We're Looking for a Few Heroes

I met briefly with the Thespian Offices the other day. We had a lengthy agenda but we breezed through the items pretty fast. Towards the top of the list is the upcoming elections for next year's officers. We must hold elections in May according to our constitution so a little April planning is required.

We just adopted our constitution last year so we are still getting used to it. It is hard to belive that we have had a Tehspian troupe since 1996 without a formal constitution. We mostly have been making it up as we went along. It was little dangerous (in the HS kind of way) and definitely disorganized way to run a troupe. Last year's officers recognized a need and they set out to make a real constitution and got it ratified by the troupe. I appreciate that there is a formal document to tell us how to handle things. I think some of the Thespians might need to spend a little more time with it so that they, too, can learn how it all works.

So, anywho, now it is time for a few new leaders to come out of the woodwork. Several have already expressed interest in the presidency and I hope that we can have two candidates for each of the five positions. The election will be held at the Thespian Meeting to be held after school on Thursday, May 1, 2008.

The five officer positions according to our constitution are (1) President, (2) Vice-President, (3) Clerk, (4) Secretary, and (5) Treasurer. Each is an elected position and each nominee must be a 10th or 11th grader as well as an active member of our troupe for more than one school year. The officers may decide to include class representatives to their roster for the coming year and those individuals would be selected via an open election at the first Thespian Meeting of the new school year.

The duties of each position are listed below. I have extracted this segment directly from our constitution.


Article IV. Officers
Section 1. The responsibilities of Thespian Officers are as follows:

President
The President presides at all officer and membership meetings.
The President appoints all standing and special committees.
The President supervises troupe activities.
The President collaborates with the Troupe Director to set goals and establishes and maintains schedules of meetings and activities for the officers and for the troupe.

Vice-President
The Vice-President presides in the absence of the President.
The Vice-President is responsible for the recruitment and induction of new members.
The Vice-President is responsible for chairing a committee to recruit students for the Area and State Thespian Conference and their related activities.

Secretary
The Secretary keeps official records (minutes) of all meetings.
The Secretary attends to all official Troupe correspondence.
The Secretary is responsible for informing the Troupe members of meetings and activities.
The Secretary is responsible for keeping an accurate log of attendance at all Thespian meetings and other activities.

Treasurer
The Treasurer assists the Troupe Director in managing the finances of the Troupe.
The Treasurer acts as the business manager for all Thespian Fundraisers and social activities.

Clerk
The Clerk is responsible for assisting the Troupe Director in the tallying of points and identifying students eligible for induction.
The Clerk is responsible for informing students of their eligibility.
The Clerk is responsible for assisting the Secretary in keeping a log of attendance at all Thespian meetings and activities.
The Clerk is responsible for keeping a current log of active and inactive Thespians.