Clubs Fair Tips: Get your group ready!

Updated: August ~~20,~~21, 2025

This checklist will help you ensure you're set up for success during Clubs Fair!

Pre-Clubs Fair Checklist

Before you get ready to table, make sure your group has met all the requirements for Clubs Fair.

Sign up - You can sign up to table via the Events Network! If you miss the deadline or a shift fills up, you can learn more about walk up shifts here!
Payment (Fall Clubs Fair only) - Credit card payments can be made via the Events Network; just have the person who signed up for Clubs Fair open the sign up link again and click the green button that says “please click here to pay with credit card.” To pay with cash or student group cheque, you can come by the Student Life Central desk—check their operating hours before you come!
Special requests form - If your group has any special requests such as extra space for an oversized display or chairs for accessibility purposes, make sure you have submitted these requests via Rubric!
Registration and training - Only recognized student groups in good standing can table during Clubs Fair. If your group is currently frozen because you are missing training or registration, a staff member will reach out to you to discuss your options.
Clubs Fair contract - Contracts must be completed while signing up for tabling. This includes reading through the Operating Guidelines and informing your group of rules and regulations in place during Clubs Fair.

If you need to cancel any shifts, you can do so without penalty before the deadline (August 27th, 2025 at 4:00 PM for Fall Clubs Fair 2025); just email clubs@su.ualberta.ca for help. Any cancellations after this deadline will not receive a refund, and any shifts you fail to cancel or show up to will result in a fine for your student group. Groups who haven’t paid or are not in good standing by this deadline will have their reserved shifts canceled by SGS staff.

Best Practices for Clubs Fair

There’s more you can do to set yourself up for success, though! Here are some tips for tabling at Clubs Fairs.

Schedule your volunteers in advance. To make your tabling experience easier, we recommend building a schedule for members to sign up to volunteer at your table. You can break up tabling shifts into 1-1.5 hour slots to accommodate your members’ class schedules. It’s also smart to have folks sign up to be backups in case a member cannot make it to a tabling slot they volunteered for. Remember: a maximum of two recruiters can be at your table at any given time!

Design your display. Standing out at Clubs Fair comes down to your table display! Get some ideas for your table by reading about universal design principles to help make sure your display is accessible to as many people as possible. If you’ll have large items on display that go beyond the size of the table, make sure you submit a special request form!

Practice your tabling skills. Tabling (and recruiting in general) is something that gets easier the more you do it, but for many group members who are volunteering at Clubs Fair, it’s their first time! Our GLO Skills: Recruitment module will help prepare you to recruit members in any context. You can organize a practice workshop for your group members so more experienced recruiters can mentor the newer ones.

Set goals for your recruiting efforts. Does your group need more first year members? Are you looking for people with specific skills to fill executive roles in the future? Make sure you set some goals in advance for your recruitment efforts! A good goal to set is your conversion rate: how many of the people you talk to do you want to convert into members? Remember, not everyone who comes to your table is going to end up being a member of your group, but you should set some goals to encourage your recruiters to really sell the experience.

Collect and track the right data. The point of Clubs Fair is to help you recruit new members, so you should have tools in place to collect people’s contact information and track data! Please remember that there is certain information you cannot request from potential or existing members, such as student ID numbers.

Under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FOIPP Act”), and other ethics boards related to private information, it is best to only ask for what information you need, to clearly state the reason(s) you need the information and to identify how the information will be used by the group. Things such as ualberta email addresses, names, and student status (undergraduate, graduate, alumni) are all valid things to collect for the sake of tracking who your members are! SGS will also request this information when you submit registration, so you might as well collect it now.