What Are The Core Roles In A Student Group?

All our groups must have the positions of President, Secretary and Treasurer to be able to operate. The main responsibilities of these roles are: 

President - The leader, who oversees all the activities within group. The President will need to provide support, advice and guidance to the other committee members throughout the academic year. You’ll need experience of what the group does and a strong belief in the Group’s aims.

• Calling meetings – but the secretary compiles the agenda & minutes
• Chairing meetings – ensure everything is covered and no-one dominates
• Delegating tasks – you shouldn’t do everything yourself!
• Understanding the broader picture – keep the vision and aims of the society in mind at all times
• Understanding your responsibilities and legal ‘duty of care’ for the society’s activities
• Being a spokesperson or figurehead – representing your society to students, the Students’ Union, the University and even the media!
• Maintaining committee enthusiasm – if you’re not passionate, no-one else will be

Secretary – Oversees organisation of the Group and ensures that things run smoothly. Emails need to be written, meetings need to be arranged, rooms need to be booked and above all you need to communicate what’s going on to your members, so they stay interested and stay involved.

• Reading and organising society emails
• Arranging meetings and AGMs
• Booking (accessible) rooms or venues
• Maintaining up to date membership records and mailing list
• Being aware of key dates for your society throughout the year
• Creating agendas and taking minutes
• Record keeping and associated paperwork
• Communicating regularly with your members

Treasurer - Being a treasurer isn’t just about handling money, it means knowing how your finances stand at any one time; being transparent and accountable; avoiding potential debt and planning accordingly. 

• Learning and understanding the Students’ Union financial systems
• Keeping track of all income/expenditure
• Organising affiliation to national bodies
• Applying for Students’ Union (and external) funding and
• Collecting all membership fees and paying all bills in good time
• Keeping the committee and members informed of the society’s financial situation
• Organising fundraising or sponsorship for your group

Some groups also choose to have additional roles on their exec (Vice President, Social Secretary, Welfare Officer for example) which is fine, you can have whatever roles you feel are most needed for your group. All exec roles need to be listed in clause 6.1 of your constitution, though so if you’re not sure which roles you have on your exec, then please check your constitution. If you do not have a copy of your group’s constitution, you can request one from the SU.

If your group wants to add some new roles to the exec that are not listed within your constitution, then this is classed as a constitution change, so you can read more in the “How to Make Changes to Your Student Group’s Constitution” section to find out what steps to take to propose the changes to members. If the new roles are approved by members, then you need to add these into clause 6.1 of your constitution, send an updated copy of the constitution to the ASK Team by contacting us here, and arrange an election to take place to elect your group members into those positions.

View our elections article "How To Carry Out An Election" for more information on the election process.

For any issues relating to accessing the links above, please get in touch here.