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Chair · 2018–2019

150 clubs.
One budget.
Zero bylaws.

We fixed that last part first.

Club Council wordmark
See What We Built

The system student organizations
depended on had no documentation.

Club Council was the governing body responsible for every recognized student organization at Franklin & Marshall College. It controlled a $70,000 student activity budget, oversaw more than 150 campus organizations, and ran the processes that determined how groups got funded, recognized, and held accountable. But when I took over as Chair, most of that knowledge lived in the heads of whoever happened to be serving. Funding caps were informal. Recognition procedures were tribal. Appeal rights were vague at best.

What followed was a year of building the infrastructure that should have been there all along: formal bylaws, transparent budget hearings, better digital tools, and real training for the student leaders navigating the system.

By the numbers

$70K

Semester Budget

150+

Organizations

28

Pages of New Bylaws

Weekly

Board Governance

From precedent to policy.

Before 2018, Club Council operated on institutional memory. Funding caps, recognition procedures, appeal rights, spending rules—all of it was informal, passed down through whoever happened to be serving. We codified everything into a comprehensive set of bylaws: organizational recognition, merit approval, three-tier financial accounts, reimbursement procedures, formal appeals with a five-member panel, and a full accountability framework. Twenty-eight pages of governance where none had existed.

The bylaws meant that the next Chair wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. Decisions had a framework. Organizations had clear rights. And Club Council could finally be held to its own standard.

Four moves. One healthier ecosystem.

The best improvements were structural. Each one made the next possible.

01

Wrote the rulebook.

Consolidated unwritten Club Council practices into formal bylaws covering recognition, merit approval, financial management, appeals, and organizational accountability. A 28-page governance framework where none had existed.

02

Opened the books.

Redesigned semester budget hearings into a transparent, structured process. Organizations presented needs, competed fairly for limited funds, and left understanding exactly how allocation decisions were made.

03

Built better tools.

Developed new digital systems with the Office of Student Engagement & Leadership to track allocations, membership, and expenditures—replacing informal spreadsheets with real operational infrastructure.

04

Trained the leaders.

Planned and ran annual training sessions for campus organization leaders in partnership with OSEL, covering funding resources, budget processes, compliance, and best practices for running a student org.

What we inherited.
What we left.

Before

After

Funding decisions based on informal precedent
Structured hearings with published criteria and caps
No written bylaws or operating procedures
28-page governance framework covering all operations
Budget tracking in ad-hoc spreadsheets
Purpose-built tools for allocation and expenditure oversight
Onboarding was informal and inconsistent year to year
Annual training sessions in partnership with OSEL
Appeals handled informally, case by case
Formal appeals process with a five-member panel

The point was never the meetings.

It was the connective tissue. Between the institution and the 150+ student organizations that made campus life worth showing up for. Between a $70,000 budget and the clubs that needed it. Between informal precedent and something you could actually point to when someone asked “why?”
The work was often unglamorous—policy drafts, spreadsheet redesigns, late Wednesday night hearings. But it mattered. The goal was to leave Club Council better than I found it: more durable, more fair, and less dependent on any one person knowing where the bodies were buried.
Brandon D. Schneider's signature

Brandon D. Schneider

Chair, Club Council

Franklin & Marshall College, 2018–2019