Dormitories & Dragons
The guidelines for what positions you need are partially dictated by the university and the group's constitution. In April, I remarked that you should stick to the basic positions for now--unless you're certain you will need a position that exists outside of the requirements, it's best to avoid the temptation to create positions so everyone can be an officer. If the people in the elected positions manage their areas well, no one will care that there isn't an official Webmaster or Sergeant-At-Arms or Toastmaster or whatnot.
Before they can do their job well, they need to know what their job is. Let's start with the basic three positions I talked about, then look at other common positions within a larger gaming club.
The Big Three
President
Role: The president of the club is the person in charge of all the operations of the club. This doesn't mean the president gets to boss everyone around, but the president should be aware of everything the club is officially doing. For members, this is fairly prestigious, since you get to look all important. However, you have to remember that the university sees the president as the one person it can go to when it has questions, so you can also see the president's role as the official that has to deal with the larger university structure.
On its most basic level, the president of the club is the one that has to sign all the forms--the room reservation forms, the club roster, the applications for services from the university, and so on. While the other positions might be able to fill in on some of these, the president is ultimately the one who has to deal with the paperwork. When questions get asked by the university, the president is the person it goes to, and the president is expected to have the answers. If the president doesn't know what's happening in the club, the administration will get very cranky very fast.
In good times, the president position looks cool--you're the big shot, and everyone has fun. In bad times, no one wants to be the president because the president is the one held accountable. If a table gets broken and the club might be responsible, the president has to go to the meeting to explain it. If the group plans an event that goes wrong, the university wants to hear what the president was thinking. An advisor can help shield the president from some of those problems, but if you're one of those groups who has an advisor-in-name-only, the blame will often fall squarely and heavily on the president's shoulders.
On a more day-to-day level, the president of the club knows what's going on and makes sure the work gets done. The president might actually be a few levels removed from the work, but the president should always know who's responsible for what task and be able to get the information quickly. To do this, the president needs strong leadership skills and a good ability to deal with people.
Secretary
The secretary sometimes seems like an unglamorous position, but a good secretary can make or break an organization. The job of the secretary is to keep track of the information the club receives and generates. Often, this will be dates and events the club is interested in, mail the club receives, and opportunities from the university that the club could participate in. To speak in metaphors, If the president is the captain of the ship, the secretary is the communications officer.
The secretary will first and foremost be responsible for taking notes at the meetings and handling official lists. The two most important lists will be the membership list, which will need to be accurately kept, and the mailing list, which will serve as the group's main method of communication to its members. Both of these lists are highly important--the membership list because the university may want an accounting of your membership, and the mailing list because your members will likely check their email regularly, which makes this a great way to get information to your members.
The secretary position is somewhat nebulous, but in a group with only three officers, the secretary will likely be in charge of promotions as well as general notes. This can quickly bog down into a variety of large tasks, so the secretary may need to delegate some of the work to other members. Possible areas for others to take charge of would be promotions, recruitment, library cataloging, and web site maintenance, to name a few. Delegation skills will be key to being a successful secretary, as will a good sense of organization that others can follow as well.
Treasurer
Aside from the president, this is the position the university cares about the most. Since most clubs will be expected to generate some money, either through dues, fundraising, or other means, the campus must keep track of it. Therefore, the treasurer must be capable and willing to keep close track of the money at all times. If the university feels like you aren't keeping close enough track of your funds, it will likely decide it's easier to disband your club rather than deal with the hassle of fixing the problem.
The treasurer should be involved with any effort involving the cash flow of the group. While he or she doesn't need to be in charge of all those groups, the treasurer at least needs to be aware of everything putting money into or taking money out of the group's coffers. Lots of people who have ideas for events may also talk to the treasurer to see if their idea is financially feasible. This means the treasurer should be fairly open to people's requests to know how much money the group has and where it's spent. People skills are also necessary if the treasurer has to gently nudge people away from impulsively blowing the treasury on a "really awesome Magic tournament," "A clan server for WoW," or other items that would be fun to have but perhaps a pain to implement. In this, the treasurer's job is to be the voice of reason among a horde of fanboys, which requires some tact.
In many universities, the treasurer is also the only position that regularly meets with members of the administration. The treasurer usually is required by the university to meet with someone in the student organization office regularly--sometimes once a month, sometimes less--to go over finances and double check the math. If the club isn't doing anything with the money, these meetings usually take about 20 seconds, but it's still a required meeting, and the club can get penalized if he or she misses it.
The first year, the treasurer probably isn't going to be doing much. He or she will be very busy the first month taking in dues, but after that, it will slow down to a trickle, and unless you plan on spending that money on a regular basis (which I don't necessarily recommend,) there won't be much bookkeeping for the treasurer to do. The ability to be organized and do math will be fairly important for the position, but so is the ability to handle bureaucracy without tearing one's hair out, as is the self-motivation to talk to everyone to make sure the money situation really is running smoothly.
These three positions are the core of the group. Most universities will require that these be filled in yearly elections, and if they are not, then you don't have a club next year. While the need to fill these might override the desire to see someone appropriate in the position, I urge you to take a deep breath and really consider someone who would fit the job well rather than just fill the slot quickly.
Since these are the core officers, the commitment, energy, and teamwork of these three people are going to be the models everyone else goes off of. Therefore, these three people have to be willing to be the most dedicated, energetic, and friendly members of the group. Since they're the leaders, their demeanor sets the tone by which everyone else reacts, and you don't want to start your club off with a "Hey, cool, we're a club. Let's get pizza" tone. Their excitement for an idea will rub off. (We will talk about this concept more next month.)
It's also fairly obvious that these three people have to get along. If they don't, and the communication lines between the officers gets strained, the club will see the effects immediately. The president will have people who are resistant to his or her ideas, and members of the club will follow suit. Likewise, the secretary will have a harder time finding people to help with the myriad tasks the position involves, and the treasurer can find his or her authority overriden by a president who doesn't like to be reminded that the cookie jar holds only so many cookies. The last skill these people need, therefore, is professionalism--if they fall to infighting and petty politics, the club will suffer greatly as a result.
Additional Executives
In addition to the three core positions, you may consider adding some more officers if there is an immediate need. Before you go changing the constitution to add a bunch of positions, remember that one of the powers of the president (or the other two positions, for that matter) is to appoint people to responsibilities that need to be taken care of. Try appointing someone for a year or two and see how the position handles--if the position is useful, then go making it an elected position. Here are a few of the positions that normally get added.
Vice-President
This is a popular position to add because lots of people (in the United States, at least) link a president and vice-president together in their minds, so it often becomes a position quickly. Note that a vice-president isn't necessarily needed, and when your club is small, it might be completely unnecessary. But once the club starts growing, you may want to consider it.
The VP reports to the president, if only because the first job of the vice-president is to fill in for the president. This means that the VP needs to be as aware of the club's situation as the president is. While the most dramatic case of the VP being used in this way is when the president resigns for some reason, the VP will more likely conduct meetings when the president isn't available.
Beyond the surrogate role, the VP's job quickly gets murky. If a group doesn't have some secondary task for the VP to do, this person in this position will often feel unnecessary (and rightly so) to the group. For this reason, tasks that require the full support of the club as a whole can fall under the VP's jurisdiction. In many cases, the VP is often put in charge of recruitment and promotions, freeing the secretary to do more immediate record-keeping tasks. Sometimes this is a big yearly event that the VP has to manage and plan for--a convention is out of the league of anyone who needs to read this column, but a big gaming festival wouldn't be unheard of, nor would the coordination of regular large events like new member meetings, movie screenings, small-scale tournaments or other such events. In lieu of such events, the VP often ends up making sure that previously assigned tasks get done, and serves as another set of eyes and ears for the president to make sure any assigned jobs are happening as they should.
The VP's biggest skill will be being able to interact with other people in a friendly-yet-authoritative manner. The VP has authority, but not as much as the president, and often needs to get other people's cooperation to get stuff done. This means that the VP should be working like the grease in the wheels of the machine. Still, as VP, the officer needs to have strong delegating skills and be able to motivate people to action. If given large tasks, the VP needs a large amount of self-motivation to make sure the larger tasks get done--the one person the president should not need to worry about doing their own thing is the VP.
A word of warning: there are some people who think that the VP should take the role of "bad cop" to the president's "good cop," leaving the president to look good. This is often done in military settings, but does not translate well into the gaming group. For one, there's no reason anyone in the group should hate anyone else; no one is forced to be there, and the club is supposed to be fun. Second, the president is still the one who has to take responsibility for anything that happens in the club, and the university does not want to hear the president say, "Oh, I let my VP handle the messy stuff. I want the members to like me." There should not be any "messy stuff" for the VP to handle, and a club that works with this mindset is more often than not looking for trouble. If you're someone who sees their role as the bad cop, stay out of the VP spot for everyone's own good.
Webmaster
The internet is an integral part of the college life, so having a good web page can be a great asset. The webmaster is the person who is in charge of such the group's home page. The webmaster often reports to the secretary or vice-president, depending on whether the web page is used primarily as a communication or promotions tool.
There are usually a fair number of computer folks in a gaming group, and this usually looks like an attractive position for them. To be fair, people who know a lot about computers can often do this job more easily than someone who is just chosen because they're willing to learn as they go. However, this also means that the webmaster ends up trying to do a bunch of cool coding projects on the website because they want to try out their skills at Java coding or they can use it as a class project. This should be discouraged; you're not sure who will be the webmaster next year, and the next person needs to be able to figure out how to make changes to the existing page. Otherwise, you end up spending a large amount of energy every year trying to create a new web page that people can use.
First and foremost, the webmaster needs to know HTML. They don't need to know a lot of it, but they should be able to understand what's going on with it. This position gets easier to fill if you require the webmaster to use a program like Rapidweaver to create pages fast, but even then, a working knowledge of basic HTML is helpful. Ideally, the webmaster is someone who can make a simple page look classy--someone with basic design skills is very helpful here. The webmaster also needs to have enough people skills to interact with others and take direction on the web page.
It sounds like I'm trying to argue to avoid the stereotypical computer science guy, and I am. My experience has been that there are often computer science students who, when they get to college, embrace their nerdiness. This is fine, but they neglect their people skills in favor of more computer skills, and they often don't care that the latter suffers. You need to be wary of putting someone like this in as webmaster. The position is not the "IT guy" of the club, nor is it as important as other officers like the secretary. The webmaster must be able to communicate clearly to the people in charge and be able to take direction without chaffing. When I was in the Bowling Green Gaming Society, I saw way too many students who wanted to make the web page this huge project with all these different functions. After a while, most of the ideas they had didn't work. the webmaster would get bored and neglect the page, and when the next webmaster was appointed, they couldn't make heads or tails of the coding, or else they decided the best idea was to completely redesign the site from the ground up again. It ended up with the web site often being months or years out of date, a digital albatross that people were reluctant to deal with. In that vein, be careful of the person who claims to have grand designs for the web site, including adding items like a forum or bulletin board, Flash functionality, or other slick doodads. The main function of the web page is to offer a point of contact for the group and provide information about the group to internet users. Any webmaster who is willing to sacrifice that in favor of doing neat coding projects needs to be avoided.
Despite my pessimistic assessment of most would-be webmasters, if the right person is in the position, the web site can become a useful resource of information on the club. To do this, the webmaster needs computer skills that other people might not have, but it's just as important to make sure the webmaster works well with others and can take direction. For a club small enough to need my advice, the webmaster is rarely, if ever, an elected position--it can often remain an appointed position under the auspices of the officer responsible for promotions, most likely the secretary. By making it an appointed position, it's easy to replace someone who is neglecting their duties and make sure the web site stays updated.
A word of warning: sometimes a webmaster will get the idea that all online items should be their responsibility, and argue that the mailing list should fall under their domain as well. Do not do this. The group web page can be a great recruitment tool, but it's not vital to the success of the club. The mailing list is, and the secretary should be the person in charge of that. It might seem to make sense to a computer guy to make sure that the computer guy is in charge of the computer stuff, but the mailing list is necessary to the group's communication structure. That puts it squarely in the hands of the secretary, and thus should it remain.
Librarian
As the club's resources grow, the club will eventually want to invest in some permanent items for everyone to use. RPG clubs will have a core group of games, wargamers will likely have mats and terrains, and CCG clubs may need items to help run tournaments. The librarian's job is to make sure all of these items are where they should be and taken care of. This job usually reports to the secretary, since the secretary keeps track of the lists, though it may also fall under the duties of the treasurer if there is a lot of purchasing being done for it.
The librarian is often a job with little excitement--they are responsible for keeping track of the items and making sure they remain undamaged. This often means that they're the ones responsible for hauling the boxes of board games and stacks of club books up and down steps if the club needs it. They also check items in and out if the club allows that. A great librarian will take this a step further and be on the lookout for ways to make the library better or more streamlined.
The librarian position can seem like a good position for someone who doesn't really want to do much but still wants to be in a position of importance. However, doing this often means that the librarian ends up neglecting his or her duties, which can result in, at the very least, a messy library or, at the very worst, broken and missing items that need to be replaced.
A good librarian is organized and self-motivating, willing to play the role of the helpful underling. Don't call them this, though--a good librarian is a wonderful addition to the workings of the club, and if you get one, make sure you thank them for their contributions. A good librarian should also be someone who will look for little ways to improve the system, willing to come up with a computer filing system or stay after the meeting to make sure everything gets put back in its proper place. When the librarian neglects the library, it can end up hurting the club in the pocketbook, sometimes severely.
Under no circumstances should the librarian be allowed to purchase items for the library without approval from the treasurer. Sometimes a librarian says, "Oh, I can get that! Just reimburse me." Establishing that pattern can lead to uncomfortable situations where the librarian says that the club "needed" a couple of expensive game books, and now wants to be reimbursed the $80 spent on them. The treasurer is the person who has to answer to the administration about the finances, and because of that, all purchases should be approved through the treasurer beforehand.
(Focus) Director
If you have more than one focus for the group, there is usually a core focus that the president and the officers focus on more than the rest. However, if you get enough people supporting another focus, it often helps to have someone in charge of that particular group in order to make sure their interests are being addressed. This position is often appointed and will report to the president or the vice-president. If that focus grows large enough, it could become an elected position.
The focus director often works as a vice-president or "sub-president" with authority over that particular area. While not capable of having free access to the treasury or the free reign of the group that a president has, they are often seen as representatives of their interest group to the larger group.
Why bother with having a focus director? At the point you need one, couldn't that group just spin off and form its own group? Realistically, yes, it could, and there could be little you could do to stop them. For example, the CCG players in the BGGS were large enough that they could honestly just make their own group, collect their own dues and hold their own meetings. However, there are benefits for both groups of people if they remain as one big group rather than splitting off to form their own. In my example, the BGGS benefits from the dues that the CCG players pay, as well as the increased membership that they can list on the roster. The CCG players benefit because they can focus on running tournaments and having fun--they don't have to worry about the larger administrative issues that the club has to worry about as a whole, such as overall recruitment, finding an advisor, or dealing with university officials.
However, because they're large enough to impact the workings and funding of the club considerably, the club overall should take their concerns and ideas into their planning. The focus director plays the role of the official spokesperson for the interest group, making sure that their needs are being addressed and make sure some of the dues they pay into the overall funds get used for their interests as well. Oftentimes, the focus director also serves as the interest group's leader, organizing the tournaments or the meetings for that particular focus.
A good focus director will have many similar qualities to a good president, and the position requires many of the same leadership and people skills that the president does. A good focus director may be quite content to stay in that position, focusing their energies on the activities they are more interested in than the overall workings of the larger club. However, a focus director with interest in the overall club can often become a good president, and the position can often serve as a good stepping stone to the presidency--but only if the person is actually interested in the focus area. Making someone the wargaming director when they have no interest in that simply because you think they would make a good president later is often asking for trouble. Likewise, a focus director that has no interest in the other focuses of the club should not try and become president. If such a person is more interested in making RPGs a minor focus and making their area the major focus, the interest group should seriously consider forming their own club. A focus director that is willing to take a broader view and be interested in all the areas of the group equally can often make a fine president.
Executive Decisions
With the positions somewhat defined, it's time to figure out how this works into your own gaming club. The officers should take some time and write out what they feel their responsibilities and goals are, then share them with the rest of the officers. This gets everyone openly talking about what they're expected to do and fill in holes that people might think others handle. For example, who is going to keep track of the club library--is that the secretary's job, since it involves record keeping, or the treasurer's, since it involves lots of major purchases on the part of the club? If you have a VP, is the secretary or the VP responsible for promotions? What does the VP do if the president is available? Figuring this out now can help you avoid large problems in the future.
Everyone should also be aware that just because they don't have responsibility for a given task doesn't mean they shouldn't help out if necessary. Ideally, the president just manages the club, but if posters need to get made, the president should be willing to help make them. It sounds hokey, but remember that the officers serve as the models the other members look to for proper behavior. If the officers try to shove all their work off on others, expect the members to be reluctant to take up the chores; if the officers are energetic and willing to help, expect others to act the same.
Speaking of the members, now would also be a good time to figure out what the responsibilities of the members are as well. While they're not officers, they should still understand what will be expected of them. I bring this up because apathy is a big reason many young gaming clubs fail--the majority of the gamers just want to sit down and play games. However, in a small club, the members have to chip in with some of the work, or else the officers get swamped and the club suffers because of it. If the members know coming in to the group that they're expected to sit on at least one committee, it helps overcome that initial resistance to volunteering.
Committees? Sure, why not? Establishing standing committees to oversee areas of the club's function helps give members a sense of belonging and participation. It also gives the president the ability to quickly recruit help if something needs to be done fast. Committees should be established for groups that should or need to meet on a regular basis. A promotions committee or a library committee are often good starting points. Be very selective about what you start a committee for, though--large organizations might have a treasury committee to help with funds, but chances are your treasurer can handle his responsibilities by themselves. One officer should be responsible for the committee, and make sure it's clear which officer it is. That officer will need to make sure people are doing their jobs and take responsibility for holding regular meetings.
Shuffling The Board Members
In a group that's rebuilding, a lot of the above tasks remain the same, but you'll want to take the extra step at the beginning of evaluating each position and determining if they're really necessary. Sometimes a club will have several elected positions that aren't necessary anymore for various reasons--lack of membership, lack of resources, what have you. Don't actively cut out an officer that's still serving a term unless they volunteer to step down; they ran on the trust that they would have their position the full term, and you should grant them that. However, don't perpetuate an officer position that's not needed anymore. Likewise, the officers need to go through the constitution and figure out what it says the responsibilities of the positions are. If they need to be changed, do so now. Make sure that everyone understands what their job is.
Remember that a smaller officer core is better than a larger one--if there are several officers and not enough work, the officers get listless and unfocused. With a smaller officer group, the officers themselves might not be able to do all the tasks assigned, but they can recruit others and appoint members to fill in as needed. This makes sure that all the work is accounted for by the officers--every task should ultimately lead back to one of the big three positions. If it doesn't, you should ask yourself if the task is really that necessary to the functioning of the club.
Now that you have your positions defined, it's time to figure out how to get others to listen to you. Next month, we'll discuss the basics of leadership and see how they apply to your group.
June Checklist:
--Review any previous position definitions the constitution gives.
--Have each officer list what they perceive their responsibilities and goals to be.
--Ensure that any neglected duties are assigned to an officer.
--Create a list of expectations of the members.
--Create any necessary standing committees at this time and assign an officer to supervise it.
See you next month!
--Alec "Kid Twist" Fleschner
