Category: The Fundamentals
F24. Board Elections and Appointments
You’ve done a great job as a student leader, and it’s time to move on. However, there is one final task you must complete before you can go: assembling a new board. The selection process for boards fall into two categories: elections and appointments. Many processes are a combination of the two. Elections allow a ...
F23. Dues and Fundraising
Almost all student groups will have to fundraise at one time or another during the year. Unless your activities council is particularly generous or you have a wealthy benefactor, fundraising is a necessary part of a team’s success. However, asking money of your teammates via dues or money of outside people via fundraising events is ...
F22. Budgeting and Budgeting Negotiations
If your people are the intangible soul of your organization, money is the nutrition that keeps it alive. I was a finance major, and even I’ll admit I find dealing with finances to be at times quite tedious. You may feel differently. If you do, I applaud your attention to such an important matter, just ...
F21. Best Practices for Graceful Member Exits
Letting people go is a difficult but necessary part of the student leader’s job. When needed, it must be done quickly and with as little drama as possible. The benefit of building a strong evaluation system as explained in F.20 Evaluating Members is that you will be able to identify those members who are not ...
F20. Evaluating Members
Now that you’ve learned how to design a good policy, you’ll have to create a system that can track compliance. Evaluating members can be rather tricky, and the success of your system will depend in large part upon its clarity and fairness. That being said, evaluation of some sort is necessary for a successful organization ...
Recruiting: Initiation
Your initiation should be split into two parts: the big reveal and the trust ladder. The big reveal event is the first time you inform your applicants that they’ve been accepted as members. Below are two examples of two different types of initiation that I implemented with my organizations. CS1 (Speech & Debate): I informed ...
Building Effective Policies: Execution
When implementing policies, keep them simple and apply them in a fair manner which maximizes your desired impact.
Reform, Change, and Goal-Setting
Reforms should be introduced at the beginning of the year. They should be specific, actionable, and based off concrete goals. The best change managers guide implementation and ensure buy in from all relevant parties.
Recruiting: Planning Initiation
After weeks of preparation, days of interviews, and countless hours talking about your organization, you're finally ready to welcome your new members. Your initiation should be exciting, memorable, and should build a sense of camaraderie. A successful initiation will create a strong buy-in from your new members resulting in future dedication and team spirit.
Recruiting: The Information Session
The information session is the first opportunity for your organization to introduce itself to prospective members. It should be succinct and persuasive, highlighting your core goals and best features.
The Definitive Guide to Student Leadership 