SocsFed: President Training Warwick SU

Contents ★ Your role and responsibility ★ How to chair a meeting ★ Hot to delegate work effectively ★ How to organise and communicate with your team ★ How to learn from the past and plan for the future ★ How to deal with an exec member not pulling their weight

Ice Breaker Everyone spend the next 2 minutes meeting a couple of people who you've never met before, introduce yourself, which society you're from and what your one plan for this year is

Activity: What do you think your role is? ★ Talk to the person next to you, and make a list of what you think you'll be spending your time doing as president

“If I have work to do, then I’m not doing my job properly”

Whilst that may be a bit of an exaggeration, the point is very real. As a president, you need to make yourself unbusy so that you can problem solve and support the rest of your team. #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork

Your Role and Responsibility Responding to union communications Planning a timeline of events for the year and overseeing them Line managing exec members, tracking progress Manage key stakeholder relations Organising AGMs\looking after the long term longevity of the society Being a spokesperson and figurehead in meetings and presentations on behalf of the society Ensuring the team works effectively together Taking responsibility for the society, it's exec and their actions

How to Delegate Work Effectively Have regular 1:1 meeting with exec members to track progress and keep them on track. Empower exec members to make decisions for themselves, and not have to check every little detail with you. Don't micromanage and respect your exec members for the elected representatives they are. Communicate effectively and regularly.

Activity: What can you delegate? (5 mins) Refer to the list you previously made, think about all of the tasks which last years president did - how can you work better by delegating work? If you have a Vice President - how can you best utilise them? Could some exec members report to them instead of you, to reduce your workload? E.g Facebook posts, event planning packs, meeting agendas

How to Chair a meeting Your secretary should be calling each meeting at your call, booking the room and compiling the agenda, and also taking the minutes. As president, you are in charge of the meetings, it is your job to make sure everything gets covered, everyone finds them useful and that the meeting doesn't go off on tangents. Set action points at the end of each exec meeting, and review progress at the start of the next meeting.

How to Organise and Communicate With Your Team Use the technology available to you: Facebook Groups, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Dropbox, Google Drive, , Slack etc You may want to have team chat threads. e.g a marketing thread, a finance thread, a socials & events thread etc Google Drive is perfect for multiple people working on documents at the same time Some people like to keep Facebook Messenger for personal use only, and not exec stuff - decide as a team how you're going to communicate and work. You may want to ask for fortnightly reports from each exec member on their progress, so you can keep track of who is doing what.

How to Learn From The Past and Plan for The Future Set up a handover meeting for all exec members - this could be all at once or 1:1. Pick the outgoing president's brain and write everything down! (You'll thank yourself later!) Keep all documents in the cloud (Hopefully they did this last year, if not start now!) If you don't get a good handover, don't worry! Set up a meeting in term 3 with your society coordinator and the societies officer - they'll retain lots of knowledge!

How to Deal With an Exec Member Not Pulling Their Weight Put yourself in their shoes; think about why they are not fulfilling their role; Personal reasons? Duties too big to be practical for one person? Look at their role description to assess their specific duties - Are they not fulfilling their role or what you expect of them? If this doesn’t work, follow the process below: Step 1: Have an informal chat with said exec member and remind them of their role and responsibility, ask if they need any support Step 2: If an informal chat doesn't work, then set up a formal meeting, maybe with your society coordinator or the societies officer, have in detail what responsibilities haven't been met and what improvements need to be made in a professional manner. Step 3: Ask the Societies Officer about how to put forward a vote of no confidence in the exec member.

As President, you have to deal with interpersonal issues and exec disagreements in a professional and impartial manner - Even if they are with your best friend!

Key Skills for a President Problem Solving Decision Making Communication Time Management People Management Teamwork Motivation Organisation Strategic Thinking Delegation Don't worry if you don't already feel like you have these skills! After a year of being president you'll be a pro at all of them I promise! (not to mention the fact you'll also be absolute employability gold dust)

Prioritising Your Year You were all elected on a manifesto or speech in which you detailed how you would improve the society in different ways. Your job for this year is to make those improvements. Of course, there is still the day to day running of the society, putting on the events, running the socials etc Which is why planning and delegation are so important!

Activity: Prioritising Your Year What is your main priority for this year? The one thing you would like to change? It could be getting higher attendance at an event, or acquiring sponsorship In other words: What is the one thing that at the end of the year, you'd be annoyed if you hadn't done? (Please don't focus on numbers too much - quality not quantity folks)

Any Questions?