Freshers is one of the best times to recruit new members and get people buzzing about your society. Have a look through this guide to ensure you have everything covered.
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Congratulations on booking your Freshers Fair stall, this is great to hear and mean you are eager to meet and greet new students and welcome these members into your society.
Freshers Fair only come around once a year and is one of the biggest and best ways to engage new society members. Therefore, it is important to put time and thought into your stall and how to get the most of it.
This guide is aimed at helping you and get the most out of your stall and being at Freshers Fair.
Your stall is your main attraction. It is the thing new students will see when they walk through event. So, it is important you make it stand out here are some ideas of how you make your stall stand out:
- Bring a table cloth to help cover the table and provide some colour to your stall
- Create and bring a banner which you can attach to your stall – this way students know what group you are!
- Include as much information as you can about your society on your stall: posters for upcoming socials or events, any publications you’ve created, or images of past socials all can work well to give students a taste of what your society is all about. These could be printed out or displayed on laptop.
- Create a small video or PowerPoint presentation to put on a device to be playing in the background
Everyone comes to Freshers and loves a good Freebie these are great at attracting people to your stall. People often give out sweets or chocolate which are a great low cost way of being fun and engaging, be sure to display any allergy information and stick to pre-packaged snacks.
However, you could try giving something more relevant to your society for example Allotment give out small plants. Or try to give out something which makes you stand out from the crowd like toilet paper, wooden spoon or badges.
Whatever you decide to give away, make sure you have enough for the days you have a stall out, you don’t want to be running out!
You can use society funds or apply for Student Union Activity Grant Funding (SUAF) to help cover the cost of your Freebies.
An activity/game is a great way to create some buzz around your stall and get people engaged with you for longer. This can be something related to your society i.e Motorsport have a fastest lap on their gaming rig. Or it could be as simple as guess how many sweets are in the jar or a game of higher or lower with a set of cards.
Try and be creative, remember this is where many people will make a decision about your society.
Stall Activity/Game Ideas
Stuck with what to do on your stall, have a look at carnival games or party games and below are a couple to get your started and thinking:
- Higher or Lower/Play Your Cards Right
- Guess the amount of sweets in a jar
- Ring toss
- Guess the price of . . . – have a box full of goodies and get people to guess the overall cost of the box
- What’s in the box? – Place a random object in a box and get people to guess what it is. Have multiple objects in case someone gets it right
- What’s that sound – Take a recording of a random sounds and people guess what it is. Have multiple recordings in case someone gets it right
- Recreate a TV Game Show – Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right, Bullseye, Family Fortunes
One important aspect to running a successful stall is having somewhere students can go online to see more about your society. We highly encourage you take the time to visit your society page and making sure it fully up to date and ready to go.
Things we recommend having on your society page:
- A detailed description of what your society is about and who it is for
- Upload any events you have up and coming to the SU website
- Upload any promotion video or image you have of the society
- Ensure your social media and email address are correct
- Encourage people to get in contact and the best way for them to get in contact with you.
Don’t be afraid to look at other societies and see what their pages look like.
Please head over to the Society Toolbox to learn how to edit and create events and your webpage.
Societies are about building relationships with new members, and as leaders you are in the best place to show off your society.
With each student that comes past you, you may only have a few minutes to interact with them and ‘sell’ why they should join your society. Therefore, it is important you spend some time developing an ‘elevator/sales pitch’. This is a short speech you can say to them which quickly gives people an idea of what your society does, the kind of events you run and why they should join. This will help you give students a great idea of what to expect and will hopefully make them want to join.
Plenty of students will come to your stall as they pass by, it can add a real boost to engagement to make some posts on social media inviting students to come and say hey at the stall.
Remember to promote your social media through posters, giveaways and talking to people. Stay active throughout the day on social media and try and encourage people to follow you on social media.
Freshers fair is just the beginning. Running a Give It A Go event or a Welcome Event after Freshers is a great to show new members what to expect from your society. Whether this is a group meeting, going bowling or a hike around Leeds, make sure you have something in your calendar as a society as it will also give you something to invite people when they are at your stall.
Remember to post this on the LBSU website so that you can direct people to it.
You can use society funds or apply for Student Union Activity Grant Funding (SUAF) to help cover the cost of your Freebies.
Freshers is a long week. It is important if you have booked your stall over multiple days to ensure that you are fully staffed for all of them.
We would encourage that all society leaders and members where possible help out. In previous years, we have found those who plan rotas/shifts for members will find it easier. Consider splitting the day up into Morning and Afternoon or 2-3 shifts.
Each day is long, so don’t forget to eat and have a breaks whilst on your stall.
If you need any further help then please get in contact with us on lbsu-societies@leedsbeckett.ac.uk