The President has a number of responsibilities. (Note: here the role is referred to as President; these duties may be carried out by the President or VP, whoever is doing more of the role)
Elections
Appointed Officers
The incoming EC should appoint appointed officers so that they can all take office at the same time. The incoming President in collaboration with other officers should make a list of appointed officer positions. Some appointed officer positions are specified in our club governing docs. Others are listed as jobs that either an EC member should do or an appointed officer should do. Check with the incoming EC members to find out if there are jobs they're claiming. All jobs that are not conclusively claimed this way should be listed as appointed officer positions. Additionally, if there are other jobs that need to get done for the club, these can be be turned into appointed officer positions.
Nominations for appointed officers should be solicited from the club. Recently, we've been trying to use a google form for nominations. While this is happening, it makes sense to also get an idea of people who are interested in helping out with other positions (ie Class Assistants). In order to find someone for every position, you may need to solicit nominations in person. As much as possible, you should check with current officers to know whether they are interested in continuing.
The incoming EC should meet and choose from among the nominees.
Standing Policy Renewals
Supervising Officers
The President is responsible for making sure the club runs smoothly. For the most part, this is taken care of by other officers, but the President is in charge of making sure it happens.
Liaising with MIT organizations
As a student group, Tech Squares has a number of obligations to maintain its status. Making sure that these are taken care of is the job of the President.
Some of the President's responsibilities take place at specific times during the year – these are listed in Presidential Timeline.
Leading the Club
The President's main responsibility is to lead the club. This means that they should be available to help with things, but also do a lot of delegating. Examples of this include
- Supervising other officers, including finding them help when needed
- Getting more people involved in running the club
- Running meetings (supposedly the President chairs all of them, but if a meeting is specifically about another officers job (Class Coordinator and approving graduation list), it may make sense for this officer to chair)
- Running elections
- Leading Standing Policy renewals
- Finding people to take care of special events, such as club anniversary dances
- Filling in for other officers until a replacement is found
Liaising with outside organizations
The President is in charge of keeping track of the club's responsibilities as a student group. This includesThese include:
- Sending a representative to the ASA general body meetings
- Requesting office space for Tech Squares every 2 years
- In off years, the publicity coordinator should request bulletin board space
- Submitting membership info and sending out the anti-hazing policy
...
- Act as host on the registration for club events
Keeping the club happy
The President is technically supposed to chair all club and officer meetings. This is generally true, but if there are officer meetings on specific topics (such as who to graduate), it might make sense for the relevant officer to chair instead.
Keeping the club informed
should keep the club informed and involved in the running of the club. Additionally, they should address problems if they arise. The President is in charge of making sure club members are kept adequately informed of the goings on of the club. As much club business is conducted at open meetings, the Secretary will send out minutes from these meetings. However, the President should make sure that the results of other officer discussions are shared with the club as appropriate. .
Typically, emails to the club have been drafted in Google Docs with the link sent to tech-squares-officers@ or officers' Discord for suggestions/editing, which helps ensure they're understandable, nothing gets missed, etc.. tech-squares@ is also moderated; except for weekly announcements, we usually aim to have not-the-sender provide a final review for typos/copying errors before sending the email through.
When things go wrong
Many of the responsibilities A lot of President are 's job is unpredictable. If the club encounters a problemthings go wrong, the President is the de facto point person for taking care of it.
Other responsibilities
...
leader of the process. Many years, this will be the majority of the President's job. Two common classes of issues include MIT suddenly changing something (eg, masks are no longer required) and needing to figure out the response, and handling officers who are dropping the ball on some of their responsibilities. If the President doesn't have projects, MIT doesn't change things, and officers are on top of things, the job can be basically dealing with getting new officers (elections+appointments). (I'm not sure when we last had a year where nothing went wrong, though...)