Brown Club Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities
As with all management responsibility, the idea is to spread the fun…and the work. The following helpers, depending on the Club’s size, make a Club successful and keep leaders and alumni happy.
Presidents or Co-Presidents work with other volunteers to plan and produce activities year-round. Presidents organize periodic meetings of the organization to ensure that activities are coordinated, operating on schedule, and on budget. This officer is usually the chief contact with the Alumni Relations office on campus and participates in Club leader conference calls several times a year. As per standard bylaws, the recommended term limit is two years to maximize the number, effectiveness, and diversity of regional volunteers. Co-Presidents generally have staggered, overlapping terms to promote continuity.
Vice-Presidents share the responsibility for coordinating the efforts of the Club with the President.
Treasurers are responsible for holding the assets of the organization, handling financial transactions, and keeping financial records.
Secretaries keep other Board Members and Club members up to date on meetings, minutes, etc., and work with communications volunteers to be sure alumni are aware of the latest happenings locally and at Brown.
Webmasters manage online postings for regional alumni Club Web sites.
Program (a.k.a. Social Events) Chairs plan and implement events for the local Brown community. They work to develop a calendar for the year with other program-specific alumni volunteers. Successful events often include book groups, progressive dinners, send-off parties for new freshmen, or anything else that your creativity suggests.
Membership Chairs identify ways to increase membership and participation in activities. They also work with the Treasurer to track dues and payments, if fees are charged. With the consent of the local alumni, the Membership Chair may also coordinate publishing a directory of Club members.
Newsletter Editors write newsletter copy (print and online) and gather material for inclusion in the local Club newsletter from other board members and alumni.
Publicity or Marketing Chairs use e-mail and / or print materials to market and publicize the Club’s events. In some clubs, the marketing chair also promotes club membership.
Young Alumni Coordinators find creative ways to reach younger alumni in the area. With 25% to 50% of alumni in certain areas being fairly recent graduates, there may be some special interests and needs for a dedicated volunteer for this position.
Brown Alumni Schools Committee (“BASC”) Chairs coordinate the activities of Schools Committee volunteers and manage the recruitment, cultivation and interviewing of potential Brown students.
Regional Multicultural Representatives work to connect alumni of color in the local area to each other, to the larger local Brown community, and to the University through social, cultural, educational and service (Schools Committees) activities. They promote multicultural programming to the broader alumni community through the Club newsletter and coordinate events specifically for alumni of color. In your area, this might be one person to connect to all alumni of color (regional Multicultural Alumni Committee representative) or it might be the leader of a local chapter of the Inman Page Black Alumni Council (IPC), the Brown University Latino Alumni Council (BULAC), or the Asian/Asian American Alumni Alliance (A4).
All-Ivy Chairs represent the Club in all aspects related to other Ivy League, Ivy-Plus, or Ivy & Co. Clubs in the area and help plan joint events.
Life Stage Resource: An alumnus or alumna who self-identifies as a resource for a particular life stage, such as working mothers; stay-at-home mothers; people in career transition; alumni considering retirement, or others.
Women’s Committee Chairs coordinate issues which are relevant to alumnae Club members.
Other program-specific roles can include:
- BRUnet/Career Networking Coordinator
- Entrepreneurship Program Liaison (contact Brown University Entrepreneurship Program)
- Book Club/Brown Author Series Leader
- Brown University Sports Foundation Liaison
- "Classifieds" contact (for housing, jobs)
- Faculty Speaker Event Liaison (for New York, Boston)
- Fund Raising / Event Coordinator (regional scholarship, etc.)
- Office Administrator (mail, voicemail, etc.)
- Outreach Coordinator (multi-Club, all-Ivy, professional networks)
- Pembroke Center Associates
- Regional Public Service Coordinator
- Summer / Student Involvement Coordinator
