Club officers are an important part of any 4-H club’s leadership team. Being an officer helps members develop strong leadership, communication and decision-making skills as they perform the duties of their offices. Club officers also provide volunteer club leaders with another set of minds and hands for supporting club activities.

Adults may be tempted to think that youth club officers are unnecessary. However, electing officers in a club serves several important purposes:

• All members learn about and participate in elections.
• Youth who serve in officer roles learn to be responsible to their group, develop leadership skills and learn basic parliamentary procedure.
• Members develop a sense of ownership for club meetings and the overall success of the group.

Club Officer Elections

As an adult volunteer leader of your 4-H club, you have a very important role in helping your club officers – and ultimately your 4-H club – succeed. Club officers are usually elected once a year, generally at the beginning of the program year (in October). Your role as a volunteer leader is to help prepare your club members for the election of officers and to help the officers do their jobs after they are elected.

Typically a 4-H club will elect a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer and reporter. Before holding elections it is important to explain the responsibilities of each of these roles to all of the members. The Michigan 4-H publication Helping You Help Officers and Committees (4H1467) is a useful resource to help you with this process. Contact your county MSU Extension office to obtain a copy.

Because one of the goals of 4-H is to develop leadership skills in all members, it is a good idea to pass jobs around so members gain different experiences. This will usually mean that the same member does not hold the same office in successive years. A variety of experiences will help members develop and strengthen leadership and other life skills.

After the Election

After officers have been elected, they will need training and continuing support. The officers and adult club leaders make up the executive committee of the club. This committee will need to meet, plan and be trained soon after the elections. The president will need to learn how to conduct meetings and the secretary will need to learn how to keep minutes, for example. The following bulletins are available from your county MSU Extension office to help you with this training:

• So You Are President of Your Club (4H1468)
• So You Are Vice-President of Your Club (4H1469)
• So You Are Secretary of Your Club (4H1470)
• So You Are Treasurer of Your Club (4H1471)
• So You Are Reporter of Your Club (4H1472)

As a volunteer leader, you can train your officers by reviewing the appropriate bulletin with each officer and reviewing the materials related to planning and running effective meetings in Helping You Help Officers and Committees. “About 4-H Ceremonies” (available at http://www.msue.msu.edu/msue/cyf/youth/volunteer.html) contains wonderful ideas for inducting new members into your club and installing officers.

Contact your county 4-H staff to find out if club officer training is being scheduled in your county so you can attend. You can also check the current Michigan 4-H Volunteer Training Workshop Schedule booklet for workshops that will help build your members’ leadership skills.

You can download other resources related to strengthening your 4-H club from the Volunteer section of the Michigan 4-H Web site at http://web1.msue.msu.edu/cyf/youth/volunteer.html.