’ at the judge’s discretion.
Category-specific rubrics will be available to download on the submission page of each category.
Click HERE to see an example.