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Your section officers add a new depth to the classroom structure. Officers frequently are responsible
for routine management tasks such as organizing the meeting, conducting meetings, scheduling work and section activities. This helps them learn simple management skills and creates responsible team environment.

Election of SkillsUSA officers gives your students an opportunity to test-drive their leadership abilities. The officer selection process is an great way for your students to experience valuable, practical lessons in leadership and teamwork. Each member has an important role—committee member, campaign manager, candidate and voter—and when everyone participates, everyone learns.

Your section is ready to progress into action. Your role now becomes one of guidance and motivation--you're a facilitator! For the most part, SkillsUSA now belongs to your students, and ultimately they will be responsible for their decisions and actions. But they will still look to you for direction. Keeping up your enthusiasm is not only important, but vital. You set the tone, stage and excitement level.

Officer Election Steps

1. Setup an election committee
2. Decide on what offices should be part of your section
3. Solicit nominations
4. Allow students time to campaign
5. Elect via secret ballot
6. Install the new officers
7. Evaluate the election process as a class

Be creative in using the steps for officer elections. Consider your students' backgrounds, experience and any other factors which may affect their interpretation and participation.

Setting Up an Election Committee
The creation of an election committee is a multi-faceted endeavor. It will help your students take ownership of their SkillsUSA section. Additionally, they will begin to further develop their leadership skills that will help to run the section for the remainder of the school year.


The election committee is responsible for making basic decisions that will affect the entire group. It’s a good idea to try to staff the committee with students who are willing to spend whatever time is necessary to come up with good recommendations.

The following ways to staff the election committee should have effective results in your classroom:

► Ask for volunteers. Students who want to help will usually stay with a project until its completion.
Some students may be too shy to volunteer, even though they may work hard after being
appointed. So volunteers may need a little coaxing, but don’t force students to serve against their
wishes.

► Recruit three or four members. If you need a larger committee, ask the members to suggest
others.

► Choose all the members yourself.


The committee will need to elect a chairperson (preferably someone who will not be a candidate for office) and then proceed with its decision-making tasks. The chairperson’s duties will be to keep track of details and make sure that committee business progresses in an orderly fashion.

The duties of the election committee are to set guidelines for chapter elections and should include the following:

1. Determine which offices are to be elected (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer,
    Parliamentarian, Historian and Reporter)--All are highly suggested.

2. Develop the nomination procedures

3. Create any necessary rules for campaigning. (It is prudent to , campaigns, election rules and follow-
    up. The committee is also responsible for setting a calendar of events for the entire election
    procedure. The planning should also include a chapter business meeting to orient all members.
    The committee should become familiar with the visual materials in the Appendix early in their
    planning.

Deciding What Offices Should Be Part of Your Section

The SkillsUSA Leadership Handbook lists six officers and describes their duties, but a single section may be able to function with fewer than six officers. If the section is large, it may be advantageous to elect additional officers. But a chapter should never become so top-heavy that it has more officers than members.

A new chapter or section elects its officers each fall. However, a chapter whose members will return the following year may decide to elect officers in the late spring to get a head start in the new school year.

Determine Officers to be Elected
The SkillsUSA Leadership Handbook lists six officers and describes their duties. Sections may be able to function with fewer than six officers. A section should never become so top-heavy that it has more officers than members.

Advisors should consider the following when determining how many officers are necessary for the section:
• the number of members in the chapter
• whether officers will serve members in one program or the entire school
• the requirement for having a set of officers for morning and afternoon sections
• the necessity of holding meetings before and after school