Table of Contents Officer Transition Purpose of an Effective Transition What do you need to Transfer? Outgoing/Incoming Officer Survey Set Up a Meeting Schedule Meeting 1: Outgoing and Incoming Officer Meeting 2: Incoming Officers Meeting 3: Outgoing and Incoming Officers

Officer Transition If your year as an officer is coming to an end? How do you leave your position gracefully? How do you ensure that the new officers are ready to continue to provide your organization with strong leadership? Are you a newly elected officer? What do you need to know to be effective in your new role? How do you hit the ground running?

Purpose of an Effective Transition A thorough officer transition plan is: The responsibility of both the outgoing and incoming officers A way to help the group avoid starting over or starting from scratch every year A transfer of significant organizational knowledge A way to minimize the confusion of leadership changeover A way to give outgoing leaders a sense of closure A great opportunity for outgoing leaders to evaluate the year An orientation process for new leaders

What Do You Need to Transfer? Think back to your first few weeks as an officer What could you have used to do your job better? Were there things that should’ve been easy, but may have been difficult or turned into a nightmare? Your agenda should include: 1)Complete the Outgoing/Incoming Officer Surveys 2)1 on 1 transition time 3) Organize and transfer ownership of Officer Binders 4) Review the past year together 5)Make a “Things To Do” List and prioritize it together 6)Exchange new/old officer contact information

Outgoing Officer Survey / Incoming Officer Survey If you’re an Outgoing Officer, complete the Outgoing Officer Survey This should help guide or direct you as to what the Incoming Officer needs to know If you’re an Incoming Officer, complete the Incoming Officer Survey This should help organize your thoughts and prioritize your needs

Set up a Meeting Schedule Meeting 1: Outgoing and Incoming Officer meet 1-1 to go over all of the details using the Surveys Meeting 2: Incoming Officers meet to constructively plan for the upcoming year and make sure they have “covered all the bases” before the Outgoing Officers depart Meeting 3: Outgoing and Incoming meet again (even just over /phone) to go over the issues raised at Meeting 2 and for final thoughts.

Meeting 1: Outgoing and Incoming Officer Try to transfer as much information as possible either electronically or on paper. This is critical if the Outgoing Officer is graduating, etc. Make sure the incoming officer has a copy of the following items: (should all be included in officer notebook) Copy of Constitution and By-laws (copies available in Student Activities if needed) Mission, philosophy, goals and/or purpose statement of organization Position description of officers and members List of committees and their description Member & officer contact list Contact information of important people/offices on campus List of basic annual procedures and/or calendar of annual events Web page and webmaster information. How do you maintain the site? Financial records Evaluations of previous and current projects Meeting minutes and agendas Any historical records of the organization

Meeting 1: Organizing Event Calendars Look at your calendar from the past year: What were the busy times? What were the down times? How would you have scheduled things differently? Look over a calendar for the upcoming year: How can you effectively plan your schedule? Start penciling in ideas of events, etc. if there are certain things that you know you’ll be doing.

Meeting 1: Utilize Existing Resources What can Student Activities do for you? Organization financial support (Annual Allocations, Community Chest, Emergency Funding) Leadership Resources Annual Organization Renewal What can your advisor do for you? Organization advisor should be present at officer transition and have all of the same materials as each of the officers (financial records, event calendars, etc.) Use advisor experience when setting new goals, events, etc.

Meeting 1: Review Budgets and Funding What’s the financial status of your organization? Where did your organization get money from? Did your organization apply for Student Activities funding and did you receive any? Did you do fundraising? Did it work?

Meeting 1: Review past/future organization events Which events were successful and should be repeated? When should planning start for each event? Which events were unsuccessful? Were they poorly attended or poorly run? How could your organization improve its events? New officers should become familiar with the university online scheduling system and events calendar

Meeting 1: Meetings and Members Meeting Details When were executive committee meetings held? When were member meetings held? What times generally work? How do you make room reservations? Recruitment/Retention activities What did your organization do to recruit? What did you do that worked or didn’t work? Why did new members stay…or leave? What do/can you do to keep current members excited and involved?

Meeting 2: Incoming Officers At this point, all of the Outgoing and Incoming Officers have had their 1-1 meetings and gone over their own checklists Use Meeting 2 as an opportunity to get to know the other new officers and plan goals for the year ahead Try to make clear goals and delegate responsibility among the Incoming Officers by the end of Meeting 2

Meeting 3: Outgoing and Incoming Officers Even if it’s just over or the phone, try to create an open dialogue between the Outgoing and Incoming Officers Based on the discussion at Meeting 2… Are there any unresolved issues or certain items that you need more information about? What are your plans or goals? Does the Outgoing Officer have any other information or tips that might help you? Find out if it’s okay to contact the Outgoing Officer in the coming year for assistance where necessary.