Manchester
At the Manchester University Fresher's Fair last week, Manchester NO2ID helped set up a Students Against ID society. Over the week of Fresher's Fair, we got 160 signatures for our society, more than enough to form it at the Student's Union. I thought I'd share my experiences in case it helps others do the same.

The Name
Youth Against ID seem to be using "Students Against ID" as a uniform name for societies. I think it makes sense to go with this if possible; it'd be nice to have a uniform "look" across campuses.

The Fresher's Fair — Organisation and Staffing
Manchester NO2ID were ahead of the game on this one — we had our stall at the Fresher's Fair booked back in June (and even then we nearly lost out due to an administrative cockup). For most of the Fair, we had a table to ourselves, manned by one or two volunteers (both student and otherwise) at all times. Organising this can be difficult, and we ended up with some people taking time off work. This would probably be most worth doing on the second day of the Fair, which seems to be the best attended.

The Fresher's Fair — Objective
I believe that most Students' Unions around the country operate in a similar way. To form a University society, you need to collect a certain number of signatures (and student card numbers). In Manchester Uni's case, this is 30. Forming a society will give you access to University resources, from flyers in the Student's Union to meeting rooms to free photocopying if you're lucky.

Therefore, your absolute number one priority is to get the requisite number of signatures. I'd recommend not asking people to sign petitions or join national NO2ID at this stage. You'll have time for that later. Just get their signature and card number, and an e-mail address so you can contact them later.

The Fresher's Fair — The Stall
You want your stall to look attractive, with enough information to interest people but not so much that it repels them. For our stall, we were fortunate enough to have a 6' x 4' No2ID banner we could use as a tablecloth; I could probably ship this to someone else now, or National Office may still have some, or you could fabricate your own with a little bit of fabric paint and a spare bedsheet.

As for contents of the stall, we settled with the signup sheets as a central feature, a stack of NO2ID trifolds, our own "Students Against ID" material on photocopied A5 flyers (I'll try to post links to the PDF and OpenOffice.org documents later) and a bowl full of NO2ID badges which we gave to anyone who signed up. Since the Manchester Uni SU pays two pounds for each signature, we didn't make a loss here.

Rewards for people signing up are very important, if only because people will expect them. Some students will sign your sheet for a badge and/or a lollipop, even if they never intend to participate in your society. At this point, you don't actually care, you just want their signature.

The Intent
Our Students Against ID society was pretty vague in its intentions because it was organised in something of a rush. Having some purpose (such as getting the Student Union to pass a motion opposing Identity Cards, or acting as a focal point for anti-ID Card activity within the University) to discuss with prospective members is useful.

Once the society has been formed, and you have some resources and hopefully cash behind you, you can think about how to bring this into reality...

Best of luck!

Dave