How to Secretary the RDG Way

1. What is the Secretary?

The secretary is a role that many clubs combine the treasurer with. In an age of e-mail and information being so readily available at the touch of a few buttons, some of the duties of the secretary have migrated to other officers. Some clubs assign tasks from other officers to the secretary to spread the workload around. However, there are still important functions of the secretary that are necessary to do well, and this lesson will cover them. 

2. Secretary Roles & Responsibilities In-Depth

As noted before, the secretary by itself tends to have a light workload, and often is folded into the treasurer role. Here are the major responsibilities of the secretary half.

• Record & provide an after meeting report. 

The after meeting report (also known as "after action report") should be filled out and sent within 48 hours of a meeting to all members. This keeps all members informed of club business, but also reminds non-attendees of what they missed out on. This can lead to increased member turnout. If you use Easy Speak, you can post a copy to your club's discussion forum to archive it. The resources section has a sample template that can be used, but don't just fill in the blanks - try to add a little flavor to it.

• Record & provide report of executive committee meeting minutes.

You should record what topics are brought up as well as what action items people take on, including the what is to be done, by whom, and by when. Tasks without those three factors usually fall by the wayside. If your club officers want to keep meeting minutes private, consider setting up a Google docs share or similar so that they can access them via the web. Otherwise, post them to your club's discussion forum in Easy Speak (provided you use it).

• Manage club records and files (both digital and paper).

Fairly self-explanatory - you should have a file box and folders as needed. If you need organizational supplies, let the treasurer know to put them in the budget.

• Submit club officer list.

This is a key responsibility that comes up once (annual clubs) or twice (semi-annual clubs) a year. It should be done as soon as new officers are elected and confirmed to avoid last minute rushes which often cause TI's site to be down or non-responsive.

• Manage correspondence. 

This is an older responsibility that has all but phased out in the age of e-mail. You may be asked to handle guest e-mails, however, and doing so quickly and competently can increase guest confidence in your club being the right one to visit.

• Prepare a list of actions/club business for the president.
• Circulate the guestbook / attendance sheet at meetings.

While these is an "official" role for the secretary (according to TI), it's rare (if not non-existent). Generally the president will handle the former, and the VPM (or committee) will take the latter.

3. What's In It for You?

The secretary role tends to be one of the easier roles to complete, so it shouldn't take a lot of your time. Here's some of the other benefits of being the secretary:

• Organizational skills. You'll be managing the club's files, so you should get better with getting them in order.
• Observational skills and focus. Doing the after meeting reports will help you better pay attention at meetings.
• Team coordination. You'll need to work with your other officers for some tasks.

4. Your Two Week Startup Plan

As with the other officer roles, here's a two week startup plan to get a headstart your term. Don't forget to add these to the list in the All Officers section.

1. You may need to compose a minutes document on letterhead documenting the election results for your bank or credit union to allow the new president and treasurer to take ownership of the club's account; ask about this.
   
2. Acquire the records archive from the previous secretary.
3. If your executive committee wants to keep executive meeting minutes private, set up a system to do so, like using Google Docs or a cloud drive like Dropbox. Notify the officers of this resource and have them bookmark it.
4. Begin taking club and executive meeting minutes and composing meeting reports. Depending on the previous secretary, you may either want to send the report to them or just send it out yourself, but confirm with them how you want to work it out.
5. If the previous secretary hasn't done it already, submit the list of elected officers to TI as well as Easy Speak and Free Toast Host. Make sure you select the proper "future" term.

5. Suggestions

• The after meeting report can be effective in getting members who haven't been attending to come back, by letting them know what they missed. 
• One project you may want to take on is either encouraging members to update their profile information with TI, Easy Speak, and FreeToastHost as appropriate, or collecting it and updating it yourself. This should be done yearly at minimum so that members can stay in touch with each other.
• Turn in the new officers as soon as you can after elections are complete. Even if some drop out, you can always go back and update the list, and the initial submission will earn DCP credit.
• When posting the meeting reports to Easy Speak, consider making year-based threads (e.g. "2018 Club Meeting Reports"). Post replies to that thread with the latest report. This will keep your forum readable.