UNIVERSITY OF SURREY STUDENTS’ UNION
Holding an Event in the
Students’ Union
Information for Individuals, Clubs, Societies &
Amenities
Venue Department
06/02/2016
This document is designed to act as an outline of the costs and basic requirements that need to
be fulfilled to allow members of the Students’ Union to hire out Rubix and the Living Room and
to successfully run an event.
Hiring a Venue for a club night
The Students’ Union has two venues available for club and society use, Rubix and the Living
Room. Out of the two, the Living Room is smaller and therefore is more suitable for smaller
fundraising events.
The Deal
Each venue is provided at a charge and with a number of conditions, these are mainly bar take
and cancellations.
When hiring a venue, you will be provided with the room, security and bar staff as well as
equipment for a basic disco. You are not provided with a DJ or someone to collect money for
you. Although we can supply this for you, you may find it easier to use your members to collect
the money and find your own DJ.
It costs the Union a fixed amount of money to open these areas. These costs include PRS and
PPL charges which have to be met by the event booker (see table 1) and the costs of staff and
consumables.
Table 1.
PRS (Performing
Rights Society)
PPL (Public
Performance License)
The Living Room
£7.00
£4.00
£11.00
Rubix disco only
£59.00
£30.00
£89.00
Rubix disco and a band
£89.00
£45.00
£134.00
Rubix with band no disco
3% of box office
1.5% of box office
4.5% of box office
Event
Total
The cost of staff and consumables will be met by the Students’ Union if the bar take exceeds the
minimum for the area. These are1:
Living Room
Rubix
£650
£1500
Based upon standard event opening times 10pm-2am. Duration 4 hrs. For events longer than 4 hours
please ask the venue office for further information on costs. Bar tariff will usually be raised to cover costs.
1
2
To achieve this, you should aim to attract the minimum following numbers at your events2
Living Room
Rubix
80
300
If you do not reach the minimum bar targets, then you will be charged the difference between
the actual bar sales, and the required amount up to a capped limit, these caps are
Living Room
Rubix
£350
£700
So, say for example your event in the Living Room took £500 behind the bar; you will be charged
£150 to bring the total to £650. If your event took £200, then you will be charged the maximum
£350.
If you are overdrawn or have no funds in your account, you will be unable to run an event, as it
is a high financial risk. You must have the capped amount in your bank account before you book
an event (£350 for the Living Room and £700 for Rubix).
Optional Costs
Ticket Collector = £30
DJ = £150 - £200
Dance Floor barrier taken down = £50
For any technical variations please contact Technical Manager, Ian Lipp - i.lipp@surrey.ac.uk or
stage crew ussu.crew@surrey.ac.uk for availability and costs.
Dressing Room: It is free to use the dressing room if you wish, however it must left as it is found.
If it is left untidy you will be charged £25 cleaning costs.
In addition, if any equipment or the dressing room is broken through
misuse, you may also be charged for repair or replacement of the
damaged item (including staff costs).
2
These figures are based on historical data
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Using the space for other events or purposes
Hiring a venue for other events which do not not require the bar being open is free depending
on the nature of the event and how many people will be attending and finish times. Events will
be considered on a case to case basis, but security and / or a Duty Manager may be required.
(Security (DGL) £14 per hour plus VAT. Duty Manager £8.50 an hour).
You can also use any of the spaces for rehearsals, meetings etc.
Contact Activity Assistants to book a venue – ussu.activities@surrey.ac.uk
Venue Information
Capacity:
Rubix = 1550
Living Room = 200
Normal opening hours = 10pm till 2am.
We encourage traditional ‘disco’ events to be between these times. If you want the event to
start earlier or finish later please enquire in the Venue Office. There will be an increased cost.
We cannot open later than 2am on a week night.
Tickets
Tickets can be sold on Tixtu. To do this we need to know:
- Name of event
- Society/club, etc
- Price
- Date
- Time
- Number of tickets
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Please contact Jade Johnson to sell your tickets on Tixtu Jade.Johnson@surrey.ac.uk
It is also possible that we can print off tickets for you to sell yourselves.
Please contact the Activity assistants to get tickets printed ussu.activityassistants@surrey.ac.uk
Any money that you make through ticket sales is for your society/club own funds.
Promotion
It is extremely important that you take into consideration how you are going to advertise and
market your event. No matter how organised you are and how wonderful your event is, it will be
a flop if you don’t advertise it well enough. This can be done very easily:

Posters – design/print a poster, stick lots around campus.

Stag Media – Email adverts and event listings to ussu.thestag@surrey.ac.uk &
manager@stagradio.co.uk

Rubix Plasma screens – Email jpeg image of these dimensions: Fullscreen - 856 x 480
pixels, Side Bars - 216 x 480 pixels to i.lipp@surrey.ac.uk

Events Planner – Email event info to jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk

Facebook
Technical Information
You will be provided with basic disco equipment. If you have any specific technical requirements
e.g. if you are having a band or a vocalist and need extra equipment or a sound engineer these
will incur extra costs. For all technical questions please contact Ian Lipp i.lipp@surrey.ac.uk.
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Cancellation
If you cancel your event with less than 1 working days notice you are liable to pay the full bar
deposit. If you cancel with less than 5 working days you are liable to pay £50. If you cancel
before 5 working days there will be no charge.
Other points to consider
Reasons for holding your event
E.g. to raise money for your society, celebrate a party, raise money for a charity or for another
reason.
Who your event is for
E.g. members of your society, a particular department or school, the public
The type of entertainment you are going to put on
E.g. a band, dancers, DJ, food. If you are interested in booking an external / celebrity band or DJ
this can be sourced through the Entertainments Manager. If you make any agreements yourself
the contract must be signed by the Entertainments Manager and invoices must come through
the Students Union.
The type of music you are going to play
E.g. who is the DJ going to be? Do you want the union to provide a DJ? What sort of music will
your guests like to list to, cheese, hip hop, indie, dance, rock, mainstream etc
Other ways you could raise money
E.g. a raffle, competition, cake sale etc
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What the room looks like
E.g. Decorations, drapes, candles, balloons, streamers etc
Sports Clubs and Societies Bar Crawls

It is possible to have a bar crawl that ends in Rubix, if you are on the committee for a
club or society and wish to have a bar crawl involving the union please email
jade.johnson@surrey.ac.uk
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Frequently asked questions
1) Who can hire Rubix or the Living Room?
Any society or club. Only a signatory can make the booking, but they must be aware that they
are booking it on behalf of the whole club or society. You can only hire the Living Room
independently. If you hire the Living Room as individual student and not through a club or society
you will be personally responsible for the costs and will be asked to pay a deposit. You cannot
hire Rubix as an individual for personal gain.
2) We would like to put a band in the Living Room, is this possible?
Unfortunately the Living Room is not suitable for hosting a live band.
3) Can we let members of the public (non-students) in?
The general policy for guests for society events is as follows; each student can bring in two
guests before midnight. For open public events please contact the venue office for further
information.
4) Do we have to clean the venues when we finish?
Although you don’t have to do any cleaning, if you put up any decorations, balloons, banners,
etc, then you will be expected to remove them at the end of the night, additionally if you were to
help the staff working then that would greatly assist them. The dressing room must be left how it
was found.
5) We would like to hire a chocolate fountain/casino/karaoke, etc
We can source all these for you and provide prices.
6) Can we sell food in the Living Room?
It is possible that Young’s Kitchen can be open to sell food inside the Living Room during your
event. If you want to use an outside catering company we must see licensed food hygiene
certificates before the night.
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7) Can we have drinks promotions?
It is possible to organise drinks promotions through us. Please contact j.lackovic@surrey.ac.uk
but remember this will impact on how easily you reach the bar tariff.
8) We wish to do the event on behalf of a charity?
It is possible to give money to charity; however this must be directed through the RAG (Raising
and Giving) committee. Contact ussu.rag@surrey.ac.uk
9) Can we give away alcohol as prizes?
You can give away alcohol as a prize, but if the alcohol is to be consumed during the event, we
will charge you corkage. Please remember that we encourage responsible drinking at all times.
10) What if you don’t want to do a club night with a bar?
It is possible to use the venue for none club nights e.g. fashion shows, games nights, dance
shows etc. We would usually require these events to finish around 11pm and if there is no bar
open tariffs will not apply. However sometimes there may be an additional cost for security /
duty manager if they are deemed necessary.
11) Are there any tables and chairs in Rubix?
There are around 200 chairs in our furniture store which can be used free of charge. However
you must get them out and put them away yourselves. The only tables we have available are
small silver circular tables which are permanently fixed around the building and cannot be
moved.
Alternative venues and rooms
If you decide that Rubix/Living Room are not suitable for your event, there are some alternatives
available. Wates House/ Hillside are not part of the Students’ Union but can be hired. To check
the availability of these venues, please contact the activity assistants –
ussu.activityassistants@surrey.ac.uk
It is possible to book one of the central teaching rooms through the online booking system. You
need to head to the Committee Resources section of the link and complete the Room Booking
form. It normally takes two working days for you to receive a confirmation and you need to give
at least one week’s notice to book one of these rooms. It is not possible to take food and drink
into these rooms so if you were planning on having an event with food then you would need to
book somewhere else, or request one of the foyer areas (Management School Foyer, Lecture
Theatre Concourse etc). Please note that only signatories can book rooms.
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If you need furniture placed or moved as part of your request (i.e. removing raked seating
where possible in AP) then please let the Activity Assistants know as they will need to contact
Estates and Facilities. There may be a charge to do this. If you request any Audio-Visual
equipment not fitted as standard to a room then you will need to contact Audio Visual Services
(AVS) once you have the room confirmed to arrange this.
If you are happy with all of the information above you need to contact an Activity Assistant to
find an available date ussu.activityassistants@surrey.ac.uk
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