Role of President-Elect

Your Appointment Authority:

Your thoughtful appointment of an IFAPAC chair is critically important to the success of the fundraising activities of your chapter. Full participation in the electoral process should be a key goal for your chapter during your term of office. Your support and assistance, and that of your state chapter’s Board, will be needed throughout the year to ensure the program’s success.

The National IFAPAC Committee strongly recommends appointing an IFAPAC chair for the period of January to December and appointing that person for a minimum two-year term. It’s also critical that an IFAPAC vice-chair be appointed to “apprentice” with the chair during the same time period.

Do:

Appoint someone who has demonstrated he/she will complete the job.
Appoint someone with an interest in politics.
Instruct your chair to form a fundraising committee immediately. Chapter with a stable IFAPAC committee in place and headed by an effective state chair, have the best results.
Contact your IFAPAC chair once a month throughout the year to see how fundraising is progressing and to see what specific fundraising campaigns are planned.
Track your chair’s progress towards achieving the IFAPAC Awards.

Don’t:

Appoint someone who won’t form a committee. Soloists, however well-intentioned, can’t reach everyone who needs to be asked to contribute to IFAPAC. It’s too big a job.
Appoint someone who doesn’t believe in the mission of IFAPAC or who doesn’t contribute himself/herself.
Assume that IFAPAC fundraising “will take care of itself.” When members retire their IFAPAC contributions cease. Your help will be needed to recruit new contributors.
Appoint someone who has not contributed to IFAPAC within the last 12 months.

There are chapters that consistently succeed in IFAPAC fundraising and associations that never seem to get more than 20% of the members to participate. If your chapter has always been an IFAPAC leader, your role in IFAPAC may be limited to supporting it, both financially and in talks throughout your term of office. However, if your chapter is consistently having trouble, then the problem is likely the lack of an effective committee headed by an influential chair.

Your Successor:

When you speak with the next incoming president of your chapter, ask them to appoint a proven leader as IFAPAC chair and give the incoming president your honest assessment of the performance of the current chair and whether or not they should be reappointed.