I’m a chapter officer…now what?
Being elected or appointed to an officer position within your local chapter is an honor reserved to those who have shown substantial interest in their FBLA chapter and have helped promote their chapter in the community. Now that you are an officer, you are the role model of all the FBLA members within your chapter and across the state. You are also now responsible for planning chapter activities and ensuring that your team’s plans get completed prior to the deadlines. Furthermore, you are also responsible for communicating with your chapter’s officer team and adviser to ensure that the entire chapter is involved in all of the activities that your team plans.
How can you balance all this responsibility and be a successful chapter officer at the same time? All of these responsibilities can be intimidating when you first become an officer. By remembering the following four tips, you can guarantee that you will serve as a successful chapter officer during your term:
- Do NOT overwhelm yourself!
- Have weekly Officer Meetings!
- Promote your planned activities!
- Meet the Deadlines!
First and foremost, do not overwhelm yourself! Although you are a leader, you are part of a team. This means that you get to work together and share the responsibility of leadership. When working on a new project, planning a service activity or heading a committee, form a group and get help so you do not feel that you have too much weight on your shoulders. Also, try to share the work load equally, this way the entire team knows what is happening and what needs to be done.
Secondly, have regular chapter officer meetings. Ideally, a chapter officer team should meet weekly. Each day that your team does not meet, you should try to contact each other and update each other by phone or email. If your officer team does this, there will never be a question or doubt about what is going on within the chapter. You should also try to meet with your chapter adviser daily. This way, your chapter adviser can better keep track of the activities the chapter is focused on and can also keep track of each officer. Your chapter adviser is also the person that can help answer questions that you have about your responsibilities! Do not be scared to ask your adviser questions about your responsibilities and upcoming events!
As an officer, it is your job to make sure that your chapter activities are successful by ensuring participation. This means that you have to plan, promote, and execute your chapter activities and meetings. Make sure to stress promotion. Even if you plan and execute a chapter activity, if nobody knows about it or if nobody attends it, it is essentially a failure. Therefore, you must always make sure to create awareness for upcoming chapter activities. A great way to do this is by utilizing social media, messaging apps, and group chats.
Finally, meet the deadlines by practicing time management. If your chapter has set a deadline on an activity or has planned to present the idea to your adviser on a certain date, make sure that you work on your assigned responsibility daily until the date it is due. Treat all assignments that are given to you by your fellow officers as classroom assignments. Just like school projects, you should be regularly working on these plans and activities up until the due date. You should also be able to complete the plan or activity on time, just like a school project! You are sure to have a smoother chapter officer experience if you complete all your assignments in an orderly and timely manner.
Being a chapter officer may seem overwhelming at first, but if you take these four tips into consideration, you will be a more effective officer throughout the school year. If you remember to share the responsibility, update officers regularly, promote activities often, and always meet the deadlines, you will no doubt be remembered as a successful chapter officer!
