Within your booster club Bylaws, you will find a well-detailed structure for new officer elections and how booster club leadership is selected. If you don’t have this information within your Bylaws already, it should be added as soon as possible. The election of officers / booster club leadership in a booster club occurs based on the timelines set by your Bylaws.
The booster club Bylaws should outline the approved plans as well as the term length for the officers. Most districts ask that no one stays in the same position for more than 2 consecutive years.
However, if no one else is available to fill the job, a booster club can vote to extend the length by adding a third term. This would extend the time needed before transitioning booster club leadership.
Booster club board members are chosen through appointment and election. Following with Roberts Rules of Order, nominations for board members can be accepted from the floor. But at no point should someone be placed into the office without agreement from the members.
Some other rules for appointing new board members are:
Transitioning booster club leadership to the right people is essential for maintaining booster club success. You want to elect someone that wants to do the job, and that has the skills to do it successfully.
You can view more about booster club officers and their responsibilities here.
As unpleasant as it may be, there may come a time when your booster club is forced to remove someone from office and replace booster club leadership. It will create tension between members and affect relationships. Removing people from the office is almost always done as an involuntary action.
Some reasons to remove somebody from office include:
The process itself should be challenging to do to help prevent it from being abused. There should also be unanimous consent of the other members in the group.
Usually, conflict can be healthy when it handled with maturity and professionalism. But when a situation arises to a level that requires the action of removal from a leadership position, the typical process is as follows:
Removing somebody from office should be used as a last resort after all attempts to fix the issues have failed.
There are two good reasons why a booster club may need to appoint board members.
Bylaws typically give a timeframe for how many times a person can consecutively hold office or term length. At the end of this, the transitioning booster club leadership to a new member must be done. The new member must be elected to fill the role while the person currently in office steps down.
Another vacancy related issue could be that a person moves away, dies, or quite mid-term. When a vacant job like this happens, the booster club will likely try to fill in that void by electing a new person to hold the position. This would be done at a special meeting and done through the standard procedure. Nominating and voting them into office.
‘It’s up to the members to decide if these newly elected officers are merely there to finish the current term, or if they get to serve full time. To keep it fair and consistent, ‘it’s a good idea to add these stipulations to the booster clubs Bylaws. That way, there is a point of reference during any reoccurrence.
As your booster club membership grows and expands, you may find that having a small board of officers to run things may not be as effective as it once was. Expanding your office seats to accommodate other tasks can help to alleviate some of the workloads from other members.
If your Bylaws state a limit on how many directors there can be, make sure not to exceed that unless an amendment to the Bylaws is made.
Bylaws are the book of instructions defining how the group will govern itself.
Contents of Bylaws typically include:
With there being so many different documents involved with a booster club, it’s a good idea to do an official audit of accounts before they migrate of booster club leadership and the transfer of materials.
When you replace the booster club leadership with the newly elected officials, relevant documents are involved in transitioning booster club leadership from one person to another.
Note: keeping your corporate records book in the school’s office can help you always to know where to find it.
The booster club Bylaws will state who is to receive which set of documents. Usually, financial documents are passed between Treasurers, minutes between Secretaries and the other documents are split between the President and the school’s officials.
Keeping past presidents around to help mentor the new President is a great way to transition booster club leadership. The same can be said for the other elected officers as well.
The past board member’s first-hand experience and knowledge can help to avoid costly mistakes and keep the club from experiencing any issues while transitioning booster club leadership. This also helps to keep the booster club a success.
Sometimes, a job can come with too many responsibilities for a single person to handle. In these cases, handing off leadership can really help. Delegation is a great asset to booster club membership because it not only helps to release stress on some members, but it also gives non-board member booster club volunteers a chance to participate at a higher level.
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