Learning how to create booster club bylaws is a crucial step in the process of forming a successful booster club. Your booster club by-laws describe everything about your organization, from the name of the booster club to how a booster club functions on a day-to-day basis. Since federal and state law regarding how by-laws should be written are often broad, and because there are so many subjects by-laws must address, knowing where to begin when you are ready to develop your booster club by-laws may be difficult. Provided in this article are free booster club by-laws , to serve as examples of how bylaws for booster clubs can be written, as well as some general tips to keep in mind when you write booster club by-laws.
Information Needed to Create Booster Club By-Laws
When learning how to create booster club by-laws, it is important to note that by-laws must provide sound, concise guidelines for how a booster club operates. As such, they should provide all the information necessary for a booster club to function efficiently. When you develop your booster club by-laws, there is key information that should always be included. Some of the subjects you should always include in the by-laws are:
- The name of the booster club
- The mission statement
- Guidelines for recruiting new members
- How officers within the club may be elected
- The responsibilities of officers
- How finances within the booster club will be managed
- Details regarding insurance and liability
- Procedures for booster club dissolution
The type of booster club for which the by-laws are written will dictate some of the content of the by-laws. Athletic booster clubs may need by-laws that are not necessary for drama booster clubs, since a sports team has different needs than a school drama program. Similarly, elementary school booster clubs will likely have by-laws that differ from the by-laws of middle school booster clubs or high school booster clubs. In addition to the differences in programs for different age groups, different schools have different rules which booster clubs must take into account when forming their by-laws.
Organization of Booster Club By-Laws
As you develop your booster club by-laws, keep in mind that the better the by-laws are organized, the more easily they will be interpreted by future members. Booster club by-laws typically organize different subjects into different categories called articles. For example, as shown in the by-laws from the John Carroll Catholic High School Athletic Booster Club listed below, Article I addresses the booster club name while article II discusses the mission of the booster club:
Article I – Name
The name of this Booster Club is the John Carroll Catholic Athletic Booster Club, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Athletic Booster Club’.
Article II – Purpose
The purpose of the Athletic Booster Club is to support the John Carroll Catholic High School Athletic teams by raising funds, distributing money and materials, soliciting memberships, offering activities for members, promoting participation in Athletics, encouraging attendance at Athletic events and assisting the Athletic Director and Coaches. We value the development of the whole person; encouraging our Student Athletes to grow Spiritually as they seek to use, to the best of their ability, their God given talents in the classroom and in their Athletic pursuits.
Organizing the by-laws into articles, rather than formatting the bylaws in lengthy paragraphs, makes the by-laws easier to understand. The way in which by-laws are separated into different articles could be compared to how one may organize an outline for an essay, with each subject under Roman numerals or English letters. Like the subjects in essay outlines, the articles in by-laws may also have sub points for subjects that require more than a couple sentences. Article III from the by-laws from the John Carroll Catholic High School Athletic Booster Club shows how this may be done, as seen below:
Article III – Athletic Booster Club Membership
Section 1. Membership Eligibility
- A) All Alumni of John Carroll Catholic High School (JCCHS) are eligible for membership.
- B) Families of graduates and families of current JCCHS students are eligible for membership.
- C) Current and former faculty and staff are eligible for membership.
- D) Families of students enrolled in John Carroll Catholic’s Middle School athletic program are eligible for membership.
- E) The President, Principal, Athletic Director and Assistant Athletic Director of JCCHS and the Middle School Athletic Director are to be considered honorary members of the Athletic Booster Club.
Section 2. General Membership
A) All Families of athletes who participate in the Sports Ad Book program are considered to be part of the General Membership.
B) General Membership is obtained on an annual basis and is valid for one (1) year (June 1-May 31) by completing and returning a membership form to the Athletic Booster Club.
The kind of format typically used to write booster club by-laws, as seen above, allows readers to more easily read the by-laws without missing vital information. Furthermore, organizing by-laws into main points and sub-points will make finding specific laws a quicker process, rather than having to devote significant time to picking out the needed information from one of the many paragraphs. Learning how to efficiently organize articles in the by-laws is a key part of learning how to create booster club by-laws.
Once you write booster club by-laws that effectively govern how your booster club functions, you will be able to devote your attention to the other steps that are necessary to found a booster club. Concise, well written by-laws will help your booster club fulfill its purpose with as little trouble as possible, while vague by-laws may lead to issues in the future. While by-laws may only appear to be a few pages of rules and guidelines, they play a large part in determining the success of your booster club, both in the early days of its formation and several years down the line. Consulting the free booster club by-laws that have already been created by existing booster clubs is one helpful method to ensure you are on the right track when you write booster club by-laws of your own.
