Search Engage

The Vice President will help the President with all of his/her responsibilities and also take minutes at committee meetings and AGMs.”

This is deliberately undescriptive because the second creed of Make a Smile is to “endeavour to be professional, forward-thinking and well trained”. This allows the Vice President to act in this way and adapt to face new challenges. The Vice President is expected to be well informed about all aspects of Make a Smile and be able to assist with tasks such as arranging events, ensuring volunteers and committee are organised and aware of what they need to do and be proactive in seeking new and fresh opportunities.

As one of the main leadership roles, it is what each individual chooses to make of it. There is great capacity to bend the role to suit the individual and help to mould the direction of Make a Smile in accordance to the aim outlined in the constitution.

The realities of the role tend to include informal conversations (often at short notice) with the President to give input and opinion on various matters, quick response to problems either from external or internal issues and there will be a number of administrative jobs such as writing risk assessments, organising events and checking up on committee members etc.

The Vice President is a hugely important role as the ‘2nd in command’ essentially. They must hold themselves as an example in their practice such as attending committee meetings and must back the President in public on issues that have been discussed. In private they are encouraged to take an attitude of problem identification AND solution. Identifying problems has limited use without being able to also identify solutions.

Finally, it’s important that they ensure that the Board of Trustees are well aware of how things are going through reports every other month and via messages, working closely with the Board Members. It’s worth getting to know the Trustees as they will be able to provide assistance and may request support for various activities.