Booster Club President: How to Avoid Burn Out
I recently attended a football booster club meeting. The president of the booster club is in her second year of what will probably be a 5 year term. She is doing a great job…but I noticed the potential of future burn out.
What I mean by burn out is that you get so tired that you just can’t do any more. That would be a total shame. This person has the potential of doing a great service to the football booster club and I think that if she lasts a total of 5 years we will end up with a very strong booster club…but only if she makes some minor changes.
The problem is that the president is committing herself to taking on the majority of the projects.
For example when someone comes up with an idea she says “sounds great I will look into it” … and she really does. If this continues the club is only as strong as her efforts – for as long as she lasts.
Her burn out would be bad for the club.
I once saw a written story about improving your management skills…
It went something like this:
There once was a factory manager who everyone really liked and every Saturday morning he went into work and on his way to work he would drive by a golf course and he would see a group of his employees playing golf.
During the week, during their regular meetings, ideas came up and the employees would present their thoughts and the manager would say “great idea I will look into it” – and he did. This caused the manager to be so overwhelmed and busy. To fix this problem and add some balance to his life, he met with a management coach. After meeting with the coach, the manager decided to make some changes to improve things for everyone.
At the next meeting, when a good idea came up from an employee he said: “great idea please look into to that and report back at the next meeting”. After some research, if the idea made sense the manager assigned the project to the employee that had suggested it. The employee would head up the project and take responsibility for it. The manager took the monkey off of his back.
This new approach continued and what happened was that the company grew faster and bigger and better because more people got involved with getting the new ideas worked on and implemented. It became a “team” effort and more people were engaged …the employees felt a sense of ownership and the manager got more done…much better results without the burn out.
Several months later on a Saturday morning the employees were driving into the office to work on their projects and ideas and as they drove by the golf course they waived to the manger as he played golf.
I think the moral of the story is that whether you are the president of a football booster club, soccer booster club, band booster club, PTA/PTO, church fundraising committee or any organization with a common goal, you should be the head cheerleader and let the other members of the team take ownership of tasks and projects. The group will benefit by being healthier in the long run and you won’t experience burn out.
Category: Fundraising Tips
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