Written by Shrinidhi Vaideeswaran, Secretary-Treasurer
Officers are an essential part of Key Club. From planning meetings to preparing for service events, officers are the glue that holds local level Key Clubs together. Holding officer elections can be tough as it is. Add a global pandemic on top of that and things get harder. But do not be intimidated by it. There are multiple ways that clubs can still hold effective elections through social distancing.
Ideas
With any election or virtual meeting, getting members to run/attend can be tough. But do not let this stop you from having a great team. Encourage members to run by telling them the benefits and how great it would be to be a part of this organization in depth. Ignite the passion to serve within their hearts and see where that takes them. Everyone needs a little push at times. Remind them the Key Club core values: Leadership, Character Building, Caring, and Inclusiveness.
Online polls are a wonderful way to hold elections and still get it done well. There are many websites that you can use. One crowd favorite is Google Forms. All you need is a Google account and you can create a form with all your officers running. Send this form out to club members for voting. For running officers, ask them to create a video on YouTube with their election speeches. Maybe create a playlist on YouTube with all the videos collected.
Now you’ve elected officers, what next? Help the district have the most up to date information. Go to www.gakeyclub.org/officerinfo and submit their information so that the district can help them in any way they can. Now, to be effective and have a great service year, get your officers trained. There are many resources on www.gakeyclub.org/club-officer-resources. Each position will be able to find their set of directives and what is expected of them. Another way to give new officers the experience is to have them attend the Georgia Leadership Training Conference. This is an amazing opportunity for members to join hundreds of other Key Club members from around the state for a day of fun and leadership development. This year however, the Georgia Leadership Training Conference will be virtual, go to www.gakeyclub.org/gltc for more information.