Safe Club Events
*information correct at time of publishing February 2023
With the ongoing pandemic, it's essential to ensure the safety of attendees at events. The University of Melbourne Students' Union (UMSU) has set guidelines for managing COVID-19 at events, which are detailed below. UMSU is committed to returning events and activations to its campuses in a COVIDSafe way in accord with government restrictions and guidelines and consistent with the University’s CovidSafe Plan.
PLEASE NOTE: A breach of COVID-19 health and safety protocols (whether deliberate or not) may be deemed to represent student general misconduct subject to the extent a student’s behaviour places themselves or other members of the community at risk.
Event Registration and Checklist
Club events will no longer need to be registered with the University or a CovidSafe checklist to be completed. However, a Risk Assessment including risks associated with COVID-19, will be required. The risk assessment must be managed in accordance with the University's revised COVIDSafe plan, any local COVIDSafe plans (including external venues), and SOPs. More information below.
Conditions of entry
Please ensure you add our conditions of entry to any promo or ticketing.
Facemasks and Hand Sanitiser
To minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission, attendees are strongly encouraged to wear face masks and make use of the hand sanitiser provided at events. The University's current position on face masks has moved from "strongly encouraged" to "welcome" in all settings.
What if someone tests positive for COVID-19?
In case a student, staff member, or contractor tests positive for COVID-19, they should follow the instructions on the University's testing and notification page. The Public Health Network will manage the response in line with the current case response processes, which may include listing it on the University's COVID-19 cases on campus webpage if the event was on campus.
Informing Attendees of a Confirmed COVID-19 Case
While not mandatory, event organizers may choose to inform attendees of a confirmed COVID-19 case at the event. In such cases, the following notification template can be used, but no further information on the person who tested positive or other advice or directions should be included. You can also contact the Public Health Network for advice on how to manage a positive case.
Dear Attendee/s
We have been advised that someone who attended [event name, date, and time] has since tested positive for COVID-19. This exposure is listed on the COVID-19 cases on campus webpage.
You are encouraged to monitor for symptoms and get tested if you have any. For further information, please refer to the Victorian Government guidance. To report a positive test result, follow the guidance here.
Kind regards,
[sender name].
It is essential to remain aware of any other current guidelines that remain in place for staff and students, including testing and notification and staying away from campus if displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
COVIDSafe measures in Risk Assessments
Risk Assessments must include the measures outlined in the University's revised COVIDSafe plan, any local COVIDSafe plans (including external venues), and SOPs.
If your event is at an off-campus venue you will need to obtain their COVIDSafe Plan or Risk Assessment and integrate their COVID safety measures into your Event Risk Assessment. For example, if the local Covid plan of your booked venue (on-campus or off) requires attendees to wear face masks, you must add the face mask requirement as a measure in the Existing Risk Controls column of your Risk Assessment.
Where the venue is informal, such as a park or beach, please use the University COVIDSafe plan if no local council plan is available.
We understand that creating a Risk Assessment for your activity can be overwhelming and sometimes you don't know where to start. For this reason, we have created risk assessment templates to help you out!
If you are planning a semester's worth of similar events, you can catch all of these events within one Risk Assessment. Simply add the date range to the date field of the Risk Assessment and attach to your grant proposal.
Every event must have a Risk Assessment completed and kept on file in the club records:
Please be advised that these templates are not comprehensive – it's your responsibility to edit it (add/remove elements) accordingly to reflect the characteristics of your activity.
High Risk Events
The C&S Committee considers the following to be High Risk and requires the Camps & High Risk Event Risk Assessment:
- Camp
- Physical Activity (sports, games & physical labour)
- Any Off Campus event of over 100 attendees
- Cruise
- Event hosted at a night club
Risk Assessment Completion Information Session
The below video will help you to assess your Event and complete a Risk Assessment. Please turn on captions in YouTube if needed.
The club Events Risk Assessment looks a little different to the Camps and High Risk Events Assessment in the video. The differences are:
- the Event Risk Assessment is mostly pre-filled for you. You only need to add additional risks, note additional controls in the Treatment column, and assign an Executive to monitor each risk.
- after application of all of the controls (pre-filled and additional) you will need to change the risk rating column if the assessment has changed. Assessment details are in the Ratings & Matrix tab.