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Club & Event Resources

Officer Transition Guide

This page should serve as a guide for transitioning between an outgoing and incoming executive board for student groups at Dickinson College. The below information should be collected and stored on your student group’s or club’s SharePoint to ensure future access and organizational sustainability. 

We recommend using SharePoint instead of Google Drive because it only takes one year for a Google password to be lost or not passed down and then those documents could be lost forever. However, with a club SharePoint, your advisor or SLCE can email HelpDesk to have new officers added if everyone transitions out and no one else has access.

For a helpful checklist version of this guide, click here.

Documents 

  • Guiding/Governing Documents: Constitution, bylaws, goals, mission statement 

  • Group Management: Social media, email, and Canva logins, previous meeting agendas, notes 

  • Online Resources: Links to helpful information or sites such as national organizations 

  • Records: Membership roster & email list, goals & progress, previous projects & progress 

  • Budget: Make sure you have last year’s budget and next year’s budget and any notes. 

  • Club Inventory: List of items owned by the group and information on their location 

Helpful Resources

  • Campus Resources: Create a list of faculty, staff, offices, or departments that were helpful to you and why. 

  • Event Data: List of previous events, co-hosts, date, time, location, & attendance numbers. Note: All of these should be available on the group’s EngageD page. Attendance numbers required that you use the Mobile Check-In App by Campus Labs. 

  • Events Documentation: Information on how to plan those events. It may be helpful to include photos of setups, lists of contacts, and budget/purchase information. 

  • Graphic Designs: Include relevant designs for club logo, posters, t-shirts, social media images, etc. 

  • Timeline: It can be helpful to draft a timeline of the following year based on your experience this year. When was club training, Activities Fairs, budget due date, your large annual events? What events by other groups should you keep in minds, i.e. Springfest, Take Back the Night, Lip Sync, etc? 

  • Advisor Information: Who is your advisor and what was their relationship with the group? 

Actions Items

  • Advisor Transition: Make sure your advisor knows who the new officers are, has contact information, and a copy of all transition documents. 

  • Treasurer Transition: The outgoing and incoming treasurer should connect about pending charges, contracts, or other expense that may be coming up soon. Make sure to note annual dues, if applicable. 

  • SWOT Analysis: It may be useful to complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for your position and then complete one together as an outgoing executive board. These can be useful in planning ahead and in goal development. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a great worksheet to assist clubs in completing a SWOT analysis here: https://uwm.edu/studentinvolvement/wp-content/uploads/sites/260/2015/06/SWOT-Analysis-2015-1.pdf 

  • Update EngageD: Add all the new officers to EngageD with their correct titles. Note: Officers must be listed to receive information from SLCE and Student Senate over the summer and fall semester. 

  • Manual: Share the Student Group Manual provided by SLCE. Note: An updated version will be sent out at the start of the next academic year. 

  • Share SLCE and Senate Resources: email slce@dickinson.edu for general club questions and sentreas@dickinson.edu for club finance questions. 

  • Space Reservations: Work with the new executive board to identify dates and times for club meetings and submit those requests through EngageD. It could be useful to do the same for events! 

  • Self Reflection: The most important question to ask yourself is “What do I wish I had known when I started in this position?” That is not a failure on previous club leadership’s part, but an opportunity on your part to help create a legacy to better the organization! Write it down!