Recognizing Your Commitment
As Event Lead, you serve as the face and voice of the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life within your community or campus, leading and empowering your Event Leadership Team (ELT) to fulfill their responsibilities and achieve our event goals.
Event Lead Role Description
The Event Lead directs the efforts of the whole Relay For Life ELT, overseeing committee recruitment, committee progress, tasks, and timelines. Individuals in this role possess strong leadership skills, interpersonal skills, are outgoing, and are knowledgeable and passionate about the mission of the American Cancer Society. A two-year commitment is standard for this position.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate and communicate regularly with your ACS staff partner on planning aspects and organization
- Evaluate the previous Relay event with special attention to key factors that influence customer satisfaction and create a plan for the coming Relay event
- Identify, recruit, and help retain ELT members
- Coordinate with your staff partner to ensure all ELT members have been trained in their roles and have the resources they need to be empowered and succeed
- Determine goals for the event, including sponsorship and number of teams needed to reach monetary goals
- Work with your staff partner to plan a spend budget and track expenses throughout the season
- Work with Logistics Chair to establish event date and times
- Lead and facilitate Relay For Life planning meetings
- Guide the ELT in accomplishing goals and objectives
- Monitor progress of sub-committees to ensure tasks are completed. Support and coach volunteers as / where needed
- Support Team Development Sub-Committee in planning the Relay For Life Kick Off
- Act as event spokesperson when / where needed
- Help with team recruitment, sponsorship, and other big decisions where needed
- Ensure the ELT, team captains, and participants understand the mission of the American Cancer Society and the impact they have by participating
- Coordinate with whole ELT to create an excellent customer experience for all who attend Relay
- Work the track at Relay, spending time talking to participants to ensure that everyone feels welcome and appreciated. Thank teams and fundraisers and utilize the time to recruit new members for the ELT
- At conclusion of event, be responsible for thank you letters related to your ELT’s activities
- Hold wrap-up meeting for your ELT following the event
- Work with your staff partner to create a succession plan for future seasons
Qualifications
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Commitment to the American Cancer Society’s mission to end cancer as we know it, for everyone
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Knowledge of the local community
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Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills
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Strong time management skills helpful
Respect and understand the roles of volunteers and staff in the Volunteer / Staff Partnership
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Willingness to dedicate multiple hours a month on Relay planning, with those hours increasing as the event date nears
Getting Started Resources
Words of Wisdom
You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
– Zig Ziglar
Your ELT Structure
Every ELT will be uniquely formed and function based on what fits best for your group of volunteers and your community or campus. These structures and descriptions are a guide to be adapted to your specific needs and people.
Several factors should be considered when forming your ELT structure. For example, if you have a co-chair or two who’s helping lead with you, you could split you team members based on their role to report to one of you. If you’re a solo chair and everyone is reporting to you, you don’t need a complicated structure for your ELT.
The goal is to set up your ELT in a way that’s functional and effective for your group, for this year. ELT structures should be evaluated every year and adjusted to fit who your volunteers are, what tasks are on the to do list, and what makes the most sense for your group.
One thing remains the same, no matter what structure your group goes with, there are several positions that make planning Relay easier on you as the lead. The more ELT members you can divide the work between, the more enjoyable the Relay planning experience will be for everyone.
Here you’ll see a “menu” of potential sub-committees for your ELT. Some roles can be split or combined, depending on the number of volunteers you have to help. Click the graphic to see the full resource flyer.
The next section of this guide focuses on recruiting your leadership team, so check out the job descriptions there.
Partnership Agreements
Volunteers and staff work in partnership each year to make Relay a success in their community or campus. Those partnerships work best when everyone is working with the same set of expectations. One way to ensure everyone is on the same page is to make Partnership Agreements.
Partnership Agreements can be made between you and your staff partner as well as between you and your ELT members. These worksheets are designed to guide you through a conversation so both parties can talk about expectations, goals, resources, and even ways to recognize. At the end of the conversation, both can sign off on the agreement. As planning progresses through the season, partnership agreements can be referenced as needed as a reminder or to help head off potential conflicts.
The important thing about Partnership Agreements is not that they’re on paper, but that the conversations are being had. The paper forms are not binding agreements but do create a visual representation for both parties. Click the buttons below to download Partnership Agreements worksheets.
Volunteer to Staff
Volunteer to Volunteer
Planning Timeline
Having a game plan will get you off to a great start and a planning timeline is a great guide so you’re comfortable knowing when something needs to be done. ACS has an ELT Timeline Tool to be used as a guideline for when tasks could need to be completed to have a successful Relay event. As always, work with your staff partner for event specific needs!
The ELT timeline tool allows you to generate a timeline of tasks for any ELT position that is printable based on your event’s date. If you have any questions, reach out to your staff partner.
Goal Setting & Budgets
As Event Lead for your Relay, you have a lot of say in the goal setting process for your event. Goal setting at the beginning of the season should be a conversation with your ELT, or at the very least the main players, as well as your staff partner. As you set numbers for your different metrics, build buy in from your ELT. When they’re on board with the event goals, everyone will know what we’re working towards for Relay day.
Work with your staff partner to pull event numbers and totals from the past year(s). It’s important to set healthy, obtainable goals for your Relay season. Then don’t forget to update your event website with your overall fundraising goal!
While it would be great if we could get all the things we need for Relay donated, we know that’s not possible for all events. You have to spend money to make money – within reason! The national best practice for Relay For Life events is to keep their expense ration around 5-7% of what was fundraised the year before. This ensures the most of every dollar fundraised is going directly to the American Cancer Society’s mission to end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
For any known or potential expenses for your event, a conversation needs to be had with your staff partner BEFORE funds are spent or promised. More information about invoices will be addressed in a later section, but as often as possible, have your staff partner pay expenses. Your staff partner can also pull a list of expenses from the previous year to help with planning.
Being Event Lead
Relay For Life is designed to be a volunteer driven event, where volunteers in the community or on campus “own” the Relay and are empowered to make decisions and execute the event plans.
Volunteer Driven, Staff Supported
You and your ELT volunteers have a lot of responsibility for making Relay happen in your community or on your campus. Your staff partner will always be there to coach you and your ELT to a successful Relay season. They can help you strategize and game plan for the year, as well as troubleshoot any problems that come up. They’ll provide any resources you might need, as well as teach you the skills and help the whole ELT practice so everyone is comfortable being the face of ACS and Relay in your community. Your staff partner will also be your biggest cheerleader and help talk you back up when things don’t go as planned.
At the end of the day, you and your ELT KNOW your community or your campus better than anyone. The relationships and connections you all have in your town, county, school, or campus will make a difference. People are more likely to say YES! to someone they personally know, who’s a part of the community or campus with them. Therefore, the more volunteers you have on board the better – including in the Event Lead role. If you’ve checked out the planning timeline, you’ll see a lot of tasks to complete throughout the season. It is beneficial to have a partner to share that work and oversight of the ELT. It is especially useful to have co-chairs when recruiting sub-committee chairs because two (or three) people know more potential volunteers than you do alone.
Having co-chairs also helps create event stability from year to year because ideally, one chair could be stepping down at the end of their term with the other moving into their second year, feeling confident and comfortable in the planning process while bringing in a new co-chair to onboard with them. This succession plan ensure a smooth transition from season to season.
Splitting Up the Event Lead Role
There are several different ways that co-chairs can work together successfully. The most important thing is that both co-chairs establish a plan for splitting the responsibilities and communicate that plan to the rest of the Relay ELT and your staff partner.
One way to split the role is for each co-chair to take responsibility for half of the sub-committees, one concentrating on the Growth aspects (pre-Relay tasks) and the other concentrating on the Production aspects (day of the Relay tasks).
Growth Sub-Committees
- Teams (recruitment, retention, coaching)
- Marketing & communication
- Survivors & caregivers
- Sponsorship
- Fundraising
- Online & social media
- Pre-event activities (fundraisers, kick offs, etc.)
- Youth engagement
Production Sub-Committees
- Logistics
Activities & entertainment
Ceremonies
Luminaria
Volunteer recruitment
Accounting & registration
In-kind donations (food, beverage, etc.)
Recognition
Mission & advocacy efforts
This division of sub-committees isn’t written in stone – do what makes the most sense for you, your co-chair(s), and your ELT. Some events have the returning chair from the previous year in the main leadership role while the incoming co-chair takes on a supportive role, learning how to lead for next year. Another option would be to split responsibilities based on the strengths and talents of the co-chairs, ensuring all areas are covered. There are lots of creative ways to split the responsibilities as long as each co-chair knows what they are responsible for and that the division of labor is relatively equal.
No matter your structure or how you split the ELT, the whole ELT can (and should) help with team recruitment and marketing, even if that’s not their assigned sub-committee. The more people on your ELT who are asking new people to join Relay in some way, the more successful your event will be.
The Importance of Recruiting an ELT
A strong ELT of local volunteers from your community, school, or campus is essential to a successful event. The growth of a Relay For Life event is almost directly proportionate to the growth of the ELT. A healthy, growing ELT of committed volunteers makes for a healthy, growing Relay.
A Relay ELT who represents each sector of your community or campus will make for a Relay that incorporates all sectors of your community or school. Expanding your ELT to include sub-committees for each area is the way to expand your committee and grow your Relay.
It also lessens the load on any one volunteer and makes the Relay experience more fun. So, work hard to recruit your sub-committee chairs from different community / campus sectors and encourage them to find sub-committee partners to help with their responsibilities and tasks.
