Student Leadership Basics: Don't grandfather leaders in

One question I'm commonly asked in regard to student leadership teams is, “Are people grandfathered in?” In other words, once someone is on your student leadership team, should they remain on it indefinitely?

My answer is an emphatic “No!”

No one is grandfathered onto my student leadership team, nor is anyone expected to remain on it until they graduate. Instead, my student leaders serve for clearly delineated terms. In my ministry, a “term” on the student leadership team is June through May of the next school year. This allows teens to participate in the training we do over the summer months and serve as a student leader for one academic year.

At the end of that academic year, should they wish to remain on student leadership team for another year, teens must reapply. To do so, they must go through the same application process we use with newbies. They must complete an application (which is actually longer for them than for newbies since I want veteran leaders to reflect upon the time they've already spent on leadership team) and go through our interview process again.

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