Secretary

General: The secretary is the recording officer of the association and custodian of its records.

Suggested Duties:

• Prepare minutes of all meetings of the association for review and approval by the president; provide copies of the minutes according to the association bylaws or standing rules.
• Call roll, if requested by the president, and be prepared to report on previous meeting minutes at each meeting.
• Assist the president with the agenda, if requested.
• Have copies of current and at least one year’s minutes with you at each meeting.
• Prepare roster of association officers and forward to NALS Resource Center immediately (unless the president assigns this task to another officer) after their election.
• Keep the following association records current: Membership, Minutes, Committee reports, Officer and committee chair reports, all association records (PLS and ALS roster, honorary member roster, CLE award recipients, etc.).
• Execute documents as approved.
• Make sure that the director of membership will take care of reporting name and address changes to the NALS Resource Center.
• Compose and prepare all general correspondence that does not relate to work assigned to other officers.
• Send out notices of special or regular meetings as directed by the president, bylaws, or standing rules.
• Provide copies of all written correspondence to the president.
• Report or read all correspondence to the association at meetings.
• Handle other assignments of the executive committee, board, or membership as set forth in the bylaws or standing rules.

Association records include membership records, minutes of all meetings, and written committee reports. These records are the property of the association and are the permanent archives. These records are open to inspection by any member at reasonable times. If your association does not have a separate corresponding secretary, you may be required to perform some of the duties listed below for that officer.

The minutes are the permanent record of the association and the final authority on actions taken by the association. Minutes are a record of what was done—not what was said. Minutes should be easy to read, provide easy reference, be factual, and be brief.

The minutes should contain:

• Kind or type of meeting (regular, board, annual).
• Name of association.
• Date, time, and place of meeting.
• Purpose, if a special meeting.
• Whether quorum was present (include names of officers and committee chairs present at meetings of the executive committee or board).
• Name and title of person recording minutes, if other than the secretary.
• All main motions are recorded verbatim (grammatical errors can be corrected) and a concise, accurate, objective report of the business transacted.The reports of officers and committee chairs may be entered in the minutes in one of the following ways, depending upon the importance of the subject or the wishes of the association:
• Summary of the report with the name of the chair.
• A copy of the entire report as submitted by the chair.
• Reference to the subject of the report when the entire report is filed separately and is available in the files.

NOTE: Review information regarding consent agendas. If consent agendas are used by your association, then those procedures should be followed for reporting minutes, reports, etc.

When the treasurer’s report is given, it should be noted in the minutes. However, the treasurer’s report is not accepted but merely received for future audit.

Motions should include the name of the maker and the fact that the motion was seconded (see Parliamentary Procedure Shortcuts). Minutes should be clearly worded as they are the final authority in questions or discussions of past business conducted. Minutes should reflect whether a motion was adopted or lost. Do not record motions that have been withdrawn. When a resolution contained in a report has been adopted by the association, it should be included in the minutes exactly as presented.

Suggested wording of motions: “On motion of _________, duly seconded and by a majority vote (two-thirds in the case of bylaw amendments or rules which require change), it was RESOLVED that…” or “After discussion, on motion made by _____________ and seconded, it was voted to…” or “It was moved by __________, seconded, and carried that…”Suggested wording for bylaw amendments: “On motion made and seconded, the following bylaw amendments were adopted by two-thirds vote: Section___ of Article____ was amended to read: …”

The minutes should be signed by the person taking them. Many associations include the approval by the president. Because minutes are a record of what was done at a meeting, it is improper to use the phrase “respectfully submitted” at the close of the minutes.