First Organizational Meeting for New Extension Homemakers Club Outline

The first organizational club meeting should be conducted by a county FCS agent.

1. Begin the meeting with an ice-breaker get acquainted activity.

Have a discussion with your members about what they are interested in and what they would like to learn. This gives everyone an opportunity to participate and be recognized, and this gives you an opportunity to determine what resources your members may be able to contribute. This may also help you to determine what additional training and educational opportunities that you could provide for these new members.

2. Discuss how club meetings should be conducted.

Make sure to take a packet. This packet should include yearbooks, secretary’s book, a membership form from the AEHC website, FCS 376 and FCS 377, and MP475 “Pocket Guide to Parliamentary Procedure” for the president.

• Discuss meeting times and places for your club. How often will you meet, and where will you meet at?  
• Use your yearbook as a guide. Pass out yearbooks and try to review them each month so new members can familiarize themselves with it. 
• Go over typical business meeting. It may have been some time since some of the members were involved in club meeting settings. Going over the business meeting will make them feel more comfortable with the process.
• Discuss dues. You may want to wait until you have elected a club treasurer and an account has been established before you have them handling funds. Dues and how they will be used should be discussed and agreed upon. 
• Complete Officer Roster FCS 376 and the Membership Roster FCS 377 from AEHC website. Names, addresses and telephone numbers should be collected at this meeting. A copy will be given to the newly elected club secretary and a copy kept in the County Extension Office. As additional members are added, those names should be sent to the County Extension Office also.
• Elect Officers (at this or the next meeting). Most clubs will have a President, Vice-President (Program Chair), Secretary, and Treasurer. You will also need specific program leaders within the club and these could be selected based on individual interest. Additional committee chairs could also be selected such as recreation, telephone, refreshment, special events, historian, yearbook, etc. If would be good if everyone in the club had some form of responsibility.
• As a 501c3 tax exempt organization, every club needs an EIN Representative and an EIN number. The Treasurer or another designated person can serve as the EIN Rep. You should direct this person to the State EIN Rep for help in securing the club’s EIN number. EIN Rep can be found under the Executive Committee Tab.

3. Discuss leader training opportunities and educational programs.

Let the club members know what will be expected as far as leader training. How will your members be notified? What happens if a leader misses training? What educational programs are already planned that they could participate in? This could also be an excellent opportunity to talk about the annual reports that are completed and sent to state for recognition.

4. Discuss with your club if they would like to participate as a traditional EHC club, or if they would like to be a project club. 

Traditional clubs are community service focused, whereas project clubs are aimed more toward specific member interests and skills.

5. Present an interesting educational program at the first meeting.

This is typically the responsibility of the FCS Agent.