Step by step guide to setting up a new U8 society at your university:

1. Contact the university links department – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you received this guide from us you’ve probably done this step already.

2. Read this guide and fill in the membership questionnaire. The questionnaire helps us to give you optimal support and get a better idea of your university environment.

3. You are now an official U8 member and will be featured on the U8 website.

4. Post details about your society on the U8 website.

5. Register as a society at your university. At most UK universities the students union website should have information on this. Becoming an official society at your university will give you certain privileges, such as space at the freshers’ fair to have a stall, a legal status and possibly the opportunity for funding (this depends on the university).

6. Get active members. The main ways to recruit members at UK universities include:

• Stall at freshers’ fair and other societies fairs. Get people’s email addresses and then invite them to your events.

• Careers fairs – you can advertise U8 as an opportunity to conduct research and to gain valuable experience.

• Put up posters on campus.

• Invite people for a meeting and tell them to bring along friends. At this meeting you can show a powerpoint presentation (we have one ready for you which you can modify).

• Speak before/ after lectures to briefly introduce U8.

• Ask more established societies to advertise your events/ meetings on their email lists.

• Ask departments to advertise U8 to their students via their email lists.

• Be creative: For example organise a bar night where you can introduce U8 or a salsa dancing session…

• Mouth to mouth. Start with your own friends/ people from your own course.

• Etc…

7. Start organising events and research activity (see below).

8. Don’t forget to keep updating the U8 website with all the events going on in your society, so that the world knows what great stuff you are up to!