Organization: Olympia Amateur Radio Society (OARS)
Status: 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
I. Global Board Responsibilities
Before individual duties, all board members collectively hold the Fiduciary Trust of the membership. This includes:
- Mission Adherence: Ensuring all activities align with the club’s educational and scientific purposes.
- Asset Protection: Safeguarding club equipment, repeaters, and funds from waste or personal use.
- Committee Accountability: Monitoring all committees to ensure their projects and spending remain consistent with the club’s primary mission and approved budget.
- Conflict of Interest: Disclosing any potential personal financial interests in club vendors or activities.
II. Executive Officer Specifications
1. President
- Strategic Leadership: Identifies long-term organizational goals, such as the "Five-year repeater replacement plan," to ensure the club's technical and operational longevity.
- Modernization: Leads the transition to professional digital infrastructure and automated process tools. This includes:
- Google Workspace: Adopting a professional suite for club-wide document management and collaboration.
- Email Octopus: Implementing automated communication tools to streamline member outreach, recruitment, and retention efforts.
- Process automation tools
- Member’s Portal
- Organizational Culture: Establishes and nurtures the culture of the organization to support a "Hams helping Hams" environment, ensuring a welcoming, collaborative, and mentor-rich atmosphere for all members.
- Team Building & Volunteer Development: Actively recruits, mentors, and develops club members to take on leadership roles. This includes:
- Delegation: Moving away from a "President-centric" model by empowering committee chairs and specialized roles.
- Recruitment: Identifying members with specific professional skills to fill gaps in areas like Grant Research and Writing or technical repeater maintenance.
- Succession Planning: Cultivating a pipeline of future leaders to ensure the club's continuity and operational stability.
- Meeting Management: Prepares agendas for and presides over all General and Board meetings, ensuring efficient decision-making and professional conduct.
- Appointments: Selects Chairs for all standing committees, including Membership, Field Day, Repeater, Education/Testing, and the Christmas Party.
- Legal & Financial Oversight: Serves as the official signatory for club contracts, repeater site lease agreements, and state incorporation papers. Ensures the club maintains its 501(c)(3) status through timely IRS filings and transparent financial reporting.
- Membership & Community Liaison: Acts as the primary point of contact for the ARRL Section Manager, TC ARES, and local entities.
2. Vice-President
- Program Development: Sources, vets, and schedules technical presentations for monthly meetings to ensure member value.
- Succession Readiness: Maintains high-level knowledge of all Presidential projects to ensure continuity if the President is incapacitated.
- Facilities Oversight: Coordinates meeting locations, ensuring venues are accessible and equipped with necessary A/V for presentations.
- Membership Recruitment: Leads initiatives to attract new licensees and "Elmer" (mentor) them into the club.
3. Secretary
- Minutes & Records: Records all motions, seconds, and vote outcomes. Publishes minutes to the membership in a timely fashion.
- Corporate Shield: Maintains the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and IRS Determination Letter.
- Correspondence: Manages the club’s USPS P.O. Box and handles official notifications for elections or bylaw amendments.
- Compliance Tracking: Monitors state filing deadlines (e.g., Statement of Information) to keep the corporation in "Active" status.
4. Treasurer
- Tax Compliance: Submits mandatory filing of IRS Form 990-N (or 990-EZ) annually. Failure to do so for three years results in automatic loss of 501(c)(3) status.
- Banking & Disbursement: Manages the club’s checking/savings accounts and pays all recurring bills (insurance, utilities, site rent, reimbursements).
- Financial Transparency: Presents a "Treasurer’s Report" on a periodic basis; maintains receipts for all expenditures for seven years.
- Budgeting: Works with committee chairs to create an annual budget for Board approval.
- Dues Administration: Manages the collection of membership dues. Provides reports to the Board and relevant committees.
III. Members-at-Large
- The "Broad View": Representing the general membership interests that may be overlooked by the executive "silos."
- Audit Committee: Typically leads the annual internal audit of the Treasurer's books to provide "checks and balances."
- Special Projects: Often tasked with specific short-term roles (e.g., managing the club's "Hamfest" table or the annual equipment auction).
IV. The Club Station Trustee
Note: This is often a non-voting or ex-officio position, but vital for a radio club.
- License Maintenance: Ensures the club station license (Part 97) is renewed and the callsign remains active.
- Regulatory Compliance: Acts as the "Control Operator" or designates operators to ensure the club station/repeaters operate within FCC bandwidth and power limits.
- Technical Integrity: Advises the board on the technical feasibility and safety of proposed radio projects.