Leadership

LEADERSHIP

The best possible leaders for a Williams regional association are people who consider their
Williams work to be an enjoyable part of their day. Instead of assuming their volunteer jobs with
a dreary sense of obligation, they bring to it a joy that others readily recognize. People want to
work with them.

It takes a small group of dedicated individuals to keep an association running, people who
work well with each other and who can devote the time to doing it right. A highly valued talent
is the ability to see leadership potential in others, to pull newcomers into the group and accept
their ideas.

Every organization does things differently, but here are some job descriptions based on a
variety of samples from around the country.

President

Runs the organization
Presides at meetings
Is the point person for communicating with the College
Makes sure that other officers do a good job
Develops new leaders and helps find a successor

Vice President

Assists the president in running the organization
Runs meetings and attends events when president is unable to attend
Organizes major events that are outside the scope of subcommittees
Assists the president in communicating with the College
Works with other officers to ensure the organization is running smoothly

Treasurer

Maintains the fiscal accounting of the organization
Receives payments, makes deposits, writes event checks, handles reimbursements
Manages bank account, balances books, reconciles bank statements, handles PayPal
Reports to Executive Committee on status of accounts

Secretary

Keeps minutes of executive committee meetings
Responsible for relaying news from region to Alumni Relations office

The Northern California model

“We try to have the leadership coordinate fewer events and develop enough volunteers
who own events so that each volunteer may plan a single event in the year and the association
manages to put on, say, 10 events in this manner. The leadership manages the calendar,
provides logistical and budget help or any other advice or support required by the
organizer of a particular event. The idea is to relieve the leadership from having to execute
every event on the calendar from start to finish.”
“We have a stable of 12 to 15 people who have volunteered, three of whom are locked
into events in process. It remains to be seen how many of the other folks pony up. This is
still a work in process, but we think it will work for us.”—Leila Jere ’91, Former Co-President
of the NorCal Regional Association

Subcommittee chairs

Develop, coordinate, organize and oversee events in the focus area of responsibility
Work with subcommittee members to generate new ideas, distribute tasks
Report to the executive committee on status of subcommittee, including event ideas and
upcoming activities
Encourage area alumni to become active volunteers and/or to attend events
Work with other subcommittee chairs on events that may overlap areas of responsibility.
Receive new volunteer information from secretary and contact individuals to assess interest

Typical subcommittee chairs

Admissions and Careers
Williams Book awards; first-year acceptance or send-off party; local admission and
career events
Community Service
Helps find and run events through which association helps to benefit the community
(Can have more than one depending on the type and frequency of event.)
Continuing Education
Coordinates visiting professors from Williams; identifies good speakers for events
Social Events
Happy hours and cocktail parties; fall/spring dinners; music, art, sports events;
summer picnic

How long should officers serve? Two to three-year terms work well for executive officers, with
one-year terms for subcommittee heads. Terms of this length are long enough for someone to
grow into the job and short enough to give others a chance at the helm.

Should you have term limits? While it’s always a good idea to bring new blood into the leadership,
if you’ve got someone who is doing a good job and willing to continue, there’s no reason
you can’t keep that person on the job.

Meetings — Your leadership team should have regularly scheduled meetings: monthly, quarterly,
or whatever works for your group. Don’t fall into the pit of “we’ll have a meeting only when we
have to have a meeting.” It’s always harder to get people together on an impromptu basis than it
is to have scheduled meetings. If you don’t have regular meetings, it’s a good practice to schedule
your next meeting when your current gathering is wrapping up.

One group found that they could not get people to come to meetings. A few phone calls to
the no-shows revealed the problem: Retired members of the executive committee so enjoyed the
gatherings that they tended to mix the social and the business part — they wanted to hear the
vice president’s 10-minute vacation report before the treasurer’s report — and lunchtime brown
bag gatherings frequently hit the two-hour mark.

The solution? Confine the first 30 minutes strictly to the organization’s business — that was
usually all the time it took — and reserve the rest of the lunch for socializing. That way, someone
who had a time-consuming job could come to the meeting and know that he or she could
leave after getting the necessary work done. Anyone else could visit with each other as long as
they wanted, and everyone was happy.

Be mindful that the hour or so that a Williams graduate gives this organization comes from
somewhere else — their job or their families.

This is how we do it

“We meet quarterly. This has worked very well for us, because we set the next meeting
date at the current meeting, so it gets on everyone’s calendars 3 months in advance. In
between meetings we use e-mail. Basically how it works is if we decide we want to do
something (for example Book Awards) then one person has to step forward and be in
charge of that activity. This goes back to the first and only rule I made at one of our first
meetings, which was that someone needs to step forward and follow through on any
activities we decide to pursue.”—Cassie Polhemus ’84 (Northern Vermont)

Getting volunteers involved — Entire books address this subject, but here are some important
points.

Don’t try to do it all yourself. The most likely candidate for burnout is the person who has
difficulty delegating responsibility.

If you want a job done well, create a position for it. If someone feels responsible for getting
something done, he or she will be more likely to do a good job.

Get out of the way and let people do their jobs. There is nothing worse than being appointed
to a position and then having your predecessor tell you exactly how things need to be done. If
you charge people with doing a task, give them everything they need and let them know they
can call you anytime. Then back off. You might be surprised how well — and how differently —
things get done.

You cannot thank people too much. In meetings and in private, let people know you appreciate
their work. In a world of e-mail and instant messages, a written thank-you note is more valuable
than ever.

Remember the “rule of threes." A longtime volunteer for the Williams Alumni Fund passes
along this bit of advice in working with volunteers. She was referring to Associate Agents for the
Fund, but her thoughts apply to regional associations as well.
The “rule of threes” holds true in most situations dealing with volunteers.

One-third of your volunteers will be great. They’ll do everything you ask them to do with a
minimum of fuss, and a couple of superstars will emerge.
One-third of your volunteers will do the bare minimum or just an average job. They may not
have your level of commitment to the organization, they may be overcommitted across the
board, or they may not have the ability to do a good job.
One-third of your volunteers will do little or nothing that they are supposed to do. This isn’t
out of malicious intent. Something happening in their lives may prevent them from doing a
good job.

Know this rule. Get friendly with it, build it into your planning, and don’t let it defeat you. Don’t
spend 80 percent of your time worrying about the one-third who drop the ball. Anticipate and
work into your game plan the fact that someone will have to pick up the job that one-third of
your people are supposed to do. Invariably, when you think you have the problem licked, the
next year someone who was good the year before buys a new house or has a baby — two surefire
ways to ensure that their attention wanders from their volunteer work — and you will need
to pick up their tasks.

Diversity — If you value diversity, make sure the leaders of your regional association reflect
that. Nothing says more about your association than the people who head it. In life as well as in
our jobs, we tend to pick or hire people just like us or from similar backgrounds or life-groups.
That’s natural.

Fight nature. If you only ask people from your friends, you won’t be doing your association
or Williams any favors. As you choose people for various tasks or committees, cast a wider net.
Passing the torch — One often-overlooked aspect of an individual’s leadership is what happens
when that person leaves office.

Good leaders think ahead to find and train their replacements. Some associations formalize
this by having a person serve as a vice president before taking on the top job. Others leave it to
the president to groom his or her replacement. Some associations do nothing at all, and periodically
have to scramble to get good leadership in place.

No one wants to take a job under pressure. The best leaders are those who have had the
opportunity to get to know people and lead projects, and who have set aside the time to do a
good job. The earlier your leadership delegates important tasks to up and comers and mentors
them along, the more ready they will be to take the helm.

A good time for a president to begin lining up the next members of the leadership team,
particularly his or her successor, is 18 months into a three-year term. That gives you plenty of
time to pick the right people, give them some good jobs to do, and assess their progress. By
choosing leaders months or a year before they have to assume the office, you give them the
chance to set aside time from other volunteer commitments in order to make time for Williams.

If you can possibly do it, strive to have two or three people who are capable of running
your organization. Changes in employment or in life can take someone out of the running for a
leadership post.