The constitution requires a President, Secretary, (Junior) Treasurer, Captain, Coaching and Safety Officer and Publicity Officer to be elected at each AGM. In addition to this, a number of General Members can be elected, with special responsibilities assigned to them. Generally, this will include a:
- Social Secretary
- Equipment Officer
- Polo Secretary
- Trip Secretary
A Welfare Officer must also be elected, either from the newly formed committee or from the club as a whole. The Welfare Officer must not have other committee responsibilities for any competitive disciplines which the club is involved in. The club must also have a Senior Treasurer to oversee the committee.
Roles
The constitution also defines what some of the committee members should be doing. In practice, things will be delegated sensibly, but all committee members still have overall responsibility for certain things. This is intended to be a rough guide to the responsibilities of each committee member.
Shared Responsibilities
Everyone on the committee has some shared responsibilities:
- Budgeting, setting membership fees, discussing and voting on issues affecting the club.
- Helping other committee members to organise and run events and sessions.
- Keeping the club website and calendar up to date.
President
- Overall responsibility for everything the club does. Responsible for making sure that everything that should happen does happen.
- Responsible for all club meetings, including regular committee meetings.
- Will often have to represent the club and take charge in any exceptional circumstances.
(Junior) Treasurer
- Responsible for tracking the club’s finances. Will be involved in budgeting decisions.
- Manages the club’s membership lists including adding new members, and removing expired members.
- Responsible for the club’s grant applications.
- Renews insurance on club kit with equipment officer
Secretary
- Overall responsibility for handling club communications. Will usually send out a weekly email which should be the main reference for club events.
- Should minute all club meetings.
- Maintains the club’s archive.
- Renews the club’s BCU affiliation annually.
- Arranges pool sessions with coaching officer
- Alumni Relations
Captain
- Organises all competitive events and training, with the exception of polo, includings BUCS and Varsity.
- Responsible for selecting squads to represent the club in competition (except polo) or delegating this selection to team captains.
- Organises the annual Varsity marathon and polo match.
- Responsible for all matters relating to blues or half-blues.
- Responsible for suggesting new competition kit and working with the Equipment Officer to maintain competition kit, including marathon, wwr and slalom boats.
Social Secretary
- Organises all club social events. This will usually include ‘big’ socials each term (e.g. annual dinner, garden party…), as well as regular smaller socials.
Publicity and Fundraising Officer
- Organises the club presence at the freshers’ fair, and all ‘come and try it’ events.
- Organises Stash Orders
- Looks for additional funding for the club – corporate sponsorship and funding from colleges.
Welfare Officer
- Promotes welfare centred practices within the club.
- Acts as an initial contact for members who have any club-related welfare concerns.
- Maintains the club welfare policy.
Coaching and Safety Officer
- Organises and promotes courses for club members.
- Books and organises pool sessions.
- Promotes Safe practise and keeps safety documentation up to date and accessible
- Maintains records of club coaches
- Should encourage members to become involved in coaching.
Equipment Officer
- Responsible for checking the safety of, repairing and organising the club kit.
- Should take an inventory each term, or at least twice per year – required for insurance.
- Suggests and arranges new kit purchases.
- Renews the insurance on club kit
- Maintains the keys list
Polo Secretary
- Overall responsibility for organising polo training and events. May delegate to various team captains.
- Responsible for selecting squads to represent the club in competition. May delegate to team captains.
- Responsible for suggesting new polo kit and working with the Equipment Officer to maintain polo equipment.
Trip Secretary
- Organises club trips outside Cambridge.
Senior Treasurer
- Audits the club accounts.
- Advises and supervises the committee.