Guidelines for Developing A Mission Statement and Bylaws

Mission Statement

What's the purpose of a mission statement?
A mission statement sums up your organization's reason for being. It explains your intentions, priorities, and values to people both inside and outside the group. It can guide you and help you stay focused on the things that are most important to you. If you ever question whether to take on a project or choose a particular course of action, you can look back on your mission statement and see if the proposal is consistent with it.

How do we create a mission statement?
Start by brainstorming among the members of your group. What are they there for? What do they want to see the group accomplish? What do they want to get out of the group for themselves? What values, standards and goals do they never want to lose sight of?

Write down everything people suggest at first, without debating the ideas. When you've run out of new thoughts, see if you can find some that are similar or have common themes. Try to come up with statements summarizing these concepts. Let people discuss and make adjustments until everyone can agree with, or at least not object to, what you've written.

Have someone put together a draft based on what you've agreed on, and bring it back to the group for final adjustments and approval.

Then what do we do with it?
Your mission statement should be communicated to new members of your group, and to anyone who wants to know what you're all about. You may want to publish it in a brochure, or put it on a web site, or otherwise make it available for people to read. It's a good idea for all members to look back at it occasionally, to remind yourselves of what you're doing there.

Your mission statement doesn't need to be set in stone. In time, your group's experiences, or the input of new members, may cause you to want to revise it. Changing your mission statement should be done with careful consideration, making sure that all your members can have their say about it, and finalized using the group's usual method of making important decisions.

 

Bylaws

What should we include in our bylaws?
You should consider including the following in your bylaws, if they apply to your group:

• name of the group
  
  
• dues--what people pay, when and how they pay it
  
  
• meetings
  

• when and how often you meet
  
  
• definition of a quorum (the number of members who must be there to do official business and make decisions--usually at least half)
  
  
• who facilitates the meeting, and who takes minutes
  
  
• whether you will use Roberts Rules of Order (a.k.a. parliamentary procedure), or some other procedures for conducting business
  
  
• anything else you want to do at every meeting (i.e. saluting the flag, reading the Twelve Steps, singing the Monty Python Lumberjack Song, etc.)
  
  

• how decisions are made--will you decide by consensus, some form of modified consensus, or majority vote?
  
  
• membership
  

• who can be members, what they have to do to qualify, and what they need to do to maintain membership
  
  
• how and for what cause a member can be removed from the organization
  
  
• any requirements and restrictions on the participation of nonmembers at meetings or group activities
  

• organizational structure--officers, committees, etc.
  

• officers' titles and responsibilities
  
  
• committees--what they do, who is on them
  
  
• how and when officers, coordinators, committee chairs, and/or committee members are selected, and how and for what cause an officer, coordinator, committee chair, and/or committee member can be removed from their position
  
  
• how vacant positions are filled
  

• how the group's finances will be handled
  

• who keeps the group's funds
  
  
• how that person is to report to the group about money that comes in and goes out
  
  
• how expenditures are approved by the group
  

• how the bylaws, mission statement, and other important documents can be changed

 

We're all friends here. We're responsible people, and we trust each other. We're never going to disagree over whether a decision was made fairly, and we won't need to relieve someone of their duties, or kick someone out of the group. Why do we need to include all that unpleasant stuff in our bylaws?

Honorable people with the best of intentions can still disagree. Further, your group may not always have the same members. You know the people you're working with now, but what about those who might join later on?

If people understand and agree on the groundrules beforehand, they are more likely to feel they were treated fairly and had a chance to be heard, even if a decision the group makes isn't the one they would have chosen. People will feel safer if they know they have recourse in case they ever do feel something was unfairly or improperly done.

Contingency plans for dealing with problems in the group--a member who isn't following through with his/her responsibilities, or is behaving counter to the group's best interests, values, or ethical standards--work much better if they're made in advance, in the abstract, before specific people and situations are involved. If you wait until that point to decide how to handle a problem, it becomes personalized and more open to charges of unfair bias.

If you're all reasonable, trustworthy people who are willing to put the best interests of the group ahead of your personal agendas, then you may very possibly never need to use these provisions of your bylaws. But people who trust and respect each other so much should be able to make plans for handling conflict that everyone believes are fair and reasonable and something they can live with.

 

 

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Adapted from Antleader Guidelines #C4: Constitution and Bylaws, published by the Student Activities Office at the University of California, Irvine, who in turn took it from the Student Organization Resource Manual, published by the University of Iowa

 

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