Archive:Exec report - Secretary 2012 - 2013
It seems that each exec position is somewhat open to the interpretation of the person holding that position. Here is my interpretation of the job of the secretary and his minutes and here are some things that might help future secretaries to do the job.
The secretary writes down the exec minutes, a protocol of the weekly exec meetings which is open to read for all club members. The minutes inform other exec members about the current discussions they might have missed, they help to keep exec decisions transparent to the whole club and they are an archive of past decisions.
Every week hopefully lots of exec members meet in order to keep the club running. Usually the president will email everyone the meeting agenda on the day before the meeting. Typical topics are past trips and events, upcoming trips and events, huts and trail maintenance, the purchase of club gear and many other things that need to be discussed. The secretary is there during the meeting to write down everything that is important. To do this, it is helpful to bring a laptop and to copy the agenda into some word processing document before the meeting. It is also helpful to read all emails and other documents sent by other exec members before the meeting since these topics usually get discussed. On the evening after the meeting if possible I bring my, for other people incomprehensible, notes into full sentences and I try to add information that is needed for someone who was not at the meeting. If you discuss any past or upcoming trips or events it is good to also mention the dates and the name of the exec member who is in charge of this. This makes the minutes easier for other people to read and everyone knows whom to contact for questions regarding some particular issue. Before I upload the exec minutes to the homepage, I email them to the exec members. This way people have the chance to ask for corrections and exec members that were not present are more likely to read about what they missed.
Since everything the secretary does is openly accessible to members, the result of my time in the exec is already detailed here: http://www.ubc-voc.com/members/minutes.php
