The Colony Recreation and Civic Association (aka Colony Pool) is lead by members of its volunteer Board. What is the Board? Based on the Bylaws, it’s a group of 12-15 members of the Association, with 4 of those individuals serving in the elected positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, and others serving in appointed roles, such as the Membership Chair and Operations Chair.
What does it take to serve on the Board? First and foremost, it’s the volunteer spirit. The time commitment in the fall and winter is fairly minimal, with attendance at a monthly meeting as the only requirement. However, a lot of planning happens in the off season, so sometimes volunteers are sought to pitch in a little extra time. Depending on the role you take, more time may be required in the spring for workdays to get the pool ready. And once the pool is open for the season, you’re already there having fun, so it doesn’t feel like an extra commitment anymore!
If you’re interested in learning more about the positions, here’s a basic rundown of what each elected/appointed position requires:
- President: Coordinates and develops agenda for monthly Board Meetings and General Membership Meetings; Oversees the management of projects and ensures that necessary tasks are completed (this involves a lot of delegating things to other people and following up with them on the progress); and Interact with members! After completing the term, stay on the Board as an advisor to the next President. And a bonus, you get to write a monthly column in the newsletter.
- Vice President: Serve as an understudy to the President and help out where needed. This individual will serve as the President the following year unless extenuating circumstances prevent that from happening.
- Treasurer: Oversee the finances for the organization, including paying bills and taxes, doing payroll for employees, ensuring the accuracy of insurance policies, taking in cash from sales at the snack bar/front desk, and advising the rest of the Board on whether a project is affordable at a given time. Kyle Harrington has been our awesome Treasurer for the last 4 years and a new job means he will be leaving this role on November 1. Anyone interested should talk to him now to gain experience in the role before this transition.
- Secretary: Records the minutes and takes the records for the Board meetings. Distributes the minutes to the other Board members for review. In the upcoming year, this position may need to help ensure that the Bylaws get updated.
- Membership Chair: This position works closely with all Board members. They are the one that enters all membership information into a database, updates email lists and responds to, or forwards on, questions from the membership, and ensures that the Treasurer has received the correct payment from each family. The larger our membership, the larger this role, and thus there is an opportunity to have co-chairs of this committee is the board sees fit.
- Operations Chair: This position oversees the maintenance of the facilities. While it helps to be handy, moreover, this person needs to have an awareness of who to contact for what issue. As a member-run pool, it’s great to know when a member can be contacted to help with a repair, but there will be other instances where it is necessary to bring in someone to complete a task. There are always a lot of things on our to-do list, so here is another opportunity to have co-chairs of this committee is the board sees fit.