So you want to lead in your club? Here’s the guide on a club’s backbone positions that you may want to run for.
President
This is the highest position in a club. The president runs the meetings, writes the agendas, and makes sure al the other officers are doing their job to keep the club successful. Just because the president is in charge of everything doesn’t mean the president is the most important job. Every leader needs his/her team and the President’s team is the other officers. For more on the format of the agenda, visit the "How to Run a Meeting" tab on this page.
Vice President
The vice president is chiefly in charge of taking care of what the president cannot. The vice president runs the meetings that the president is unable to. The vice president can also be in charge of ensuring a club’s committees are effective and functional. In my school, the vice presidents of all the clubs meet once a month to organize projects for improving our school.
Some clubs opt to have a vice president of administration and a vice president of activities or membership motivation. In such cases, the vice president will be in charge of all the aforementioned duties and some extra duties that are club specific. For example, the vice president of administration may be in charge of all the paperwork for projects while the vice president of activities may be in charge of coming up with and assigning projects to members.
Treasurer (for those clubs dealing with money)
Believe it or not, the treasurer does much more than just count money. In fact, most of the job is paperwork. Don’t let that discourage you though, treasurers are very important for a club’s survival. A treasurer is in charge of keeping track of how much money a club has. A good treasurer becomes acquainted with the right paperwork to get the club to do everything they need to get done that involves money. This paperwork includes project approval forms for fundraisers, Purchase Order (PO) forms, field trip forms, expense reimbursement forms, etc. While this may seem like a lot to know, the bookkeeper in your school can usually sit down with you and discuss how he/she wants the forms to be done. Eventually, it becomes a routine. The key to being a treasurer is to keep duplicates of everything. Make at least one copy of every form you turn in and receive and keep it all in a binder or two so that in the case something gets lost or the administration tries to pull a fast one on you, you have proof.
A very important duty of the treasurer is the money portion of course. Remember to always keep track of who gave you how much money, and if you need help counting money to get people who you know are entirely impartial. The idea is to keep the count accurate, use proper judgment.
Don’t Forget! It is very important to complete a form called the Financial Report. It is a summary of your project and includes how much money your club made for running the event and takes care of inventory and clerical information your school will need so that your school does not get audited. In my school, turning in the financial report late makes it harder to get another money-oriented project approved and failing to turn it in makes it entirely impossible to try to get another money-oriented project approved. Turn in this very important paperwork.
Recording Secretary
The recording secretary is one of the officers that holds a bit more weight in the club. The recording secretary must take notes, also called “minutes”, for every meeting, whether a board or a member meeting. These minutes are important because they include everything that was discussed during a meeting, including the new business, old business, and everything that was voted for or against in a meeting. The recording secretary should type up and publish all the minutes for the year so that the Student Government association can have a copy and so that if the minutes ever need to be edited, whether there’s a typo of some sort or something was missed, the minutes can be pulled up and edited. My school requires that every club submit a copy of all the minutes and agendas for the year as part of a package to ensure the club is approved to stay for the coming year. The recording secretary should also keep/publish all the agendas made by the president. For more on the format of minutes and the agenda, visit the "How to Run a Meeting" tab on this page.
Corresponding Secretary
As the name suggests, correspondence is the main focus of this position. The corresponding secretary is in charge of tracking which members attend the meetings, keeping a list of all the members and whether or not they are active in the club, and general board to member communication. Today’s usual corresponding secretary keeps an emailing list of all the members and sends blast emails so that all the members can find out what’s going on in the club. The corresponding secretary is also in charge of donation letters and news coverage. A club dealing with money may need a donation for a project and it is this secretary that is in charge of writing up the request. If your club is holding a large project, for instance a peace rally, it may be beneficial to get a story in your local newspaper, or to get a news channel to cover it for you. Another choice you have is to go to the forums on my site and write all about your project there. The idea is to get coverage, think who you need to call to get to your goal.
Historian
A historian, or editor as some clubs call them, is someone who is good at some kind of visual media (taking pictures, recording video) so that your club can have photographic proof of your its activities. Taking pictures and keeping track of them is a great way to promote a project that was particularly successful. In the end of the year, the historian makes a scrapbook as a ‘year in review’ type deal where you can see how the club progressed through the year. Scrapbooks are good medias for nostalgia and keeping members motivated to do their part in the coming year. The historian can also be in charge of writing a club newsletter so that the club can promote itself in the community.
Other positions
Of course there are more possible club positions such as committee chairs, parliamentarians, or representatives for the classes in your school (class of 2010 for example). These officers are all an integral part of a functional club.
Feel free to contact me on the contact us page if you have any further questions about any of the office positions already mentioned or one that I haven’t mentioned. I can usually help. Otherwise, feel freer to post your question in the forums! This is a good way to find more advice and information.
President
This is the highest position in a club. The president runs the meetings, writes the agendas, and makes sure al the other officers are doing their job to keep the club successful. Just because the president is in charge of everything doesn’t mean the president is the most important job. Every leader needs his/her team and the President’s team is the other officers. For more on the format of the agenda, visit the "How to Run a Meeting" tab on this page.
Vice President
The vice president is chiefly in charge of taking care of what the president cannot. The vice president runs the meetings that the president is unable to. The vice president can also be in charge of ensuring a club’s committees are effective and functional. In my school, the vice presidents of all the clubs meet once a month to organize projects for improving our school.
Some clubs opt to have a vice president of administration and a vice president of activities or membership motivation. In such cases, the vice president will be in charge of all the aforementioned duties and some extra duties that are club specific. For example, the vice president of administration may be in charge of all the paperwork for projects while the vice president of activities may be in charge of coming up with and assigning projects to members.
Treasurer (for those clubs dealing with money)
Believe it or not, the treasurer does much more than just count money. In fact, most of the job is paperwork. Don’t let that discourage you though, treasurers are very important for a club’s survival. A treasurer is in charge of keeping track of how much money a club has. A good treasurer becomes acquainted with the right paperwork to get the club to do everything they need to get done that involves money. This paperwork includes project approval forms for fundraisers, Purchase Order (PO) forms, field trip forms, expense reimbursement forms, etc. While this may seem like a lot to know, the bookkeeper in your school can usually sit down with you and discuss how he/she wants the forms to be done. Eventually, it becomes a routine. The key to being a treasurer is to keep duplicates of everything. Make at least one copy of every form you turn in and receive and keep it all in a binder or two so that in the case something gets lost or the administration tries to pull a fast one on you, you have proof.
A very important duty of the treasurer is the money portion of course. Remember to always keep track of who gave you how much money, and if you need help counting money to get people who you know are entirely impartial. The idea is to keep the count accurate, use proper judgment.
Don’t Forget! It is very important to complete a form called the Financial Report. It is a summary of your project and includes how much money your club made for running the event and takes care of inventory and clerical information your school will need so that your school does not get audited. In my school, turning in the financial report late makes it harder to get another money-oriented project approved and failing to turn it in makes it entirely impossible to try to get another money-oriented project approved. Turn in this very important paperwork.
Recording Secretary
The recording secretary is one of the officers that holds a bit more weight in the club. The recording secretary must take notes, also called “minutes”, for every meeting, whether a board or a member meeting. These minutes are important because they include everything that was discussed during a meeting, including the new business, old business, and everything that was voted for or against in a meeting. The recording secretary should type up and publish all the minutes for the year so that the Student Government association can have a copy and so that if the minutes ever need to be edited, whether there’s a typo of some sort or something was missed, the minutes can be pulled up and edited. My school requires that every club submit a copy of all the minutes and agendas for the year as part of a package to ensure the club is approved to stay for the coming year. The recording secretary should also keep/publish all the agendas made by the president. For more on the format of minutes and the agenda, visit the "How to Run a Meeting" tab on this page.
Corresponding Secretary
As the name suggests, correspondence is the main focus of this position. The corresponding secretary is in charge of tracking which members attend the meetings, keeping a list of all the members and whether or not they are active in the club, and general board to member communication. Today’s usual corresponding secretary keeps an emailing list of all the members and sends blast emails so that all the members can find out what’s going on in the club. The corresponding secretary is also in charge of donation letters and news coverage. A club dealing with money may need a donation for a project and it is this secretary that is in charge of writing up the request. If your club is holding a large project, for instance a peace rally, it may be beneficial to get a story in your local newspaper, or to get a news channel to cover it for you. Another choice you have is to go to the forums on my site and write all about your project there. The idea is to get coverage, think who you need to call to get to your goal.
Historian
A historian, or editor as some clubs call them, is someone who is good at some kind of visual media (taking pictures, recording video) so that your club can have photographic proof of your its activities. Taking pictures and keeping track of them is a great way to promote a project that was particularly successful. In the end of the year, the historian makes a scrapbook as a ‘year in review’ type deal where you can see how the club progressed through the year. Scrapbooks are good medias for nostalgia and keeping members motivated to do their part in the coming year. The historian can also be in charge of writing a club newsletter so that the club can promote itself in the community.
Other positions
Of course there are more possible club positions such as committee chairs, parliamentarians, or representatives for the classes in your school (class of 2010 for example). These officers are all an integral part of a functional club.
Feel free to contact me on the contact us page if you have any further questions about any of the office positions already mentioned or one that I haven’t mentioned. I can usually help. Otherwise, feel freer to post your question in the forums! This is a good way to find more advice and information.
If you are interested in starting a new club in your school, then you should follow the guidelines bellow.
Come up with an idea for your club. Without an idea, you can’t make a club
Find at least one other person who is interested in your club idea. Work with this/these people to decide whether your club will need money and draft a constitution.
Approach your school’s administrator in charge of approving clubs. They will usually ask you to present your club idea with a constitution and will want to know if your club will pursue money or not.
If your project is not approved, you will be given a reason as to why. Work on the bugs (if at all possible) and keep pursuing the club idea until it is passed. If your project is approved, keep reading.
Pick a date to meet. Make an announcement on your school’s morning announcements or your college’s website so that people can know you are meeting.
Assign officer positions. Generally the person with the idea becomes president, in some other cases the person with the idea may choose a different role.
Hold meetings. At this point, you can have officer meetings and member meeting. Decide what projects your club will pursue and put effort into your club.
Don’t forget to consider Souper Bowl of Caring! It’s a great project and can get your members motivated to help out their community.
If you’re having trouble at any point of this guideline, feel free to post your questions on the forums, or contact me at the contact us page.
Come up with an idea for your club. Without an idea, you can’t make a club
Find at least one other person who is interested in your club idea. Work with this/these people to decide whether your club will need money and draft a constitution.
Approach your school’s administrator in charge of approving clubs. They will usually ask you to present your club idea with a constitution and will want to know if your club will pursue money or not.
If your project is not approved, you will be given a reason as to why. Work on the bugs (if at all possible) and keep pursuing the club idea until it is passed. If your project is approved, keep reading.
Pick a date to meet. Make an announcement on your school’s morning announcements or your college’s website so that people can know you are meeting.
Assign officer positions. Generally the person with the idea becomes president, in some other cases the person with the idea may choose a different role.
Hold meetings. At this point, you can have officer meetings and member meeting. Decide what projects your club will pursue and put effort into your club.
Don’t forget to consider Souper Bowl of Caring! It’s a great project and can get your members motivated to help out their community.
If you’re having trouble at any point of this guideline, feel free to post your questions on the forums, or contact me at the contact us page.
What is important in a meeting?
There is a layout for how a meeting should be run. The keywords for a successful meeting are agenda, date/time/location, keeping order, and advertising.
Agenda
There is a layout for a successful agenda for a meeting. This is usually the best summery of a meeting that doesn’t tell anything about what actually happened. The job of the minutes is to present the agenda with supplements describing what took place for each point. Follow the following criteria for a successful agenda:
In parenthesis is information regarding each part of the agenda. Secretaries should take note of that information to make sure the minutes are completed successfully. Include only what gets done, not what’s said.
I. Call to Order (start of meeting)
II. Attendance (record who’s present, or pass the sheet around)
III. Reading of the Minutes (review and edit the minutes from the previous meeting)
IV. Financial Report (the treasurer tells those in attendance how much money is available, subject to audit
currently)
V. Old Business
a. Review here projects or events that passed.
b. Use this space to give remarks on how previous endeavors went.
c. Recording secretaries will take notes on each part.
VI. New Business
a. Use this category to inform club members of new and upcoming events.
b. Great for allowing a guest speaker make an appearance.
c. Secretaries again will take notes on each part.
VII. Additions (use this to add anything that wasn’t in the agenda already, good fallback if you know you missed
something)
VIII. Announcements (good time for people to advertise events in the school or community. Listen, because
when there are announcements, they are usually very useful.
IX. Adjournment (end of the meeting)
Follow the guideline and stray from it if you wish. This is the simplest layout for an agenda. Plus, the student government likes to see structured agendas and minutes when you submit them in the end of the year report.
Date/Time/Location
Simple, can’t have a meeting without knowing where you’re going to meet can you? No. So choose a good location and stick with it. Try to be consistent with member meeting dates. Try to meet the same day of week at a specified rate. For example, my school’s KEY Club meets every other Thursday for member meetings. The other Thursday is reserved for officer meetings. This way, both the officers and the members know when to expect to meet with the club.
Keeping Order
To be a successful leader, you must be able to lead. To lead, you must be able to get your points across. Keep order in your meeting, it helps everyone in the end and is generally useful for club involvement. Members like to see a structured club, it gives them a sense of order. Many clubs use Parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order to structure their meetings. Parliamentary procedure is the democratic process of holding a meeting and making it effective by the voice of the majority. Robert’s Rules of Order are in the very least a structural device to supplement Parliamentary procedure in a meeting. Parliamentary procedure is explained further in the tab on this page titled “Parliamentary Procdure”.
Advertising
No one will show up to the meeting if no one knows about it. If not for the sake of the club, for your own sake as a leader, advertise your club’s meeting dates and events. Your members are not going to bother to look up when the meeting dates are. You have to find a way to tell them. Look for possible P.A. announcements and/or advertisements on your school’s TV network (if applicable) and/or the newspaper, or even by word of mouth. The more people know you’re meeting, the better your chances of getting a large turnout. Keeping your members motivated to stay in the club is in part done by the effort the leaders put into advertising the club.
These are the keys to making your meeting successful. Ensuring each part is taken care of BEFORE the meeting or event guarantees your success. Of course, keeping order must be done within the meeting, but its good to know how to keep order using Parliamentary procedure. Read on to find out a little more about Parliamentary procedure.
What if I have some questions?
Contact me at the contact us page or post your question(s) on the forums.
There is a layout for how a meeting should be run. The keywords for a successful meeting are agenda, date/time/location, keeping order, and advertising.
Agenda
There is a layout for a successful agenda for a meeting. This is usually the best summery of a meeting that doesn’t tell anything about what actually happened. The job of the minutes is to present the agenda with supplements describing what took place for each point. Follow the following criteria for a successful agenda:
In parenthesis is information regarding each part of the agenda. Secretaries should take note of that information to make sure the minutes are completed successfully. Include only what gets done, not what’s said.
I. Call to Order (start of meeting)
II. Attendance (record who’s present, or pass the sheet around)
III. Reading of the Minutes (review and edit the minutes from the previous meeting)
IV. Financial Report (the treasurer tells those in attendance how much money is available, subject to audit
currently)
V. Old Business
a. Review here projects or events that passed.
b. Use this space to give remarks on how previous endeavors went.
c. Recording secretaries will take notes on each part.
VI. New Business
a. Use this category to inform club members of new and upcoming events.
b. Great for allowing a guest speaker make an appearance.
c. Secretaries again will take notes on each part.
VII. Additions (use this to add anything that wasn’t in the agenda already, good fallback if you know you missed
something)
VIII. Announcements (good time for people to advertise events in the school or community. Listen, because
when there are announcements, they are usually very useful.
IX. Adjournment (end of the meeting)
Follow the guideline and stray from it if you wish. This is the simplest layout for an agenda. Plus, the student government likes to see structured agendas and minutes when you submit them in the end of the year report.
Date/Time/Location
Simple, can’t have a meeting without knowing where you’re going to meet can you? No. So choose a good location and stick with it. Try to be consistent with member meeting dates. Try to meet the same day of week at a specified rate. For example, my school’s KEY Club meets every other Thursday for member meetings. The other Thursday is reserved for officer meetings. This way, both the officers and the members know when to expect to meet with the club.
Keeping Order
To be a successful leader, you must be able to lead. To lead, you must be able to get your points across. Keep order in your meeting, it helps everyone in the end and is generally useful for club involvement. Members like to see a structured club, it gives them a sense of order. Many clubs use Parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order to structure their meetings. Parliamentary procedure is the democratic process of holding a meeting and making it effective by the voice of the majority. Robert’s Rules of Order are in the very least a structural device to supplement Parliamentary procedure in a meeting. Parliamentary procedure is explained further in the tab on this page titled “Parliamentary Procdure”.
Advertising
No one will show up to the meeting if no one knows about it. If not for the sake of the club, for your own sake as a leader, advertise your club’s meeting dates and events. Your members are not going to bother to look up when the meeting dates are. You have to find a way to tell them. Look for possible P.A. announcements and/or advertisements on your school’s TV network (if applicable) and/or the newspaper, or even by word of mouth. The more people know you’re meeting, the better your chances of getting a large turnout. Keeping your members motivated to stay in the club is in part done by the effort the leaders put into advertising the club.
These are the keys to making your meeting successful. Ensuring each part is taken care of BEFORE the meeting or event guarantees your success. Of course, keeping order must be done within the meeting, but its good to know how to keep order using Parliamentary procedure. Read on to find out a little more about Parliamentary procedure.
What if I have some questions?
Contact me at the contact us page or post your question(s) on the forums.
Parliamentary Procedure
The main part of what you need to know about Parliamentary procedure is that the presiding officer (usually the president) runs the meeting. Robert’s Rules of Order are actually defined generally as the skeleton agenda provided above. Following each part of the agenda, your meeting may reach a part where those in attendance will have to make decisions. That’s where Parliamentary procedure comes in. For something to be decided upon, the following steps must be taken:
1. A member rises and addresses the presiding officer
2. The presiding officer recognizes the member
3. The member makes the motion in the form of “I, (name), move to (state what member wishes to get approved)”
4. Another member seconds the motion in the form of “I, (name), second said motion.”
5. The presiding officer states the motion
6. The members debate the motion
7. The presiding officer puts the motion to a vote
8. The presiding officer announces the vote and its result.
You may be wondering what all the jargon is. Motions are what you are trying to get approved, whether a candy sale, a food drive, etc. Step five is only necessary if the members can’t hear each other, it prevents from misunderstanding the motion. Step 6 is meant for big decisions where a large effect is possible. A club will want to debate whether or not the consequences are worth the club’s trouble. Debating isn’t always necessary though, so don’t bother debating every little motion. Votes are usually majority vote, although they can be a 2/3 majority and can be held by saying “aye” versus “nay” or by secret ballots. After the votes are accounted for, the result is announced.
Major Motions
There are all kinds of motions, following is a list of possible motions that can be presented at your meeting. These are the most critical motions, there are many more on top of these.
-Main motions: general motions that introduce business (like motioning for your club to do a fundraiser)
-Motion to postpone indefinitely: a motion to end a motion presented to avoid embarrassment.
-Motion to amend: this motion allows you to amend a motion trying to be passed. This is key when you have a motion that is lacking key information.
-Motion to create a blank: if you feel a motion has a piece of information that is either too specific or just doesn’t fit, you can motion to strike it out and replace it with something that the people present will agree upon. Useful as an amending motion.
-Motion to refer to a committee: use only when there seems to be a need for a group of people to review the facts pertaining to a presented motion so as to give the club a clearer view of the motion at a later date.
-Motion to postpone definitely: simply to suspend a motion until another meeting date soon.
-Motion to limit/extend debate: only use to extend or reduce the allotted time for debating a motion.
-Motion to call previous question: this is a very important motion because it entirely stops the debate/discussion of the motion and calls for a vote to be cast so that time can be saved. A 2/3 majority vote is recommended for this particular vote to pass
-Motion to lay on table: similar to postponing definitely, this motion puts a presented motion or discussion on hold until called on at a later time.
-Call for orders of the day: a simple “let’s get back on business” statement that can interrupt the meeting and requires no approval, it simply must be followed.
-Suspend rules to finish business on floor: basically a retaliation to a call for orders of the day. Good for finishing what was getting done at the time.
-Point of privilege: there are two kinds of this. One is concerned with the members in the meeting. If you can’t hear or there’s some other problem, you tell the presiding officer there’s a question relating to the assembly and then state the point. The other point is an individual point of privilege. Use it to leave the meeting under special circumstances (going to the bathroom).
-Motion to recess/adjourn: use these motions to suspend or end the meeting to let the members get a breather or to make sure the meeting doesn’t last forever.
-Point of order: very similar to calling for the orders of the day. This is used when a member notices a lot of rules of Parliamentary procedure are being broken or the meeting runs exceedingly off course.
I’ll be perfectly honest, Parliamentary procedure, while providing structure to meetings, is largely ineffective if your club has a lot of business to take care of. Use the motions and agenda procedure presented to have your meetings run smoothly.
For further information on Parliamentary procedure, click here.
What if I have some questions?
Contact me at the contact us page or post your question(s) on the forums.
The main part of what you need to know about Parliamentary procedure is that the presiding officer (usually the president) runs the meeting. Robert’s Rules of Order are actually defined generally as the skeleton agenda provided above. Following each part of the agenda, your meeting may reach a part where those in attendance will have to make decisions. That’s where Parliamentary procedure comes in. For something to be decided upon, the following steps must be taken:
1. A member rises and addresses the presiding officer
2. The presiding officer recognizes the member
3. The member makes the motion in the form of “I, (name), move to (state what member wishes to get approved)”
4. Another member seconds the motion in the form of “I, (name), second said motion.”
5. The presiding officer states the motion
6. The members debate the motion
7. The presiding officer puts the motion to a vote
8. The presiding officer announces the vote and its result.
You may be wondering what all the jargon is. Motions are what you are trying to get approved, whether a candy sale, a food drive, etc. Step five is only necessary if the members can’t hear each other, it prevents from misunderstanding the motion. Step 6 is meant for big decisions where a large effect is possible. A club will want to debate whether or not the consequences are worth the club’s trouble. Debating isn’t always necessary though, so don’t bother debating every little motion. Votes are usually majority vote, although they can be a 2/3 majority and can be held by saying “aye” versus “nay” or by secret ballots. After the votes are accounted for, the result is announced.
Major Motions
There are all kinds of motions, following is a list of possible motions that can be presented at your meeting. These are the most critical motions, there are many more on top of these.
-Main motions: general motions that introduce business (like motioning for your club to do a fundraiser)
-Motion to postpone indefinitely: a motion to end a motion presented to avoid embarrassment.
-Motion to amend: this motion allows you to amend a motion trying to be passed. This is key when you have a motion that is lacking key information.
-Motion to create a blank: if you feel a motion has a piece of information that is either too specific or just doesn’t fit, you can motion to strike it out and replace it with something that the people present will agree upon. Useful as an amending motion.
-Motion to refer to a committee: use only when there seems to be a need for a group of people to review the facts pertaining to a presented motion so as to give the club a clearer view of the motion at a later date.
-Motion to postpone definitely: simply to suspend a motion until another meeting date soon.
-Motion to limit/extend debate: only use to extend or reduce the allotted time for debating a motion.
-Motion to call previous question: this is a very important motion because it entirely stops the debate/discussion of the motion and calls for a vote to be cast so that time can be saved. A 2/3 majority vote is recommended for this particular vote to pass
-Motion to lay on table: similar to postponing definitely, this motion puts a presented motion or discussion on hold until called on at a later time.
-Call for orders of the day: a simple “let’s get back on business” statement that can interrupt the meeting and requires no approval, it simply must be followed.
-Suspend rules to finish business on floor: basically a retaliation to a call for orders of the day. Good for finishing what was getting done at the time.
-Point of privilege: there are two kinds of this. One is concerned with the members in the meeting. If you can’t hear or there’s some other problem, you tell the presiding officer there’s a question relating to the assembly and then state the point. The other point is an individual point of privilege. Use it to leave the meeting under special circumstances (going to the bathroom).
-Motion to recess/adjourn: use these motions to suspend or end the meeting to let the members get a breather or to make sure the meeting doesn’t last forever.
-Point of order: very similar to calling for the orders of the day. This is used when a member notices a lot of rules of Parliamentary procedure are being broken or the meeting runs exceedingly off course.
I’ll be perfectly honest, Parliamentary procedure, while providing structure to meetings, is largely ineffective if your club has a lot of business to take care of. Use the motions and agenda procedure presented to have your meetings run smoothly.
For further information on Parliamentary procedure, click here.
What if I have some questions?
Contact me at the contact us page or post your question(s) on the forums.
