Officers

Who are the officers?
What makes a good officer?
Who is going to be what?
Communication
Officer Meetings
Officer Retreats
Events
During Vacation Times
Make Notes
Optional: Keep Attendance
Transitioning Officers

Who are the officers?
The officers are the people who will run the organization. Most of the time, these officers are fans of the club.

What makes a good officer?
Officers should be consistent and have a great understanding of your club’s mission. Also, officers have certain skills: good communication skills, like telling another officer that they’ll be late for a meeting or that they can’t do a task before deadline; good leadership skills, such as allocating tasks and assignments to different people when necessary; good time management skills to be able to fulfill most of their duties as outlined by the club’s purpose, by-laws, and/or constitution; good people skills, like understanding the appropriate etiquette when networking at events or meetings; and creative intelligence—being able to see outside the box, like making a Valentine’s Day anime-themed dance happen on less than $200 (hey, it happens).   

Who is going to be what?
The officer positions that need to be filled immediately are: president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and one other position of choice.
-President: Oversees all aspects of the club and delegates duties to officers.
-Vice President: Takes on the same roles as President in the absence of the President.
-Secretary: Takes down minutes during the meetings; Takes roll call.
-Treasurer: Manages the club’s budget, fundraising, and other duties involving money.
-Historian: Takes pictures of events, members
-Public Relations Chair/Officer: Promotes events, meetings, fundraisers, and conferences to the public
-Executive-at-Large: Handles any tasks other officers cannot do at the time
-Programming Chair: Responsible for creating events and club activities
-Webmaster or Telecommunication Chair: Maintains the club website

Communication
If you ask any officer of any organization or club about their biggest obstacles in leadership, they’ll say, “Communication”. Communication between officers and members is really important. Events, announcements, and news are passed on by communication, along with compromises and negotiations. When one officer doesn’t do their job, the other officers have to pick up the slack, causing things to slow down and people to become stressed.
Here are 7 Ways to Communicate

Officer Meetings
Officer meetings are a good way to keep up with officers and see what everyone is doing. Also, it’s a chance to finalize any plans. If you have a small organization (less than 20 members), having officer meetings every 2 months or once a month is enough. If you have a big organization (20+ members), having officer meetings should be done at least once a month.

Officer Retreats
Officer retreats are extended officer meetings with fun activities to do. They can last from a few hours to a few days. Officer retreats can be done anywhere—at school, in the library, at a restaurant, at someone’s house.  The best time to do an officer retreat is before summer ends or at the very beginning of the school year. It’s a chance for old and new officers to get to know each other, plan for the whole year, and recognize each officer’s expectations for the year. Make it fun by using ice breakers, activities, and food.
How to plan an officer retreat

Events
Make a calendar of all the club’s meetings and events. Assign a different officer per event. That officer will be in charge of that event, including allocating duties to their sub-committees and other officers.
Note: The president and vice president are in charge of the entire club, but not every event. They only oversee whether to do the event or not, and approve anything that comes into question. If the president or vice president would like to take more duties, that’s their own decision, but the president and vice president shouldn’t be doing all the work.

During Vacation Times (i.e. school summer, spring, or winter vacation; end of the fiscal year)
Vacations are time off from everything, but this is also a good time to utilize all the free time everyone will have.
-For school (K-12 and college) clubs, it’s better to have a few officer meetings during the summer and one in winter time. During the summer, before school starts, officers can have a general game plan as to how each event will go. Use email , Skype, AIM, or conference calls to keep people in the loop.
For free conference calls, sign up on any free conference call website. At the time of the meeting, call the conference call number, enter your pin, and you will be connected to everyone like a voice format of chatting.
Free conference call websites include:
http://www.freeconferencecall.com
http://www.freeconference.com
http://www.freeconferencecalling.com

-For library clubs, summer is the ideal time to make events happen. K-12 students hunt for anime, manga, and Japanese culture events because there’s nothing to do. Plus, they have more liberty to read whatever they like without the strenuous school load to worry about. Advertise the anime, manga, and books on Japan at schools before summer rolls around as well as during summer time so that kids have a place to go.

Make Notes
For every officer meeting, keep notes. It will help you to remember notes and what everyone said.

Optional: Keep Attendance
One thing I did with my officers when I was a president of a college club was keep attendance for officer meetings. It seemed unnecessary, but I made my officers responsible for their own time management. In the real world, time is money, and if you’re trying to get to Japan, tardy people are looked down upon in Japan. Better to learn the habit before feeling embarrassed at a Japanese meeting.  For officers who made it on time to the meetings or told me they were going to be late or not attend, I gave them one point. At the end of the year, the officer who had the most points and did their duties diligently was awarded Officer of the Year. You don’t need to tell your officers that you’re keeping attendance. It’s more for personal use.

Transitioning New Officers
1) Keep a transition binder with club information to pass on to the new officers. A decent transition binder should include:
-For annual events, outline the WH’s (Who, What, Where, When, and How) for each event
-Don’t just put people’s names down for an advisor, a contributor, or anyone outside of the organization. Always include the person’s title, telephone, and email address. If you’re a student club, it’s more important to do this because staff and personnel can change on campus.
-Print out emails with vital information, such as correspondences with agreements and urgent emails concerning the club.
-Never assume that the new officer(s) knows what you’re talking about. Make everything as clear as a bell when you write notes.
-Blank forms that officers will use, including the website address or the office that they are found and/or submitted at
-Any processes that you wished your predecessor told you should be outlined and noted in a transition binder
-Contact list of all officers.
-Complete budget outline of the club’s spending. This should help new officers figure out how many fundraisers they’ll need to do for the year.

2) Have at least one meeting that helps transitions new officers with advice from the old officers.
Not only do you have a binder or something to teach from, old officers can have a one-on-one with new officers about what they’re about to do. It prepares the new officers’ expectations and gives old officers some closure on their position. Also, this meeting can be used as a feedback meeting; old and new officers can be asked how they can make their club better.
-When doing a transitioning meeting, make sure the club advisor, presidents, and vice presidents meet together.