Summer Lectures Club
Roles & Responsibilities - Long Version
Summer Lectures Club (SLC) is a non-profit, independent organization operated by a group of volunteers who arrange an eclectic mix of lectures by people from all walks of life.
The club is primarily for seniors (but all are welcome) - all who are interested in life-long learning and would like to attend lectures over the spring and summer months, between March and August.
Spring and Summer are seasons for exercising our bodies - why not exercise our minds too with these stimulating lectures.
SLC is a member of the Third Age Network, an association of similar lecture oriented organizations.
SLC uses several online tools to manage it’s operations.
As of August 2021, SLC is not Incorporated and does not have a formal Board of Directors. We are a group of volunteers.
Some of the volunteer roles:
Head Organizer - This person is similar to the Chair of the Board of Directors. The Head Organizer is responsible for calling meetings of the volunteers, setting the agenda, and ensuring minutes are kept for these meetings. At these meetings, volunteers take on various roles, equivalent to Chair of Committees, essential for the operation of SLC. The Head Organizer may also Chair a Committee or contribute to one or more committees.
Program / Speaker Chair - This is a key role in the Summer Lectures Club. This volunteer is responsible for finding and booking speakers for our program (up to 20 for a season).
Secretary - This is sometimes a rotating role but ideally SLC should have a single recognized volunteer secretary. The objective is to use our Google account and Google Documents to record and store our minutes. Google Documents is very similar to Microsoft Word.
Treasurer - This volunteer is responsible for keeping our books and doing our banking which includes paying any bills (rental hall, honorariums, website etc). SLC has used a free accounting program called BS1 which must be installed on the Treasurer’s computer. We are considering converting to an online accounting program called Wave. Another possibility is Intuit's QuickBooks since Intuit has purchased MailChimp and are building in some integration between the two. Currently we are using a simple Spreadsheet (Google Sheets preferred) since our books are so simple. The Head Organizer normally allows the Treasurer to select whichever system works best for them.
At or around the start of the fiscal year (Oct 1st)
Whenever necessary
At the end of the fiscal year (Sept 30)
Membership Chair - This volunteer looks after all aspects of membership including the use of MailChimp as our membership database and primary communication tool. The chair is responsible for recruiting other volunteers to help as needed.
Promotion Chair - This volunteer is responsible for promoting SLC.
Technology Chair - This includes duties associated with the Website, Zoom meetings, and for live meetings the Projector and Sound system.
Hospitality Chair - This volunteer is responsible for tea, coffee and cookies plus the setup and takedown of chairs (theatre style). This role only applies to live meetings.
Organizing Committee - Each of the above volunteers automatically become part of the Organizing Committee. The Committee provides high level direction for the overall organization and each position.
The club is primarily for seniors (but all are welcome) - all who are interested in life-long learning and would like to attend lectures over the spring and summer months, between March and August.
Spring and Summer are seasons for exercising our bodies - why not exercise our minds too with these stimulating lectures.
SLC is a member of the Third Age Network, an association of similar lecture oriented organizations.
SLC uses several online tools to manage it’s operations.
- Gmail and GDrive for storing emails and SLC documents
- Weebly for its website
- Mailchimp for it group mailings
- Wave for accounting (proposed)
As of August 2021, SLC is not Incorporated and does not have a formal Board of Directors. We are a group of volunteers.
Some of the volunteer roles:
Head Organizer - This person is similar to the Chair of the Board of Directors. The Head Organizer is responsible for calling meetings of the volunteers, setting the agenda, and ensuring minutes are kept for these meetings. At these meetings, volunteers take on various roles, equivalent to Chair of Committees, essential for the operation of SLC. The Head Organizer may also Chair a Committee or contribute to one or more committees.
- This volunteer usually is responsible for the hall booking.
- Time Commitment: 6 meetings x 2 hrs plus communication time with volunteers in all roles, plus planning meeting agendas - approximately 24 hours.
Program / Speaker Chair - This is a key role in the Summer Lectures Club. This volunteer is responsible for finding and booking speakers for our program (up to 20 for a season).
- Check other lecture groups for speakers - TAN, Third Age Learning, Other clubs which provide lectures.
- Maintain a Google Speadsheet with the list of potential speakers and booked speakers.
- Send potential speakers invitation to speak - we have form letters available to help with this.
- Communicate with potential speakers and switch dates as necessary
- Communicate with Webmaster and Promotion Chair final list of speakers and any last minute changes
- Manage short notice cancellation by speakers.
- Introduce and thank each speaker or arrange for someone else to do so.
- Attend occasional planning meetings of the Organizing Committee - usually via Zoom
- Time Commitment: Attendance at all meetings. Most of this time commitment is in the 6 months prior to the start of the season. Approximately 2 to 3 hours per week.
Secretary - This is sometimes a rotating role but ideally SLC should have a single recognized volunteer secretary. The objective is to use our Google account and Google Documents to record and store our minutes. Google Documents is very similar to Microsoft Word.
- Record minutes of live and virtual Organizing Committee meetings.
- Time Commitment: 20 hrs per season
Treasurer - This volunteer is responsible for keeping our books and doing our banking which includes paying any bills (rental hall, honorariums, website etc). SLC has used a free accounting program called BS1 which must be installed on the Treasurer’s computer. We are considering converting to an online accounting program called Wave. Another possibility is Intuit's QuickBooks since Intuit has purchased MailChimp and are building in some integration between the two. Currently we are using a simple Spreadsheet (Google Sheets preferred) since our books are so simple. The Head Organizer normally allows the Treasurer to select whichever system works best for them.
At or around the start of the fiscal year (Oct 1st)
- Prepare, and circulate, a budget for the upcoming year. Modify as per organizing committee agreement.
Whenever necessary
- Accept payments in the form of cheques, cash, PayPal, or e-Transfers and share this information with the Membership Chair.
- Deposit cheques and cash at the Meridian Bank. Note: The SLC account is a non-profit account. It requires 2 signatures on cheques - Treasurer is 1 of the signatories, the Head Organizer is the other. We do have on-line access at Meridian.
- Management of PayPal payments and transfers to our bank.
- Pay speakers by cheque. Mail if necessary. Sometimes we use e-transfer.
- Reimburse committee members for approved expenses
- Purchase new cheques, stamps, thank-you cards, etc. as necessary. Note: We got our current cheques from Costco. They need to have a stub and places for 2 signatures.
- Keep records of all income and expenses
- Reconcile bank statement each month
- Attend occasional planning meetings of the Organizing Committee - usually via Zoom
- Time Commitment: 1 hour per week for about 30 weeks.
At the end of the fiscal year (Sept 30)
- Prepare, and circulate, a final financial statement for the year
Membership Chair - This volunteer looks after all aspects of membership including the use of MailChimp as our membership database and primary communication tool. The chair is responsible for recruiting other volunteers to help as needed.
- Enter members information into MailChimp as per PayPal and e-Transfer and cash or cheques.
- At live meetings ensure all attendees have a membership or pay at the door.
- Using MailChimp, design meeting notices to be sent to members and speakers.
- Answer any questions from members
- Attend occasional planning meetings of the Organizing Committee - usually via Zoom
- Time Commitment: Attendance at all meetings. Plus, approximately 1 hour per week for about 30 weeks
Promotion Chair - This volunteer is responsible for promoting SLC.
- Design, printing, and distribution of any flyers and brochures - this may not be required if we have virtual only meetings.
- Info provided by Program/Speaker Chair.
- Distribution is typically in Cafes and local churches
- Organize entry of SLC events into the Events section of Guelph Today.
- Enlist the assistance of other Organizations to promote SLC - in the past Third Age Learning has made announcements at their meetings plus added a link on their website.
- The University of Guelph retirees association has also helped promote SLC.
- Other creative ideas for promoting SLC.
- Most of the work for this role is done in the weeks prior to the start of the lecture season.
- Attend occasional planning meetings of the Organizing Committee - usually via Zoom
- Time Commitment: 3 hours per week for 20 weeks
Technology Chair - This includes duties associated with the Website, Zoom meetings, and for live meetings the Projector and Sound system.
- Each season, the Website has to be updated with a list of lectures
- Info provided by Program/Speaker Chair
- Host Zoom meetings and/or set up Projector and Audio system
- Answer Zoom technical questions from members.
- Record meetings and then upload the video file onto our website. This may require some video editing to split the lecture and the Q&A if the video file is over the website limit of 1GB.
- Attend occasional planning meetings of the Organizing Committee - usually via Zoom
- Time Commitment: Attendance at all meetings plus 1 hour per meeting.
Hospitality Chair - This volunteer is responsible for tea, coffee and cookies plus the setup and takedown of chairs (theatre style). This role only applies to live meetings.
- Requires arrival at the rental hall at least an hour before our 9:30 am start in order to have coffee and tea ready in time.
- Chairs have to be set up by 9:30 am
- Clean up as per the requirements of the rental hall.
- This Chair is also responsible for recruiting volunteers to help as required.
- Time Commitment: Attendance at all meetings. At least an hour prior to each live meeting, serving coffee/tea and cookies for 30 minutes prior to each meeting, at least 30 minutes cleanup after each live meeting. For a 20 meeting season this would require about 40 to 50 hours in addition to the time attending each lecture.
Organizing Committee - Each of the above volunteers automatically become part of the Organizing Committee. The Committee provides high level direction for the overall organization and each position.
- Decide on the format of future seasons - live meetings only, virtual meetings only, or some hybrid mix of live and virtual meetings.
- Determine how many lectures we have each season and the dates of the lectures.
- Provide the Program/Speaker Chair with high level direction about any themes or mix of speaker topics for each season.
- Setting the fee for our lectures plus our Speaker Honourarium amount.
- Determine whether or not Summer Lectures Committee should Incorporate as a Not-For-Profit. If not incorporated, this must be decided prior to each season.
- Determine whether or not SLC has insurance and what coverage to get if we do opt for insurance.
- Time Commitment: The Organizing Committee meets for an hour or two approximately 6 times a year. Attend to action items. Approximately 20 hours per season.