Secretary Guide
The role of a Community Council secretary is to record the history of the council.
There is no right or wrong way to record the events of a meeting, as long as you are being honest. But it is important for every secretary to consider what perspectives they choose to include (or choose not to include) and how the history of the council may be altered.
The secretary is one of the officers and, potentially other members, who make up the Board of the Community Council. All members of the Board are legally and fiduciary responsible for the council.
The Job of the Secretary
Each council has bylaws that lay out the roles and duties of each officer. It is important to check the bylaws so that you fully understand your duties as secretary.
Some example roles and duties of a secretary can include:
- Compose and report the minutes of all general membership and special meetings
- Compose and report the minutes of all Executive Board meetings, if taken
- Handle correspondence of the Council
- Be responsible for sending the originals of the minutes, reports, & sign-in sheets
- Handle correspondence to the Federation of Community Councils
- Be responsible for submitting the permanent records to the Federation of Community Councils
- Oversee the sign-in sheets at Council general meetings
- Get signatures from the Chair when Minutes and Resolutions are approved.
Monthly Timeline for the Secretary
A monthly timeline of events for a secretary may look different depending on each council. But an example timeline may look like:
- Council holds general membership meeting & secretary takes notes
- Secretary writes out minutes after meeting
- Minutes are sent to Chair and FCC prior to next general membership meeting, at least 1 week before the meeting. (Federation saves minutes and uploads onto council website.)
Rinse & Repeat!
Tools
When taking minutes, there are some tools already available.
Review previous minutes from former secretaries or other Councils to see what does and doesn’t work.
If your council is hybrid, watch the recording to see if you missed anything.
Consider using the Zoom AI to record its own version of notes. You can use these and compare them to your notes for a more accurate picture.
When taking notes for your minutes, there are common, helpful tips…
- Record how many council members, including board members, are in the room.
- Record how many presenters or representatives are in the room.
- Record if your council reaches quorum.
- Record every time something is brought up or the conversation moves on (you do not have to write down every time a person talks, more important is when the topic changes).
- Record how many people vote for, against, or abstain on a motion, resolution, letter, election, or topic.
- Consider when your council spends dedicates time to a specific issue and what the council may want recorded about that issue (who was represented in the conversation, topics that were talked about, conclusions or suggestions made, etc).
