President

Duties and Responsibilities

• Preside at all executive board meetings, general body meetings, and events hosted for the membership.
• Lead Executive Board Meetings:
  • Meet with your E-board at least once a month and before a GBM.
  • Go into your e-board meeting with an idea of what you would like to discuss.
    • ​Make an agenda!
  • Use these to prepare for GBMs. Prepare an outline/agenda/plan for what your GBM is going to cover and work out details/specifics before it is presented in your GBM. The more informed you are, the more you can inform your members.
• Lead meetings of the membership (General Business Meetings or GBMs):
  • Plan activities/events/guest speakers (see Meeting Suggestions).
  • Keep your membership updated and involved (treasury, upcoming events, fundraisers, etc.).
• ​Delegate! 
  
  • Delegating is one of the most underrated skills a leader can have. It oftentimes isn't easy to relinquish control, and it can be difficult to find ways to utilize your team's strengths. However, if you fail to delegate, your team will grow frustrated, and you will quickly become burnt out. 
  • Be honest with your team. This skill takes time to build, and it will help them to know that you're trying.
• Exercise supervision over the affairs of the organization.
  • Essentially, the buck stops with you. Monitor progress on anything that your chapter is involved in and ensure that it is completed in a professional and exceptional manner. Take the blame when you have to, and pass on the credit when you can.
  • Hold your members accountable! Actually, it often works best when everyone holds each other accountable, but you should be the one to facilitate it (delegate!). If everyone is familiar with each other's task and encouraging each other to follow through with their goals, then responsibility and accountability should take care itself. However, if an e-board member is not fulfilling their required duties, it is important that you, and perhaps the chapter advisor, address it privately and take the appropriate steps necessary to rectify the situation.
• Maintain correspondence with faculty advisor.
  • The president of the organization should be the main correspondent with the chapter’s faculty advisor. Keeping an open and professional relationship with your advisor can be extremely beneficial to your chapter, so make sure that you’re using them to your advantage! Faculty advisors can be a wealth of knowledge and an extremely valuable resource to the development of your chapter.
• Serve as representative to other on campus organizations.
  • Any correspondence with university officials regarding official chapter business should be overseen by the president.
  • Collegiate NAfME chapters should attempt to maintain an open and visible presence on their university campuses by working with other organizations to further the goals of music education. Chapter presidents should be the representatives from the chapter to develop these relationships.
• Effectively train your president-elect.
  • Your president-elect is the future of your chapter. Make sure that you are taking the time to leave your organization in competent hands!
  • As much as possible, allow them to participate in whatever duties you are performing as president (correspondence, event planning, etc.) so that they get an idea of what they will be doing in their term.