Officer Responsibilities and Expectations

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Standing Chairman Transitions and Officer Training

The standing chairmen consists of women who hold chairman positions that are not currently on your Executive Board. As Vice President of Programs, you are responsible for overseeing the standing chairmen and ensuring they feel supported and understand the responsibilities and expectations of their role.

As Vice President of Programs, you are responsible for the training and transitions of your standing chairmen. It is an expectation that your training retreat begins at the start of the term in which elections are held and transitions end in the following term. This should mirror similarly to Executive Board training and transitions that are coordinated by your CCD and Chapter President. Resources on training and transition are located in the Resources tab of the Delta Zeta app under the Collegiate Officers > General Officer Resources category. These should be utilized when creating your officer training and transitions under the support and advisement of your CCD or Programming Advisor.

Annual Review of Executive Board and Standing Chairmen

Prior to submitting Chapter Bylaws and Standing Rules, it is the responsibility of the Vice President of Programs, Chapter President, Programming Advisor and CCD to evaluate the current chairmen positions and officers on the Executive Board. It is important to annually determine if positions might need to be adjusted, added or removed to ensure officer responsibilities are being met and the chapter officers are fitting the needs of the Sorority. Current Chapter Size – Has the chapter size increased or decreased in the past few years? Either one of these might cause the chapter to need additional responsibilities distributed to chapter officers, or have officer position be removed, and some officers take on more responsibilities.

Chapter Priorities and Needs

Our chapters change constantly with graduating seniors leaving and new members coming. With this change of dynamic comes a change in chapter needs. Have your academics slipped? Are you noticing your members participating in riskier behavior? Have you been lacking in a specific area such as sisterhood or morale? These are all things to consider when adjusting your boards to prioritize needs of the chapter. Along with adding positions, consider reviewing chairmen roles or Executive Board roles that have been underutilized or underperforming. Do these positions really hold a space in your officer structure? Unless they are required by the national governing documents to be on the Executive Board or to be in the officer roster, the chapter is empowered to adjust their officers accordingly. Eligibility of Members to Hold Positions – Along with the size of the chapter, consider if you have enough members eligible to take on officer roles. Make sure that when looking at your officer roles, you have enough women eligible to maintain all required officer positions and still have women interested in taking on the chairmen positions. It is important to caution that having the majority of your chapter be in chairmen roles can cause an overlap in responsibilities and chairmen stepping on one another’s toes. If your chapter is large enough to only take on the required officer positions, that’s okay!

Expectations for Communication

In your role, it is an expectation to be in continued communication with chairmen due to your oversight of their roles. While each Vice President of Programs might have a different approach to communication with the standing chairmen, it is an expectation that you provide in person meetings with your standing chairmen and manage them just as your President runs the Executive Board meetings. It is encouraged that you also provide communication through additional platforms. Some that are used include Group text, GroupMe, Facebook Messenger, Google Docs, Facebook Pages, email listservs, Slack, etc. Communication is critical for the effectiveness of the Vice President of Programs and her management of the standing chairmen aside from the in person meetings. It is also important to note that any information shared through these platforms becomes official Delta Zeta business. Ensure that your conversations and the information shared are appropriate. Specific issues regarding an event or individuals should never be discussed through messaging platforms and are best addressed through a phone call or an in person meeting.

Standing Chairmen Meetings

Standing chairmen meetings should be conducted similarly to Executive Board meetings. When managing your meetings consider the following:

• You should have an agenda for your officers, and follow proper protocol for managing the meeting. A blank agenda should be distributed to chairmen positions prior to the meeting, and chairmen should be expected to report their information before the meetings begins.

• A sample agenda is located in the Delta Zeta app under the Programs tag for you to utilize when managing your meeting.

• During the meeting, instead of having the chairmen repeat the same information that they provided in the agenda, use the time to answer questions the chairmen might have or to clarify points. Encourage your members to not only provide their information, but review others in advance. Pertinent planning details should be determined prior to being announced to the chapter, and the standing chairmen meeting provides an excellent opportunity for the chairmen to work together and collaborate.

Chapter Calendar Overview

The Vice President of Programs is the keeper of the semester/quarterly/yearly master calendar, with individual calendar pages distributed monthly to chapter members. It is also her role to ensure the chapter’s calendar is accurate and up-to-date within Chapter Inc. Chapter calendars must be updated by May 1 in Chapter Inc.

Working with Officers

The chapter calendar does not just consist of the events for the standing chairman, but also the Executive Board officers and chairmen that the Vice President of Programs does not oversee. It is your responsibility to make sure that those events are being given to you in a timely fashion to make sure the chapter has a fully planned calendar for the upcoming semester. When communicating with Executive Board, make sure they are given deadlines for submitting their event dates. A half completed calendar is ineffective and provides frustration to the chapter members and the Vice President of Programs.

Calendar Distribution and Timeline

The recommended timeline for completing and submitting the calendar is as shown below. Two months before the semester starts, reach out to the Executive Board officers to make sure major events have been completed and submitted. Priority events that need to be placed first on the calendar are the following:

• University Required Events/Accreditation Events

• Recruitment Events-Perfecting Week/Formal Recruitment

• New Member Education Events: Pinning/Big-Little Reveal/Initiation/New Member Retreat

• Philanthropy Events

• Sisterhood Retreat

Chapter Retreat

Chapter retreats are an annual expectation of our Delta Zeta chapters and should not tie into the chapters perfecting week. An effective chapter retreat takes place in the middle of the semester when the chapter morale might be at its lowest. When reviewing the date of your chapter’s retreat, make sure you are working with your Chapter President and Advisor on determining when a retreat will best fit the needs of the chapter and improve morale.

When identifying objectives/needs when developing your chapter retreat, make sure you consider the following:

• Major Chapter Impacts – Some years are better than others for our Delta Zeta chapters. Has there been some major events that have impacted chapter morale? If your chapter has higher or lower morale, you may want to focus more on sisterhood building and relationship building.

• Operational Effectiveness – It is important to not only focus on bonding but building the chapter performance. Take advantage of the time together to focus on an area of chapter operations that you would like to see be better. Maybe brainstorm a new philanthropy event or utilize the time for some recruitment practice.

• Time Management – Make sure that the event is a good use of their time. Chapter retreats should be roughly 3-5 hours in length and focus on building relationships, improving the chapter and having fun. Having too long of a retreat will cause the members to be restless, and a short retreat will leave the members feeling like it was not a productive use of their time. When planning your chapter retreat, consider using the Chapter Retreat Template provided in the Resources tab on the Delta Zeta app.