Officer Roles

The chapter president must maintain a delicate balance between leading and encouraging other officers, members, and interested students to take on leadership responsibilities. The president’s responsibilities extend beyond the students within the chapter.

The role of the chapter president must:

• Know how to handle many types of situations

• Be mature

• Be organized with good time management skills

• Have sound judgment

• Have energy

• Be able to work with many different kinds of people and personalities

• Have a good relationship with the chapter, faculty, and student body

The vice president’s primary (and very necessary) role is to serve as the official replacement for the president should the president fail to function or be unable to fulfill his or her responsibilities.

The vice president, more than any other officer, has the opportunity to be creative in the position beyond the primary job description. The vice president is the president’s closest student adviser and assistant. The vice president and president must work very closely together to create a productive Honor Society.

In many chapters, the president serves as the point-person—the person out in front of everyone. The vice president serves as the behind-the-scene person who plans, organizes, schedules, and oversees to make sure the chapter work is done.

To be successful, the vice president needs to

• Know how to handle many types of situations

• Be mature

• Be organized with good time management skills

• Have sound judgment

• Have energy

• Be able to work with many different kinds of people and personalities

• Have a good relationship with the president, chapter members, committees, and the student body

The secretary’s primary responsibility is to keep the official records of chapter business and serve as the official correspondent for the chapter. The historical memory of the Honor Society on your campus depends on the quality of the secretary’s performance. The job requires accuracy, neatness, and completeness.

The secretary is expected to:

• Be the keeper of the records, designer of the agenda

• Be organized

• Know nearly everything about every meeting

• Be alert to the calendar and the progress of committees

• Be knowledgeable about meeting procedures

• Spend time planning and organizing the chapter’s work.

The treasurer’s primary responsibility is to keep accurate records of all financial transactions of the chapter and periodically report a summary of these transactions at meetings.

The treasurer predicts how money will be used in the future and makes concrete suggestions for saving money and increasing efficiency. To do the job correctly, a treasurer must keep track of all expenditures and add the appropriate transactions to the account books. The treasurer should be the person concerned with regulating the flow of money, especially when many people want to spend it.

The treasurer is expected to:

• Be the chief financial officer for the chapter

• Know about money, accounting, and budgeting

• Be called upon to give financial advice

• Be able to research and develop cost analyses

• Keep accurate records of the chapter’s finances

Money management is a very serious responsibility. For your safety, it must always be done with adult supervision and assistance and according to the policies of your school so that no student is put in a potentially compromising position with the handling of money.

The chapter historian’s primary responsibility is to collect and preserve information that provides a clear and concise record of all chapter activities for the year.

The historian is expected to:

• Be organized

• Take pictures at events

• Record key details and happenings of chapter activities

• Publicize the group to the school and community by sharing highlights of the group

• Schedule announcements for group activities or fundraisers

• Assist in updating the website