Committee Responsibilities
Running Online AGMs
The online admin system for Clubs and Societies allows committees to run their elections online via your page on the SU website. The system is purpose-built and ensures that only registered members of your Club / Society cast votes in your election. The system also runs all election counts using the STV system.
Committee elections should normally take place over the spring or early summer months, to allow the new committee to be registered and ready to go when they take over on 1st August.
Remember that your AGM should serve three key purposes:
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To allow the committee to report to your membership on the year
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To elect your new committee for 2020/21
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To consider any constitutional amendments
You can carry out each of these three core activities online as below.
We've also provided guidance around:
Reporting to your membership
You can report to your members online by completing the Annual Report template here and circulating it via email. You must also submit this Report to su.clubs@qub.ac.uk or su.societies@qub.ac.uk by 30th June. If you don’t submit your Annual Report, you will be ineligible to participate in Freshers' activities the following September.
Setting up elections
First thing's first - pick your dates and your count method
You should give your members at least seven days’ notice of your AGM (but the more notice, the better!).
Start by picking your AGM date and the times you want voting to be open. We recommend keeping your voting window open for two days to make sure everyone has a chance to vote online. Remember to choose start and end times of 9am (09:00) and 4pm (16:00) on weekdays so that staff are available to help in case there are any issues.
Then, work backwards from this date to set your nomination deadline. This should give people adequate time to nominate themselves, but should close before voting opens. Again, close your nominations by 4pm at the latest and on a weekday so that staff can help resolve any last-minute issues before the vote begin.
Make sure that your Club / Society constitution specifies how the votes should be counted. You have the option of using Single Transferable Vote or First Past the Post - see here for definitions. If your constitution doesn't specify a method, we will use Single Transferable Vote as agreed by SU Executive Management Committee.
If you are also considering any Constitutional Amendments at your AGM, you should make sure to use the same voting dates. These can be set up using the system's Referenda tool. Contact the Clubs and Societies team if you need any help with this tool.
Log in to the system and create your elections
You can now set-up online committee elections by logging in with your student log-in details at home.q-su.org. Make sure to click on the Student Login button, not the Guest / Staff login boxes.
If you have any issues logging in, check the following:
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Have you signed up online here as an executive committee member for your Club / Society?
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Are you definitely clicking the Student Login button, and not attempting to enter your details in the Guest / Staff login boxes?
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Try using an Incognito / Private Browsing window instead, or manually clearing your browser cookies.
If you can’t access the system and you think you should be able to, email us with the details of the issue and include your name, committee position, Club / Society, and full student ID number.
Enter the Elections section to begin creating your elections
Once you've logged in, you'll see a drop-down menu appear at the top-left of the screen. Find your Club / Society admin tools on this menu.
From your admin tools page, select Elections Admin. With your Club / Society selected, you can now select 'Create new election' and get started. Fill in the details of your voting dates and nominations deadline. For the Display on Website dates, you should pick dates which will allow your elections to be visible from before nominations open until after voting closes.
You'll see that candidates who stand for election have the option to submit a manifesto. You should set the manifesto deadline to match your nomination deadline.
You should leave 'Deposit amount', 'Allow Slates', 'Max number of candidacies', and 'Filter post lists' blank.
Under Visibility, select 'Basic - only show description and dates' for the non-logged in users, and 'Full (members only)' for the logged in users.
For the text box responses, see default entries below:
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Candidate terms and conditions: Only registered Student members of the Club/Society can run for this position. (Remember that this only applies to executive positions i.e. President, Secretary, and Treasurer)
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Not Eligible message: You are not eligible to view or participate in this election. If you think this is incorrect, please contact the Club / Society committee on [insert your Club / Society email address here] to confirm whether you are on our membership list.
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Voter terms and conditions: Only registered Student members of the Club / Society can vote in this election.
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Abstention confirmation text: By choosing to abstain, I understand that my vote will not count towards any candidate, or towards the overall total count of votes received.
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Voting completion text: Thank you for voting in this election. Your vote has been received.
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Default ballot rubric: These boxes should already be filled in for you
Adding Posts to your Election
Now that your election is set-up, you need to tell the system which posts are up for election.
To do this, simply click the 'Posts' tab, select 'Add New Post'. Beside the 'Group' box, click the grey symbol and select the post you want to elect. Some will appear as default (i.e. Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice Chairperson), but if you're electing any other positions (e.g. Social Secretary, Equipment Officer) you will need to create these roles first - see guidance here.
Before your polls can open, you need to select 'approve' for all posts and candidates.
Before polls open - how to stand for election and approve candidates
Make sure to promote your AGM and encourage members to run for election! You can check to see who has nominated themselves at any time by checking the 'Candidates' page of the election.
Remember that only registered Student Members will be able to vote in your elections. This means they must appear on the membership list you've submitted to the SU with their full, correct student ID number. Please check your membership list on the system by clicking into 'Members' before polls open and email the Clubs and Societies team with any additions. You can also re-send your full membership list and we will add any new members to the system. New members cannot be added when polls are already open.
Students at INTO, St Mary's, and Stranmillis are defined as Associate Members and cannot vote in these elections.
Members - How to nominate yourself to stand for election
Go to home.q-su.org and log in with your student log-in details.
Click on Clubs and Societies, and find your Club / Society on the alphabetical list.
Simply click on your Club / Society and you should be able to see the link to nominate under their Elections tab.
If you can’t see this link, email the Club / Society committee to check that their nomination window is open. If it is and you still can’t see the link, email su.clubs@qub.ac.uk or su.societies@qub.ac.uk describing the issue and including your full student ID number.
Committee - How to approve candidates
Before your polls can open, you need to make sure that you've approved all candidates in each election. If there are any candidates left unapproved, your polls will not open.
To approve candidates, click into each election and go to the 'Candidates' page. From there, you can approve all candidates by selecting 'Approved' in the dropdown list under 'Approval Status' and then click 'Update'. Alternatively, you can click into each individual candidate and approve them separately.
When polls open - how to vote
Go to home.q-su.org and log in with your student log-in details.
Click on Clubs and Societies, and find your Club / Society on the alphabetical list.
Simply click on your Club/Society and you should be able to see the link to vote under their Elections tab.
If you can’t see this link, email the Club / Society committee to check that their voting window is open. If it is and you still can’t see the link, email su.clubs@qub.ac.uk or su.societies@qub.ac.uk describing the issue and including your full student ID number.
When polls close - time to get the results!
After your voting window closes, the SU will run the counts for each of your elections. This takes a bit of time so please don't expect immediate results. Please drop us an email to let us know if you are running any elections mid-year (e.g. at an EGM) so that we know to schedule in your counts.
We will count the votes according to the method specified in your Club / Society constitution. You have two options - First Past the Post or Single Transferable Vote. You can find more info on each option here. If your constitution doesn't specify a method, the SU Executive Management Committee (EMC) will be consulted for a decision.
We won't be able to count votes over the weekend or on closure days as staff will not be working.