The Chapter Immediate Past President

Guide
The Chapter Immediate Past President

After a year of hard work and dedication to the chapter and Junior Chamber, a chapter President has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge, experience and new skills.

These resources could make him or her the best person to efficiently run the chapter next year. But in Junior Chamber, the person taking over any office should not be the one with the knowledge, experience and skills but the person who wants to learn and develop himself or herself through striving and work as an officer.

After acquiring all knowledge, experiences and skills, the officer is ready to proceed and seek more challenging, higher positions in the organization or community. This is the way that Junior Chamber can actually fulfill the primary mission of developing and supplying better leaders to the community.

For those who, after their year as chapter President, are elected as National Vice President, the year will be equally interesting, full of new experiences, and challenging. But, for those who don't run for higher positions, the year as an Immediate Past President can be very disappointing if they are assigned nothing more exiting and challenging.

The Immediate Past President should not take an active leadership role in the chapter administration. This is now the responsibility of the new chapter President. But all that experience should not be wasted.

The Immediate Past President should have specific duties and make the best of his or her efforts to fulfill them. If not, the position of Immediate Past President could become the most ungratifying role the person has ever played.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The following list will show you how important the work of an Immediate Past President can be. First of all, the IPP is the adviser to the Board of Directors and the membership in general. He or she must evaluate matters carefully; exercise a great deal of diplomacy; assure a smooth and efficient leadership transition; and be friendly, helpful, readily available and in tune with the needs and aspirations of the new administration.

The IPP is now part of a very special group of people - the chapter's Past Presidents. Following are the basic responsibilities of the chapter Immediate Past President:

1. Arrange a special meeting of the old Board and the new Board. Discuss the transition of administration and be as helpful as possible.

2. Have a private meeting with the new President to discuss the change of administration and how he sees your contribution as Immediate Past President.

3. Arrange the official handover of the officers' files of the old Board to the new one. Before this, ask all of your officers to update their files, and tell them what information they should convey to the new officers.

4. Ensure that the new administration does not eliminate you from the new Board, since the Constitution states that you are part of it and have a specific task to fulfill.

5. Arrange a meeting of all Past Presidents and discuss the chapter status with them. As the most recent Past President, this would be a nice gesture and one that will be appreciated by the other Past Presidents.

6. Attend the meetings and offer your advice; give useful suggestions and ideas when you feel it is appropriate.

7. Sit next to the President at the chapter's Board and general meetings, supporting him at all times. Never compare his or her year with yours.

8. Ask the President to give you some special assignments and work on them. This way, you will be able to present a report on your activities at the meetings and contribute in a specific way.

9. In many chapters the Immediate Past President is also the chapter's General Legal Counsel and the parliamentarian at the meetings.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The chapter should have some programs that are of interest to the more experienced members.

The member who has been participating in projects for quite some time is no longer interested in simple, ordinary projects.

Experienced members can conduct more challenging and substantial projects.

The Immediate Past President can be responsible for the coordination and implementation of these projects, assuming he or she is not now a National Vice President.

Following are some suggestions:

1. Revision of the Chapter Constitution.

2. Service as a member of a committee to study the feasibility of building a permanent chapter secretariat.

If your chapter already has offices, the committee could study the possibility of renovating them or moving to better offices.

3. Participation on a committee to help chapter candidates run for office at national and JCI levels.

This committee would study promotional techniques and establish a fund to assist candidates (to attend a National Convention or World Congress).

4. Serve as liaison with other volunteer organizations, community businesses, Chamber of Commerce, and local government.
5. Help the Membership Growth and Extensions Commission as a trainer or guest speaker in orientation sessions for new members.

SUMMARY

There are many other possible projects that might interest the Immediate Past President.

Such projects can be of great importance, since he or she knows chapter management and is now one of the "experienced members."

The Immediate Past President has the responsibility to offer his or her services to the current chapter administration and be involved in the chapter's future.

This can be a very worthy and gratifying experience.