The Grand Knight — Your Council's President, Not Its CEO

Hey — fellow Knight here

If you've just been elected Grand Knight, congratulations, and also: breathe. Most of us took the oath of office thinking "President of a Knights council, how hard can it be?" and then the first Monday rolled around and the Officers Report was due, the Chaplain wanted to talk about the parish calendar, a new member wanted to transfer in, and your Treasurer couldn't find the checkbook.

Let me save you the first-year flail. This page lays out what the Grand Knight actually does across the fraternal year, what you own vs. what you delegate, and the three or four things that will quietly sink a council if you don't get them right. Written by a Financial Secretary who has watched four Grand Knights come and go.

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What a Grand Knight actually is

The Grand Knight is the presiding officer of the council — not the operator. You run the meetings. You sign the forms. You represent the council to your parish, your district deputy, and your diocese. You do not do everyone else's job. Your job is to make sure the other 11 elected officers and the 18 program personnel are doing theirs.

The best Grand Knights I've served under ran the council like a good parish council president: clear agendas, shortest meetings on record, and a relentless focus on getting the four or five things that matter actually done. The worst ones tried to be the Financial Secretary, the Program Director, and the recruiter all at once, and burned out by February.

One sentence to tattoo on your forearm: You are accountable for the outcome. You are not required to personally produce the outcome.

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What you own, end-to-end

These are the things no one else can do for you, even if you want them to:

• Presiding at meetings. Business meetings, officer meetings, and the council's ceremonial functions. Roberts Rules applies, but nobody expects Parliamentary purity — expect to run meetings by the KoC's "Method of Conducting a Council Meeting" outline in your Grand Knight Handbook.
• Signing the official rolls. Every filing to Supreme that names the council — Form #185 Officers, Form #365 Service Program Personnel, SP-7 Columbian Award application, the audit (Form #1295), and any protocol items going up to the state or Supreme — gets your signature. Your Financial Secretary prepares them. You review them, ask questions, and sign.
• Appointing the Program Director and Service Program Directors. The 18 roles on Form #365 are yours to fill. Some councils let the outgoing GK hand over a list; some start fresh every year. Either is fine. What's not fine is leaving slots blank because "we couldn't find anyone" — the slot stays on the form either way, and Supreme notices patterns.
• Representing the council externally. Your pastor, your District Deputy, your state council, any diocesan initiative. If someone outside the council wants to talk to "the council," they talk to you (or someone you designate in writing).

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What you delegate — and who to

If I had one piece of advice for new Grand Knights it would be this: delegate aggressively, follow up quietly.

• Money movement → Financial Secretary + Treasurer. The FS records it. The Treasurer pays it. You do not touch the checkbook. You review the monthly financial report and ask sharp questions.
• Program execution → Program Director. Every Faith in Action program, every fraternal event, every charity activity — owned by the PD and the 8 Service Program Directors. You attend, you bless, you don't run.
• Minutes and attendance → Recorder. Their problem, not yours.
• Corporate compliance → Advocate. Audits, by-laws, disputes — Advocate first, GK second.
• Ceremonial exemplifications → Warden. Candidates, regalia, paraphernalia. You preside; Warden runs logistics.

The delegation stops at the signature line. You can delegate who drafts the Form #185, but you sign it, and by signing you're attesting it's accurate. Read before you sign. Always. (Order L&R §135.4 is the specific authority: the GK countersigns every order the Financial Secretary draws on the Treasurer. In practice that's every form going to Supreme.)

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Your fraternal-year rhythm

This is roughly what the year looks like. Dates are anchored to the KoC fraternal year (July 1 – June 30):

• Late May – June: Installation planning. Get your officer slate elected and the Form #185 ready to file.
• July 1: Fraternal year begins. Form #185 was due June 30 — if you missed it, file now. You're already late.
• June – July: Appoint Program Director + 8 SPDs for the incoming year. File Form #365 by July 1. This is the form that gates your Star Council clock — until it's in, your Columbian Award programs don't count.
• September – December: Run programs. Attend state convention events in fall. Hold monthly officer meetings. Track membership recruiting; you want to be ahead of pace heading into winter.
• January 31: Form #1728 (Annual Survey) is due. Calendar year, not fraternal. Your FS owns the paperwork; you sign.
• February – April: Mid-year financial check-in with Trustees (keeps the August audit clean), Lenten events, recruitment push before the year ends. 1st Supreme assessment due April 10.
• May – June: SP-7 Columbian Award application due June 30. Audit due. Per Capita paid. New officer elections held. New #185 filed for the incoming year. Exit gracefully.

The Star Council Calculator tracks all of this automatically — if you haven't run it yet, start there.

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Common pitfalls — things that quietly kill Grand Knight years

• Signing forms you haven't read. If the FS hands you a #185 with a name you don't recognize, ask. If the #1728 claims 300 hours of charity work the council didn't do, ask. Your signature is your attestation.
• Leaving the Chaplain out of the loop. Your Chaplain is not an officer (they're not elected — they're an appointee of the Supreme Chaplain on recommendation from your pastor), but they should be at every officer meeting and in every major decision. A council that forgets its Chaplain stops being a Knights council.
• Thinking Star Council happens at the end of the year. It happens across the year. Miss Form #365 in June and the clock doesn't start. Miss a single Faith in Action pillar by May and you're short credits. Use the tracker.
• Making decisions the council should make. Spending above your signing authority, standing committees, by-law changes, charitable gifts beyond the council budget — these are council votes, not GK decisions. Know your limit.
• Ignoring the Deputy Grand Knight. Your DGK is your successor, your backup, and your training ground. Include them in everything. A council where the DGK learns by reading the minutes is a council with a bad handoff coming.

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One more thing

The best Grand Knights I've served under all had the same habit: they asked "what does this do for our parish?" before every big decision. Not "what makes Supreme happy." Not "what wins us an award." What does this do for the parish? If the answer is "nothing," they dropped it. If the answer was "it serves 12 families or lifts 2 priests," they did it with everything they had.

Awards follow parishes well-served. Not the other way around.

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Source notes. This page draws on the Grand Knight Handbook (#915), Method of Conducting a Council Meeting, and Charter, Constitution and Laws (Order L&R, 2025 edition — §135 GK duties; §145 Trustees chaired by GK). Jurisdiction varies by state council; check your State Deputy's guidance when Supreme and state differ. Send feedback if anything's off.

Last reviewed: April 18, 2026. Fraternal year 2025–26.