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The following tips were written by Laura Green

1. Leadership Transitioning

• Implementing effective officer transitions into your student organization

2. Has anyone been through a lousy transition?

• One that left you feeling that you...
  • Didn't know what the job entailed
  • Didn't know where to go to get information
  • Didn't know who you were working with
  • Were unfamiliar with what the person before you did with the position

3. Leadership Transitioning

• Why is transitioning important?
• How can your organization transition incoming officers?
• What specifically does a thorough transition entail?
• What can I do personally to prepare the incoming officer taking my position?

4. Here's why transitioning is important

• Provides for transfer of significant organizational knowledge
• Minimizes the confusion of leadership change
• Gives outgoing leaders a sense of accomplishment and closure
• Utilizes the valuable contribution of experienced leaders

5. More reasons why transitioning is important

• Helps the incoming leadership take with them some of the special expertise of the outgoing leaders
• Increases the knowledge and confidence of the new leadership
• Minimizes the loss of momentum and accomplishments of the group
• Provides a sense of continuity among the membership

6. Ok, I see why transitioning is important, but HOW do I transition new officers?

• START EARLY!
• Identify the leaders in your organization early in the year
• Encourage these potential leaders through personal contact.
• Have the officers help develop skills, delegate responsibility to them share with them the benefits of leadership clarify job responsibilities

7. I'm beginning to see...but what else?

• ONCE AGAIN...START EARLY!
• Let them know that the transition will be orderly and thorough
• Model effective leadership styles

8. Some specific suggestions

• Create an organizational structure to support leadership development
• Develop a mentoring program
• Develop leadership notebooks
• Create a shadowing program

9. A few more points...

• Orient all of the new officers together with the outgoing officers so they can understand each other's roles and start building their team
• Transfer the knowledge, information and materials necessary for them to function well
• Ask outgoing officers what they wish someone had told them

10. An effective and smooth transition entails

• Election of officers one month before installation to provide an overlap period for new and old officers to work together
• Filling the gaps for new officers by asking yourself what you wished someone had told you a year ago
• Reports about traditions, ideas, projects and continuing projects and concerns or ideas that were never implemented

11. Smoothness continued...

• Review and make current if necessary your constitution and by-laws to reflect changes made during your administration
• Review job description to make sure they accurately describe the offices your organization needs and uses
• Encourage informal meetings between incoming and outgoing officers

12. Still smoothing

• Create a transition retreat
• Review your mailing list or membership records to make them current
• Leave behind files that you won't need, but think might be helpful to the new person
• Introduce incoming officers to advisors, CCI staff, the student bank, SG and Cabinet representatives, and other student leaders and university administrators
• Orient incoming officers to resources used

13. Personal Touches

• Share the effective leadership qualities and skills you learned on the job
• Share problems and helpful ideas, procedures and recommendations
• Write and share reports containing traditions, ideas or completed projects, continuing projects and concerns, or ideas never carried out

14. Personal Touches

• Have the officers go through personal and organizational files together
• Acquaint the new officers with physical environment, supplies, and equipment
• Introduce related personnel (advisors and contacts, etc.)

15. Share your knowledge of the organization's structure

• Including:
  • Constitution and by-laws
  • Job descriptions/role classifications
  • Organizational goals and objectives
  • Status reports on ongoing projects
  • Evaluation of previous projects and programs
  • Previous minutes and reports

16. More things to share

• Resources and contact lists
• Financial books and records
• Mailing lists
• Historical records, scrapbooks, equipment

17. Key Points

• START transitioning EARLY
• Create a binder of important information for the incoming officer
• Share ideas, areas for improvement, what you would have done differently—it's best if these are written down
• Get all incoming and outgoing officers together at once

18. QUESTIONS?

• Campus and Community Involvement area of the Office of the Dean of Students 4.104 in the Student Services Building for more resources on how to run your organization effectively
• http://www.utexas.edu/depts/dos/cci/