WClub Leadership Roles

WClub has standardized roles within each regional group that allow for easy collaborations and good dissemination of effort needed so no single person is managing the burden of effort. The collaborations between groups is made easier by the standardization.

For example, coordinators for the nature hikes across the groups would likely want to collaborate to ensure their events are not happening at the same time, especially if the two groups border each other. Ideally, a member that loves the hikes could do several each week by travelling to other groups.

Same could be said for the popular "Just Coffee" gatherings. Some members love the simplicity of chatting over coffee, so if the groups can coordinate properly a member could attend several "Just Coffee" events in a month by visiting other groups.

Just Coffee and Nature Hikes are the most popular events so they are included in the WClub Core (Leadership) Roles. Note that groups are autonomous and free to decide how they will manage. These are merely suggestions.

Regional Group Core Roles (6 Leaders)

Works for a New Regional Group or Serving a Low Population Area. (5-250 members)

President - Fills in when others can't do something below. Finds replacement volunteers when people need to step down. Works closely with the VP on creating the schedule. Honestly, this an easy role.

Vice-President - Creates the schedules for future months (I will work with you!) The VP automatically becomes the President when the President steps down.

Membership Coordinator - This is pretty simple. We need somebody to be screening the people that ask to join the group by making sure that they have answered the questions and trying to weed out the fake accounts. The membership coordinator would also be responsible for welcoming new members with a post about once a week. Facebook automates this by the way and tells you there are x number of new members and do you want to introduce them. Other admins are going to help with this, but we just want one person that takes on as much as they can with it.

Just Coffee Coordinator - Sets up and runs one event per month of getting together for coffee. Preferably on the same morning each month, such as second Sunday at 10am. In the suburbs, this should move between a region's cities and towns to be fair to members. In Downtown Chicago group, we try to have half the Just Coffee events (6/12) in Andersonville. Andersonville is our hub since it is the most recognized neighborhood as being a lesbian enclave. Besides the shops really cool.

Nature/Urban Hike Coordinator - The most popular event in the suburbs are the nature hikes. Pretty sure they're going to become the most popular in downtown Chicago too. We need one of these every month. If you find something that really works like the Lincoln Park Loop, you can repeat that three or four even six times in the year. There are plenty of places to do these hikes. Generally you want to find loops, and also find a breakfast or coffee venue to meet at before you start the loop. Why before? Because people are always late and it gives us time to chat before we start walking.

Special Events Coordinator - There are lots of festivals, fairs, sporting events, and other awesome events that go on in even cities as small as 100,000 people. We do what it's called piggybacking for those. We set up to have coffee beforehand, or perhaps dinner, and/or afterwards drinks or something like going dancing. You need to be creative to take on this role. And also able to survey what's going on in your region a month before the schedule is created.

Regional Group Expanded Roles

Works well for an established regional group. (250 - 750 members)

Beyond Happy Hour Coordinator - Sets up and runs one event per month preferably on the exact same night, such as"first Friday of each month from 7-8pm. " We are calling it Beyond Happy Hour, because happy hour is often mid-afternoon and most people can't make that time. In the suburbs, this event likely moves around between the various cities and towns. In the Downtown Chicago group, it is always held at Nobody's Darling. Nobody's Darling is the anchor bar for Chicago lesbian community since it is the only lesbian owned bar in Illinois!

Mom's Club Coordinator - In the original group WClub was designed after called LClub, one of the most successful groups was the Mom's Club. Mom's Club was a group that gathered for their children to play with each other while the mothers could chat. Meeting locations could be a house, park, amusement park, etc.

Board Game Night Coordinator - The Board Game Night Coordinator brings some games to a coffee shop or other venue once a month or less and leads a night of playing games for two hours. This usually is done on a weekday night. Members are asked to bring a game they love. The first WClub group in the West Suburbs of Chicago holds their Board Game Night at a Starbucks Reserve that service both coffee and alcoholic drinks.

Marketing Coordinator - However you can get word out, make it happen! Currently, we just use Facebook and copy and paste our events into LGBTQ+ groups that allow us to do so.

Poetry Slam Coordinator - Most large cities have a Poetry Slam group and it is usually best to "piggyback" off an existing group. How this works well in general is for our group to meet for dinner prior to the Slam. At dinner, it can be fun to create a group poem and actually present it if the Poetry Slam is an open mic situation.

Karaoke Coordinator - Karaoke has long been a staple of LGBTQ+ women gathering. As with other Coordinator roles discussed here, this one is basically the same formula of meeting before for dinner then going to the karaoke venue as a group. It helps to have a few know singers in the group. Someplace fun to eat to get the creativity flowing. One group does a Taco Tuesday at a venue where patrons can wear sombreros and a talkig robotic donkey is mounted to the wall. After a few tacos and maybe some extra incentive, the group the walks a block away to the karaoke venue.

Movie Coordinator - Movies are a lot of fun to go to as a group. The focus here is not on modern theaters with reserve seating, but on movies at older art style theaters and movies shown in bars.

Skate & Sip Coordinator - Skating is a popular pastime in the Chicago area and this role is for hosting both ice skating in Winter and roller skating in warmer weather. Chicago is blessed with fabulous free skating venues. The "Sip" part is for the group to converse over hot chocolate or another hot beverage brought in thermos bottles or to go to a nearby coffee shop.

Sports Coordinator - This role can go three directions ... 1. viewing of sports such as Roller Derby or WNBA games, 2. playing of sports such a bowling and ice skating, and 3. developing ones own sports for fun such as kickball and dodge ball. Dodge ball has been discussed in the Chicago groups as a potential league where groups like West Suburbs, South Suburbs, etc. would develop their own teams and have a tournament. Sounds fun! But you need a coordinator to make such fun happen.

Museum / Arts Coordinator - There are so many museums in Chicago it is quite possible no one has visited them all. Almost every ethnic neighborhood has a museum of some sort, so the tie-ins are obvious. (For example, Andersonville has the Swedish Museum and it is free. Just create event of perhaps going over for La Colombe coffee across the street, and go see the museum. Perhaps have a bar meetup after?) You can see some examples with the other groups how this is working. Note, these will draw in women from suburbs, especially if you do them on free days to expensive museums like The Art Institute.

Director Level Roles

Director level roles are support roles for all of the regional groups. In general, the Director Level Roles and the Lift Roles (also Director Level) should be filled by members that have first served in one of the regional groups. However, that is of course impossible in the first year of WClub.

WClub Executive Director - This is effectively what my role is right now. We need to define it so you can replace me! Executive Director fills in if a group does not have a president and finds a president as soon as possible. The Executive Director also works with the directors listed below.

Schedule master - maintains the calendar of centralized events that can be printed on paper and posted as a JPEG. 21st of the previous month will be the deadline for non-recurring events.

Web Master - Keeps the website relevant.

Facebook Master - Works with the groups to teach them how to use Facebook's advanced features, but also surveys the groups to ensure that we have a standardized look and feel for members as they cross between the groups.

Marketing Director - Comes up with ideas and annual plan to let LGBTQ+ women find us.

Literature Director - Updates and maintains access Member's Guide, Leadership Guide, business cards, and anything that could be printed or is best in a PDF format.

Pub Crawl / Nightclub Director - Makes the 6 pub crawls in 4 regional groups each year successful; however, the pub crawls are owned by the local groups. Assists with creation of Nightclub nights so we can generate enough people for safe dancing. Nightclub nights occur on the months we do not have pub crawls except for perhaps December.

Roadtrip/Retreat Director - creates one road trip per year using a Greyhound, cars, or train to places like the Dells, St Louis to visit the Midwest Lesbians, Milwaukee, Michigan, etc. This can be a camping trip or using hotels. (Money will be the issue with this so we'll have to work that out. I've booked Greyhounds (holds 42) in the past and even part of Southwest aircraft.)

Lift Support Roles

LIFT Director - Coordinates efforts to implement the three O's of LIFT in and across groups. The following can be added under the LIFT Director once we get it going.

Wellness Director - works with LIFT Director on coordinating all wellness activities: yoga, nutrition workshops, women's circles. May need to break this out further if it grows. The regional groups need to have their own Women's Circle Coordinator, but this person would aid in getting that set up.

Assistance Director - Works with LIFT Director Runs clothing exchanges, develops emergency housing list, pay-it-forward, job board.

WTalks Director - Works with LIFT Director to develop 1-4 events per year with speakers on relevant topics to LGBTQ+ women.

Athletics Director - Works with LIFT Director to develop fun and free ways to have group teams compete in things like frisbee golf, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, dodgeball, kickball, etc. With an effort to stay away from things already covered by other LGBTQ+ groups.

Note we do not publish the names of the leaders on our website for security reasons. You must find them in the ABOUT section of each Facebook Group.