Organising a Ball

We are changing the process for organising a ball for 2023/24 and some of the information below will be updated. Please contact the Societies Team to arrange an initial meeting about your event.

Strath Union can support any student-led Ball by providing:

Please register your ball with the Union well before you sign a contract, to allow us to meet with you, and set up your web page and bank account. By registering your ball with Strath Union you are agreeing to follow our processes, especially regarding making payments.

Once you have filled out the form below, we will get in touch within 3 working days to arrange a meeting. At this meeting, we will be looking for key info about your ball. If you have not yet finalised this, that is absolutely fine. We just need to see evidence of thorough planning for the below items:

• Date
• Venue
• Budget plan (expected costs inc. entertainment / decorations; how you will cover costs; ticket prices; expected numbers and evidence for this)
• Names and student email address of at least two organisers

Only once we have this information confirmed will we be able to set you up as a ball, so that you can sell tickets and access the finance system.

General Details

Grad Ball Name: 

Date of Grad Ball: 

Public Email Address: 

Organiser(s) Details

Declarations

Please read the following and confirm below:

• I understand that the organisers of this ball hold all liability for the event, including any financial losses.
• I agree to abide by Strath Union's Grad Ball processes.

Please select Yes No

Using your bank account

• All financial transactions need to come through your ball bank account. Do not leave money at home or in personal accounts as this comes with high risk.
• When you sell tickets through our website this money will go directly into your ball account. If you have any other income to put in this account, for example funding from your department or income from fundraising activites, please email the Societies team for the bank details.
• Your ball account is a pot within the main Strath Union bank account. Your account will have a 3 digit code - please include this in any contact you have with staff, so we can make sure any transactions are happening in the correct account.
• You can see your account balance at any time through your finances portal. To see a full account statement, please email the Societies team.
• To spend the money in your account you need to submit a payment request through the finances portal, which needs to be approved by another organiser before we can pay it. We can make payments via bank transfer, credit card or cheque. If you are paying a company directly (eg. paying for your venue) you need to attach an invoice from the company. If you are reimbursing an organiser (eg. if an organiser buys some decorations themselves) then you need to attach the receipts.
• Please submit a payment request form at least 3 working days before the payment is due, otherwise we can't guarantee it will be paid on time. For payments over £5000 this may take us longer as staff have certain payment limits.
• You can't spend anything until you actually have some funding in your account, whether this is money from your department, fundraising activites, or ticket sales.
• Your bank account will be deleted at the end of the academic year. If you have any money left over after your ball you can donate this to a charity of your choice, or it will be kept for 1 year for the organisers of the next Ball for your department/society to use.

Using your website page

• Whoever you list as organisers of the ball when you register will be given admin access to edit your web page and set up events.
• You can use your web page to provide information to your ticket holders, or you can leave it blank and just direct people to your event page.
• There is some guidance available to help you edit your web page and set up your event.

Tips on organising a successful Ball

• Check out this article from the organiser of the Business Ball 2019 for tips.
• Make sure your date doesn't clash with any other events going on at the Union, University or in the wider community, such as religious holidays or exam periods. This is so that your guests don't need to choose between your ball and other committments, and will make sure you're able to sell your minimum number of tickets.
• When getting quotes, expecially for large expenses such as your venue, look out for any potential hidden costs. For example whether VAT is included, any security costs or cancellation fees.
• When choosing your venue there is lots to consider:
• Will your guests need to travel far to get to the venue? Are you organising transport or will people need to make their own way there?
• Is the venue suitable for anyone with access needs? For example is there step free access and gender neutral toilets?
• Each venue has different capacities and packages on offer so shop around to compare your options.
• Don't feel pressured into signing any contracts on the day - take your time to read through it so you don't get any nasty surprises later.
• Are there minimum numbers in your contract? The venue will charge you for the minimum number of places, even if you don't sell enough tickets so try to negotiate the lowest minimum contract numbers as possible.
• It's up to you whether you will allow ticket refunds if someone is unable to attend your ball, but make it clear from the start whether you will or not. For example you might not be able to offer a refund if you have already used their ticket money to pay deposits which are non-refundable from the companies.
• When booking any external companies such as a band or photographer, make sure they have public liability insurance.

Key points to note

• The Union will pay all booking fees through Native for Societies and Sports, except for Balls. For non-ball events, when adding tickets, press 'absorb fee' for the booking fee. For Ball events, please select ‘pass on’ for the booking fee.
• For any balls organised after 14th March 2023, including those organised by societies, ball ticket holders must pay the booking fee.
• Strath Union define ‘Balls’ as any ticket costing £20 or more, Graduation Balls, winter parties, formal events, ceilidhs, dinners, dances and any events out with usual society activities including those exclusive in nature. The classification of an event as a ‘Ball’ will be at Union staff discretion.
• You cannot apply to socs exec for funding for a ball.
• When adding tickets, type 2110 into the nominal code section and your 3 digit code into department code. If you do not know this code, please email Societies.
• Making your event on Native will automatically pull through to the Events section of the Union website. If this does not happpen, please contact Societies.
• You must state in the event description if you do not want to offer refunds for your event. Should you want to offer refunds, Student Engagement staff can process this upon request.

Let us know if you have any questions or need any further support by contacting us.

Get in touch