Chapter Organization
I
F YOU HAVE DEVELOPED your objectives carefully, the chapter organizational structure will parallel your identified needs. Proper organization of the chapter is essential to achieve an active, productive program. The key to successful organization is to focus on chapter elected and appointed officials.Chapter requirements are plain and simple -- you must have an elected President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. All must be regular or service members (Patrons or cadets cannot hold an elective office). The AFA Field Operations Guidebook defines the responsibilities of these elected positions. Undoubtedly a number of volunteers who have agreed to serve as chapter leaders (or missed a meeting and got elected!) didn't find out until after assuming office what they agreed to do. As such, here are the keys each officermust know in advance -- and commit to follow -- if the chapter is to function smoothly over the long term.
The AFA Field Operations Guidebook details additional responsibilities of each elected officer.
And, if possible for one or all, there is the National
Convention in September (very important and fascinating).
Obviously these responsibilities take time -- lots of time.
Many will have difficulty in finding the time and resources
necessary to fulfill these requirements. The keys are
before-hand knowledge of the expectations and personal
commitment. The secret to being a chapter officer is just like
anything else -- you get out what you put in. It is indeed
AFA's good fortune that so many dedicated volunteers are
willing to “put in”.
Many chapters build their organizations around the four elected officers and stop there. The “elected four” do virtually everything -- including licking the stamps and tossing the salad. They also tend to suffer from early “burnout” with the result being the premature loss of excellent AFA leadership.
There is a way to avoid burnout, build a truly operations-oriented chapter, and cultivate dynamic future leadership. The solution is an expanded Executive Committee composed of additional appointed (not elected) officers. This allows the elected leadership the latitude to identify and recruit the individuals most qualified to fill these positions. Further, they need not be regular or service members -- which means patrons and cadets can also be appointed.
The following section outlines key appointive positions to
the Executive Committee. There is no limit to the number of
these positions. Each chapter should “staff” its Executive
Committee according to its objectives and operations. The
titles you use are up to you -- i.e. Vice President for . . .,
Chairman of . . ., etc.
Suggestions for many of these positions may be found in follow-on chapters of this handbook. Suffice it to reiterate one more time, the chapter should be organized to work the local program as effectively as possible. The Executive Committee described above is a realistic minimum.
The Executive Committee should meet:
The strength of our association lies in its foundation at the grassroots level, the Chapter. Each Chapter is challenged to execute the AFA mission while at the same time find and develop new leaders who will execute the mission in the future. All too often in AFA chapters, members are cast in either ‘leader' or ‘follower' roles. These roles become static positions over time and are frequently a detriment to a chapter's goals and needs. Calling on others has multiple benefits to a group such as an AFA chapter and its members. When individuals are asked to contribute, they feel more involved and committed. If properly motivated and recognized for their contributions, they will feel an increased loyalty to the chapter. Drawing on these individual members as resources of the chapter helps build two and three deep leadership. Building in such redundancies within the chapter/state organization will permit these organizations to maintain viability and function more effectively in times of stress, either real or perceived.
This section will provide guidelines and methods that can be used by the Chapter President and his associates to build a strong on-going Chapter Leadership Development Program.
A successful Leadership Development Program can be divided into four distinct yet interrelated steps:
STEP 1: Select a Leadership Development Vice President. This is extremely important. Leadership is so important that one person should be assigned by the Chapter President to perform this extremely important function. Where do you look for this Vice President? The person should optimally be someone familiar with the AFA mission. A past Chapter President would be an excellent choice. Or look to present or past National leaders that are Chapter members and reside in the Chapter's locality. Also important in selecting this Vice President is someone who is familiar with potential leaders in the Chapter vicinity outside of the Chapter's AFA membership. More will be said about the importance of this in Step 2; but keep in mind that since we are a civilian association, we can tap a real source of leadership talent outside the AFA! We can and should go to the civilian, business, fraternal, and industrial communities for our talent. In order to assist chapter/state presidents in selecting a Vice President for Leadership Development, a job description is located in Chapter 3 of the Field Operations Guidebook.
The leadership Vice President will be responsible for finding new leaders, getting them to accept a Chapter assignment, and working to keep them challenged, rewarded and promoted as appropriate. These three activities comprise Steps 2, 3 and 4.
STEP 2: Focus on identifying future AFA leaders. Volunteer leadership talent exists throughout our nation. Since we are a civilian organization we should first realize that any American is a potential AFA member and leader. When looking for a potential AFA leader there are a few attributes that will help in finding such a person. First, the person should be someone who is interested in Aerospace and National Defense issues. This simply provides some focus for the kind of person you should be looking for. Potential sources for these Aerospace defense-oriented people are the following organizations/communities:
Aerospace Industrial Community
Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Committee
ROTC, JROTC leaders and students
Civil Air Patrol (CAP) members
USAF (active, reserve, guard, enlisted, officer, civilian,
etc.)
USAF retired personnel
Community Partners
Teachers
Spouses
Within the above, some additional attributes are important. You should look for a person who has demonstrated the ability to lead, speak and organize. Keep in mind, the people we are after, must have leadership qualities. You need people who can be self-starters and will easily find their place in our organization to help us carry out our mission. Finally, you should do your best to find individuals with the above attributes and the following key requirement:
They must be motivated to work the
AFA Mission
People will want to be leaders and support our mission for a variety of reasons. The best is simply a personal one. They believe in the absolute essential need for a strong National Defense and understand the key part that Aerospace power plays in that defense. Another motivation that reinforces the above is that the person's career or business is involved in Aerospace issues and he/she can see the value of learning more about these issues through the AFA. Another could be a retired USAF person who wants to help AFA since he/she observed what help AFA provided to their career in the form of advocacy for increased spending on pay, benefits, and many quality of life issues.
In any event, it is important to remember that the person you are looking for must be interested in what we do, have the talent to lead and have a personal or career motive to get involved and help us execute the AFA mission.
STEP 3: Get them to join the AFA team. The following are some key considerations in signing up a future leader.
STEP 4: Keep leaders for the long haul. The person you have signed up is talented, motivated and interested in our mission. He/she will want to contribute. Assign them to a committee or if they are ready at the time, appoint them to chair a committee or event. Invite them to the chapter executive council meeting and make sure they are introduced and recognized. When they are leading, let them do it their own way. As long as their activities are focused on the AFA mission, the methodology they use can and should be their own. Their new ideas will only serve to strengthen the Chapter. When they perform well, reward them and promote them. Many national awards are available and each Chapter can and should have their own awards and recognition program. Use these to provide visible recognition of the job they are doing. In many cases, another very efficient recognition is a sincere “Thank You” from the Chapter President. Use State and National Officers to pass on thanks as well. We all respond and want to help when that help is appreciated. Another recognition of a job well done is a promotion. If the higher position that the leader needs to fill is appointive, the Chapter President can implement the promotion. If the higher position is an elective office within the Chapter or State organization, then encourage them to run for that office. This is a visible recognition and appreciation for the job that they've done.
In summary, the leadership development process can be shown pictorially by:
Implementing the above by taking the first step of appointing a Leadership Development Vice President will help you build a strong and effective AFA Chapter.
A Final Note
The Air Force Association is a premier National Defense Association. Our successfully executed mission helps keep our great nation strong. It is a privilege to belong and serve an association that does so much for our country's Aerospace excellence and that assures that our men and women of the United States Air Force have the absolute best training and equipment wherever we send them in the world to serve in our nation's interest. We should be proud of our Association and enthusiastic about what we are doing! This enthusiasm and pride will be a key ingredient in finding, recruiting and keeping the AFA leader of the future.
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