When You Are Missing A Core Role From Your Student Group Exec

If a member of your exec steps down during the year, then you must carry out an election as soon as possible to find a replacement. View "How To Carry Out An Election" for more information on the election process. 

If your group is struggling to fill the core roles, then another member of the exec could temporarily step into that role whilst you try and find a replacement; we wouldn’t recommend that this is a long-term solution though as given the workload of the core roles, we wouldn’t want exec to burn out due to having multiple roles and responsibilities within the group. 

We recommend that you try multiple avenues to get your members engaged and excited about the vacant position. This could include: 

• Post about the responsibilities or skills desired for the role: ‘Does this sound like you?’ ‘Are you passionate about..?.’
• Do an exec ‘take over’ on your group’s social media to showcase the role on the day to day
• Ask other societies or exec members to explain ‘why they love their roles / being an exec member’ 
• Run a Q&A session for members interested in applying to come and ask questions or chat about barriers to applying (it might be they wouldn’t want to take up the role imminently, but after an academic deadline in a few weeks, which is something you may be able to assure them you can accommodate!). 

If your group does an election at the end of the summer term and has some vacant positions, we are happy to have other members step in temporarily over the summer (the workload should be a bit quieter over the summer break so more manageable to do 2 roles). Your group should then try and run another election after Fresher’s Week, in the hope that members may want to run for them after having had a break over summer.

If the group still can’t find any members to take over some of the core roles, then please speak to the ASK Team so we can help decide on the best way forwards for the group.  

For any issues relating to accessing the links above, please get in touch here.