Section 3 | Leadership

The vast majority of Secular Student Alliance affiliate groups have both official and unofficial leaders. The official leaders are ones elected by the membership to serve on an executive council or board of directors. However, a group’s unofficial leaders are also very important to the health of a group.

Official Leaders and the Executive Council
Every organization requires structure to its administration. This structure is usually called the executive council, board, or some other variation. This is the group of elected leaders who run many of the group's operations. Officer positions usually determine more about who is responsible for getting work done than about who is in control.

Some leaders really want to avoid an excessively hierarchical structure of an executive council and look to find a “flatter” structure, one where the power is distributed among everyone. While we strongly encourage the executive council to be elected, we discourage too “flat” an approach. Dividing the small amount of power in a student group between too many people is often inefficient. If there were more power to be had (and some particularly large groups reach this point), it might be more important to have a system of checks and balances.

Proud leaders of the University of Minnesota Atheists and Humanists
(ca. 2000)

Depending on the number of people you have to start your administration you may adopt a simple, traditional administration:

Officers of Madison Atheists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison use the following structure:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer

Another option is to adopt a structure with more descriptive job titles, and less of a hierarchical element:

Officers of Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists at the University of Minnesota:

Activities Director
Administrative Director
Public Relations Director
Advertising Director
Finance Director

This strategy works especially well on a small campus to encourage development without alienation. If you need help recruiting new leaders for these positions check out our tips in the Succession Planning section of Chapter 2.

Unofficial Leaders
The list of leaders in your group does not stop at the people in these elected positions. Are there people who attend every meeting, volunteer at every opportunity, or who have recruited enough members to form a small army? Well, these people are certainly leaders too. They are the most likely people to fill the official leadership positions in the future. Thus, your goal should be to cultivate your relationship with them as best as you can. You can do this in many ways:

Invite them to the executive meetings so they can learn how things are run
Give them small tasks if the executive board is too busy to handle something
Ask for their ideas on how to make the group better
Ask them to lead a meeting on a topic of their choice

If you find that the person is successfully managing repetitive and necessary tasks, it might be a good idea to formalize their position. This might encourage them and improve the function of the group. Instead of having them plan a couple parties, ask them to be social chair. This is great for them as they can also put that position on resumes.

While the official leaders are the ones with the final say, having a healthy relationship between the official and unofficial leaders is critical to having a healthy group.

Delegation
Delegation is an extremely vital component of a healthy, sustainable group. New leaders often attempt to do everything themselves. This usually comes from one of two sources:

an inability to delegate effectively
a problem with power struggles and control issues

Delegating is a habit. As with most habits, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Task delegation should be pursued at every opportunity. The best way to do this is to allot time at every meeting to get members involved in various aspects of the group. Both large and small tasks should be outlined and divvied up according to the interest and abilities of members. Responsibility should be clear, and time should be set aside for any needed direction or training.

Here are the most important aspects of delegating any task:

Be specific
Be clear
Include a precise due date
Name one unambiguous responsible party

Let’s take a look at two methods of delegation. One is a common mistake, and the other shows a proper method of delegation.

Incorrect

Correct

President: “Hey Isadora, thank you so much for volunteering to work on organizing the debate next semester with our other volunteers. All sorts of things need to be accomplished. We need hotel rooms for the speakers. The treasurer is drawing up a budget so we can get matching funds from the University. We need to promote the event all over campus. There is just so much to do! I am so glad that you are on board to help. Why don’t you get in touch with the other volunteers to see how you can help out? Thanks again.”

President: “Hey Isadora, thank you so much for volunteering to work on organizing next semester’s debate. Since you are majoring in finance, why don’t you work on the event budget with our treasurer? Specifically, we need to know the requirements for receiving matching funds from the University. Call up the student affairs office and get all the information you can on that subject. We will need that information by next Tuesday, so please write all the pertinent information in a one page report and email it to me by then. I’ll make a quick note that you’re doing it so I won’t forget. Thanks again!”

The truth about delegating is that the buck stops with you, the group leader. If tasks are not being accomplished in the time or manner that you prefer, the fault lies with you. Feel free to gripe about lazy or inept volunteers, but realize that it is not going to get anything done. It is your responsibility to motivate them, adjust your delegation style, or reduce the scope of the task to meet their individual time and abilities. Delegation is a skill that takes time to learn, but with enough practice and patience your group will be running like a well-oiled machine.

Some other delegation hints:

Before you can hope to organize others, you must organize yourself. Make you sure you understand what your group is doing and how it is doing it before you start giving orders.
Occasionally you are going to have to delegate a task to people that are not as skilled as you. It is important to let go and let them do it.
However, don’t lower your standards. If a volunteer has done something so poorly that the group cannot use it, you need to tell them. Be as constructive and specific in your criticism as possible and offer to show them how to do it better (if you have time).
If you have to delegate information-gathering tasks, pick your brightest volunteer to do it. It can be difficult to check the work of an information gatherer without redoing the work, and on-the-fly thinking is often needed.

Get-Down-to-Business Meetings
Another way to get things done is to have meetings just for officers and volunteers. Here is an example of an Administrative Meeting Agenda:

Freethinker Alliance of Wild 80’s Hair University
Executive Council Meeting - June 28, 2009. 2PM
Location: Flock of Seagulls Memorial Building, room 1234

1) Business from last meeting (10 minutes)

a)    Status of article Pat was writing for the school newspaper
b)    Thanks to Joe for arranging Dr. Smith to speak for our group on 5/17
c)    Who has the staplers from the last flyering?

2)    Brainstorming events for Fall Semester (30 minutes)
3)    Update on advertising for Gish/Massimo Debate (5 minutes)
4)    Status of ordering a banner with group name & logo for tabling (5 minutes)
5)    Creating a newsletter- Do we have the resources? (20 minutes)
6)    New business/general comments (20 minutes)

Meeting time: 1h, 30m

Although the agenda of this meeting is only for officers and volunteers, make sure to let your whole group know when these meetings are and that they are welcome. No one is going to come to the meeting to be entertained or educated. But they might be interested in getting more involved. Have an open door.

More Ideas than Humanpower
Student groups are run by students: young, creative, optimistic people. This may sound great (and it really is!), but it can be frustrating when you end up with plenty of idea men and women, but no volunteers willing to do the work. For instance, a lot of what can keep a group well populated is hours of posting flyers all over campus every week. As leaders, you must challenge volunteers to put their money (and their time and effort) where their mouths are.

Let’s take another example of a typical exchange that could take place at an administrative meeting:
More Ideas than Humanpower
Student groups are run by students: young, creative, optimistic people. This may sound great (and it really is!), but it can be frustrating when you end up with plenty of idea men and women, but no volunteers willing to do the work. For instance, a lot of what can keep a group well populated is hours of posting flyers all over campus every week. As leaders, you must challenge volunteers to put their money (and their time and effort) where their mouths are.

Let’s take another example of a typical exchange that could take place at an administrative meeting:

PRESIDENT: Does anyone have anything else to say about how we could improve and expand the website?
GENE: Yeah, I do. You know, it would be really neat to have some more educational resources about atheism and humanism. Something real modern, that allows students to relate more to the movement, so I was thinking of a sort of ‘Living Atheist, Agnostic and Humanist Hall of Fame’ thing. You know, we could have short bios, quotes and pictures of people like Woody Allen and Wendy Kaminer.
PRESIDENT: Neat idea, Gene. So, by what deadline can you gather all the information and put it together so Joanne can just upload it to the website?
GENE: Er, uh, I can’t do most of that myself. I mean, I’m in the middle of my honors research project and I already flyer every week for this group.
PRESIDENT: Bummer, because it is a good idea. Well, let’s keep it in mind next year when we’ll hopefully have more volunteers or not so much on our plate.

Burnout

Especially when a group is in its first year, a lot of responsibility can be put onto the shoulders of very few people. The combination of running a group, staying awake in class, and partying until dawn can overwhelm and burn out even the most dedicated leader or volunteer. Fortunately, there is something you can do about it!

Running a student group can sometimes be overwhelming

Avoid Burnout in Yourself:

Don’t try to do everything yourself. Ask for help often.
Ask. When you don’t know how to do something, find someone who does and ask for advice.
Take breaks, socialize, etc.

Avoid Burnout in Others:

Recognize when members are tired or too busy and don’t ask them to do more than they can handle. Remember, many people have trouble saying “no.”
Pat people on the back every time they do a job well done, especially in public. For example, at the end of every academic term you could hand out certificates of appreciation.
Reward. If your group can afford it, reward them by taking them out for lunch or dinner, having them over for a meal or giving them a small gift certificate to a book store.
Don’t nag. Instead, use friendly reminders to encourage people to do their work.
Never be harshly critical. Remember, these are unpaid volunteers. At the same time, if someone is doing something that is seriously detrimental to the group, stop them. Just be friendly in how you do it.