Student clubs and societies

IT Services will provide IT facilities to any student club, society or publication registered with the Proctors or any sports club registered with the Sports Federation. It is not usually possible to provide accounts for any other type of club. The University does not offer "club" accounts for Sport or Society sections within the University Club.


A student society or publication must be eligible for registration with the Proctors. If not, IT Services cannot provide it with an account.

A sports club must be eligible for registration with the Sports Federation. If not, IT Services cannot provide it with an account.


The electronic records held by the Sports Federation and the University Card system allow those Sports Clubs which are registered with the Proctors to register for IT Services computer accounts without the need for additional paperwork.  A shared account will require a multi-factor authentication method to be set-up. There are four primary methods: Text message to a personal device, phone call to a primary device, phone call to an alternative phone (such as a landline or office phone) or using the Microsoft Authenticator App. There is guidance on our multi-factor authentication pages.

Misuse of facilities can be a Proctorial Offence. The Guidelines are intended to assist Societies to set up their accounts so as to minimise the risk of misuse. There are Primary Guidelines (essential) and Secondary Guidelines (advisable).

Renewals: important information

You must contact the IT Service Desk each year to renew any IT Services Society/Club/Publication Account. Simply renewing your registration with the Clubs Committee is not enough as we are not part of that process. IT Services must have explicit confirmation from the IT Officer of the Society/Club/Publication that you wish to continue using IT Services facilities.

 

 

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  • Each Society/Club is entitled to one Single Sign-On account and to create the associated central email account, mailing list and if needed, a web page, for purposes relating to the society's recognised activities. The society will be allocated a meaningful username, taking into account the society's preference where possible. Usernames must be between three and eight letters or digits, starting with a letter. If only a University mailing list is required, a Single Sign-On account must be registered for the Society and this account will be the owner of the mailing list.
  • The Society website address is based on the username. For example, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society has username gands and website http://users.ox.ac.uk/~gands
  • Email addresses for Societies have the format societyname.society@studentclubs.ox.ac.uk
  1. Societies must register with the Proctors before IT Services can provide computing facilities. Any Society wishing to use IT Services facilities must include on its Committee, an IT Officer who will have general responsibility for the Society's use of these facilities, and a Webmaster who will have primary responsibility for the maintenance of any website. These officers can be the same person if appropriate for any particular Society.
  2. The Club/Society's Secretary must apply to the Clubs Office to register, using the online form at Register a club (New Registrations) or Annual re-registration (Re-registrations). When registration is complete, a confirmation email will be sent to the Secretary.
  1. Sports clubs are required to register their Officials and Committee members by 5th week of Trinity Term each year.
  2. The sports club must then register or renew the account with IT Services.
  3. Any changes during the year, particularly the closure of any club or the removal of any officials, should be notified promptly to the Sports Federation.

Following the registration or renewal with the Proctors or Sports Federation, the club or society's IT officer must notify the IT Service Desk:

New registrations

  1. Submit a new service request
  2. The subject should be New society account
  3. The description should:
    • Provide the club or society's full name as shown on its registration form
    • Request the creation of the new student club or society account
    • State your preferred account name (3 to 8 letters and digits, starting with a letter)

Renewals

  1. Submit a new service request
  2. The subject should start Society account, followed by the account name
  3. The description should:
    • Provide the club or society's full name
    • Request the renewal of the student club or society account
    • State that you wish to continue using the account

Additional users

  • Access to the account is provided to the IT Officer and webmaster, all other users are removed at renewal
  • Access to the account is not required for the account's mailbox or mailing list
  • The IT Officer has access to the account mailbox and can request access for others using the Generic Email Account Delegation service request
  • If other users listed on the registration form require access, please state this in the renewal or registration request including their name, college and University card barcode number

Passwords

  • A password is not usually needed for club and society accounts, please provide full details to the Service Desk if you believe that it is

Personnel

  • The club or society IT officer must hold a current University Card of category Undergraduate, Graduate, Congregation, University Staff, College Staff, Departmental Staff, Retired Staff, RVO Student, Registered PT Student or Academic Visitor.
  • The club or society webmaster must hold a current University Card of category Undergraduate, Graduate or Congregation. This is to comply with the Regulations of the Rules Committee.
  • Any additional users of the account must have a card as specified for the IT officer and be authorised by the IT officer who should notify the Service Desk, specifying name, college and barcode for each person. When there is a change of IT officer, or any such person ceases to have a qualifying University Card, this authorisation will be cancelled.
  • Additional users will only be accepted by IT Services if they are Society officers or committee members named on the Proctors' Form/Sports Federation form.  If access is required for anyone else, that person must be elected or co-opted onto the committee and must appear on the list of officers and committee members approved by the Proctors or Sports Federation.
  • Nobody is to be given the account password unless properly registered with IT Services as above. If the committee changes during the year, the registration procedure must be followed again if any new officers or committee members need to be given access to the account.

Continuity

  • The IT Officer is responsible for ensuring that any computer-based or computer-related records are passed on when there is a Committee change.
  • The club/society should consider having two different people, with terms of office not expiring simultaneously, for the IT officer and webmaster, to reduce possible problems with continuity.

Mailing Lists

  • A registered Society is allowed to have a mailing list. A Single Sign-On account must be registered if the Society requires IT Services to provide mailing list facilities. Additional mailing lists can be requested if necessary for the administration of Society or committee business. Attention must be given to the 1998 Data Protection Act - there is useful guidance in the booklet Regulations and Notes of Guidance for Student Clubs, Societies and Other Organisations issued by the Proctors and Assessor.
  • Mailing lists should be maintained according to the relevant separate section of these IT Services guidelines. In particular, the mailing list for the general membership shall have an archive and either its subscriptions must be moderated or its subscriber list must be monitored frequently (at least monthly). Mailing lists for special purposes (such as internal committee communications) should only allow subscribers to be added manually by the list owner or a list manager.

Email

  • When email is sent using Nexus365 Outlook Web Access or the Outlook email client the "From:" address will show the name of the society as preamble to the email address of the account. Reasonable abbreviations can be applied where the society name is very long.  For example:  O U Gilbert and Sullivan Society <gilbert.society@studentclubs.ox.ac.uk>.  This effect can be obtained through an email client by setting "My name" to the name of the society and "my email address" to the Society's email address, as above.
  • Outgoing email must not show "O U" or "Oxford University" unless approval has been obtained from the Vice-Chancellor (via the Proctors) to include the name of the University in the Society's title.

Password

  • IT Services will only release a password to a properly registered user of the account.
  • Passwords provided by IT Services will expire after 7 days, so must be updated.
  • If the password is known, update the SSO password in the same way as any other.
  • If the password is lost, please contact the Service Desk as it cannot be recovered.
  • The password must be changed every time the account's authorised users change.
  • Misuse of the account by previous committee members through failure to change the password will be the responsibility of the new IT officer in the first instance.

General

  • Registration is for a maximum period of one year at a time (subject to continued registration of the Society by the Proctors or the Sports Federation) and automatically cancels the registration of all previous officers. The username will lapse if the IT officer ceases to have a valid University status (for any reason) before the registration is renewed. Societies do not need the change of account users to be confirmed by the previous committee.
  • All files, email and web pages are liable to be deleted after fifteen months have elapsed since the last time the society/club contacted the Service Desk to re-register, or when IT Services is notified that the society/club has been disbanded or no longer requires IT Services facilities.
  • Advertising, such as an automatic pop-up window showing a sponsor's advertisement, is not permitted for any web site within the University. However, a web page may contain links to sponsors' web sites, and their logos may appear if they agree. See the Governance, strategy and policies for more information.

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