Booster Club Officer Roles: Who Does What

Almost every booster club has the same four officers, and almost every struggling booster club has the same problem: three of the four titles are held by people who agreed to a name on a form, and one person is doing all of it.

This is what each role is actually responsible for, and what to check before someone accepts one.

President

Runs meetings, represents the club to the school and district, and — the part that is rarely written down — is the person who notices when something is not being done and finds someone to do it.

• Sets the agenda and chairs meetings
• Is the club's point of contact for the athletic director and administration
• Signs agreements on the club's behalf, within whatever the bylaws permit
• Usually a second authorized signer on the bank account

The failure mode is a president who does everything themselves because it is faster. It works for one season and leaves nobody able to take over.

Vice president

On paper, covers for the president. In practice this is the role most often left empty or filled nominally, which is a mistake — it is the succession plan.

The clubs that survive their founders leaving are the ones where the vice president runs something real during the year: a specific event, a committee, the volunteer roster. Someone who has only ever deputized cannot step up, because they have never done the job.

Treasurer

The role with genuine legal exposure, and the one to fill most carefully.

• Receives and deposits funds, and reconciles the account monthly
• Pays approved expenses and keeps the records behind them
• Reports the balance and activity at every meeting
• Ensures the annual return is filed, which is the obligation clubs most often drop

Three consecutive missed annual returns revoke 501(c)(3) status automatically, and it usually happens across a handover rather than through neglect — see do booster clubs have to file taxes. Everything a new treasurer should receive and check in their first month is in the booster club treasurer's guide.

Secretary

Keeps the minutes and the records. It sounds like the lightest role and is the one that quietly determines whether the club can prove anything later.

• Records minutes, including who voted for what
• Maintains the permanent file: bylaws, articles, the IRS determination letter, insurance
• Handles notice of meetings where the bylaws require it

The minutes matter more than they appear to. A vote nobody recorded is a decision the club cannot demonstrate it made, which becomes relevant when a district, an auditor or an incoming board asks who authorized something.

Roles worth adding once the club is bigger

• Fundraising chair. Owns the calendar of what runs when, so events stop being scheduled by whoever thought of them first.
• Volunteer coordinator. Keeps the list of who has offered to help and what they are willing to do. The single highest-leverage addition for a club running events.
• Communications. Runs the email and text list. Worth separating out, because a store or event nobody is told about raises nothing — see how to promote your school spirit wear store.
• Concessions or events lead. Where those are a meaningful share of income.

Three things to settle before someone accepts a role

1. How long the term is, and when it ends. Open-ended commitments are how people end up doing a job for four years and leaving resentful.
2. What the role actually takes, in hours per month. An honest number recruits better than a vague one, because the person who says yes to a vague ask is the person who quits in November.
3. Who they hand it to. Every role should have a written handover, not an oral one. Clubs lose more institutional knowledge to unrecorded handovers than to anything else.

This is also the argument for choosing fundraisers by volunteer cost rather than by earning potential. A club with four officers and no volunteer bench cannot run an event that needs twenty people, however much it would raise — booster club fundraising ideas ranks the options that way.

Frequently asked questions

What officers does a booster club need?

Most states require at least a president, secretary and treasurer for a nonprofit corporation, and most bylaws add a vice president. Check your state's minimum number of directors, since some require three unrelated people.

Can one person hold two officer roles?

Sometimes legally, rarely wisely. Combining treasurer with any role that authorizes spending removes the separation that protects the treasurer, and the IRS looks less favourably on governance concentrated in one person.

How long should officer terms be?

One or two years, with staggered ends so the whole board does not turn over at once. A club that replaces every officer in the same June loses everything nobody wrote down.

What if we cannot fill the roles?

Reduce what the club commits to rather than leaving titles nominally filled. A club running one fundraiser well with three real officers is in better shape than one with a full board on paper and one person doing the work.