LAB-69-Why You Should Have Officers, Leadership, & Structure in Your Motorcycle Biker Club PT. #1

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PODCAST & BLOG-Motorcycle biker clubs can operate in many different ways. Some are unorganized and lack leadership within. In a sense, and depending on your definition, that may not even be considered a true "motorcycle club", but more of a "riding group". In my years I have watched many motorcycle clubs and groups come and go and I can guarantee in most every case it was because of a lack of organization, structure, and leadership. With poor or no leadership there is no order or any reason for members to even have order. With that comes little groups & clicks within, lack of direction, lack of order, lack of pride, & lack of control. That will all erode a club or group's foundation in time.

I helped start and was the president of another larger motorcycle club chapter for many years. I also helped create and form the Sworn Few LEMC from the ground up, in which I am currently the Mother Chapter President. I can tell you, successful clubs that want very close knit long lasting brotherhood & success havea structured environment and leadership for an array of reasons. Overall, lack of leadership and structure will ultimately lead to problems that often times ends a club or groups existence. And that is a shame.

What type of leadership & structure should my motorcycle club have?

A traditional motorcycle club can have an array of positions, which can all have a varying degree of responsibility within the club structure. At minimum, a successful club should hold elections and have the membership elect a President, Vice President, Secretary, & Treasurer. Sergeant at Arms and Road Captains are very nice to have and can be elected or appointed.

Bylaws will be of utmost importance, which will guide election protocols and term limits. Once a motorcycle club or group elects officers then very detailed bylaws should be written with input from all members. Bylaws should not be taken lightly and in the end may decide whether a club succeeds or fails. A Bylaw Committee within can be formed and oversee that process if necessary. Those bylaws must be voted on before they can go into effect as a rule of thumb.

As a motorcycle club member do you give up your voice to change things within a club?

Absolutely not, if the bylaws and structure of the club are formed properly at the very beginning. Leadership within a well organized club is never about who has power nor should it be. These leaders oversee and protect the club's reputation, performance, standards, and direction. Leaders within a motorcycle club are essentially conductors of what should be a smooth running operation. The power ultimately remains with the membership and that is the way your bylaws should be written form the start.

For example, in the Sworn Few LEMC the president of a chapter only votes in the event of a tie between membership, which hardly ever happens. We are very proud of how we wrote our bylaws and it keeps any one person from having too much power or control in the club. Of course, there always needs to be some exceptions, such as in the event of emergencies, safety concerns, or a conflict which puts the clubs reputation, function, or order at immediate risk. Of course all those matters which are decided on the spot by a leader will still later be voted on by the true power, which is the membership. Hopefully, with proper member selection a leader never has to use that sort of authority. Remember the golden rule; the number of members should never be a priority, but instead quality of members and true brothers. The larger an organization is, the harder it is to keep it in order.

There should not be a big stronghold of power by any one individual, to include the president. One of the main reasons for having structure and oversight is to make every effort to screen and only accept members that will not tarnish the tight brotherhood or cause problems. Screening possible members should be the absolute number one priority for leadership and members within a club.

Gaining membership should take time and minimum prospecting times should always be followed, so nobody can ever be "fast tracked" into a club as a member. Gaining membership needs to be very strict and bylaws for selection should be in place. Many clubs fail, because they had a few bad members within and they failed to address the issue, thus they had a lack of le

Wadership and order.

One or two bad members can ruin years of trying to establish a brotherhood unless you have protections in place. I see too many large motorcycle clubs giving easy membership to members just to gain numbers. Their reputation, respect, and legitimacy within the law abiding biker community suffers. Nobody will ever be proud of their brotherhood if they either didn't start it or they never had to work to gain membership & wear that patches. When you earn something you become proud of it.

What are some of the obvious reasons you should have elected leaders & structure in your motorcycle club?

Any organization suffers if they lack leadership, not just motorcycle clubs. That is a simple fact that gets proven time and time again. Why do you think big fortune 500 companies have a strict structure and many different leaders? They did not make it onto that list by just all "hanging out together" and running amuck. No, they saw something great, organized over time, and put processes in place to assure their ongoing success and growth. They didn't want loose what they had and that required leadership and structure. Imagine our military without any structure or order. The first thing that would happen is there would be no pride in the military if they just hung out and headed to the battle field when they needed to. Being involved in a structured club makes your brotherhood so much tighter and assures your existence if done properly. Having structure and leaders lets everyone know inside the club their visions and direction.

I will tell you every group or club, regardless if they have electe