This document is intended for the incoming President.
Hopefully, you already know all of this, since we try to get someone who has already been on the board for a while to be the President, but this kind of formalizes how to organize things.
At the first board meeting of the year, you should start by making sure that each officer understands what their job is. Most of this is spelled out in the by-laws (which you need to read), but here is a summary with short descriptions:
President – Makes sure everything gets done. Try to delegate as much as possible!
VP Business – Take meeting minutes and publish them.
VP Finance – Handle the bank accounts and budget, including tracking where the money comes from and goes. Also responsible for keeping the membership database up to date (more on this later).
VP River Ops – Organizes the river trips, which is a lot harder than it sounds. This person really needs to delegate.
At this meeting, you will choose a Chairperson of the Board. Traditionally, this role is handled by the President, but it doesn’t have to be. The Chairperson runs the board meetings and makes sure that the board follows the by-laws. You will also choose the committee chairs – Membership, River Watch, Programs, Communications, and Safety & Education. Only the first two of these are described in the by-laws – the others are traditional. These jobs have posts to describe the jobs, but here is a summary:
Membership – Responsible for getting new members and retaining existing members. NOT responsible for maintaining the membership database!
River Watch – Keeps an eye on river issues and projects. Notifies the club of things that are going on, and works to get people to help out with projects.
Programs – Reserves the board meeting locations and plans the January General Membership meeting. In recent years, Programs has handled the Spring Flip Practice and the Fall Gear Swap and Repair Clinic.
Communications – Works with the Waterlog editor and Webmaster to make sure that information gets out to the club members. This person should have a good grasp on electronic communications, since most of the info goes out through the web site, Facebook group, and Yahoo! group.
Safety & Education – Organizes the annual one-day safety class and any other safety events.
Important: Committee chairs do not have to be board members. Find the best person for these jobs!
There are a couple of other important roles that aren’t board positions:
Waterlog Editor – Do not take this person for granted!