SECRETARY

Qualifications
Charge
Term of Office
Responsibilities for recording meetings
Other responsibilities

1. Qualifications
Each candidate for Secretary must:
a) be literate, organized and concise;
b) be prompt and able to meet deadlines.
c) be an active member of the Society
d) have experience serving on committees
Preference will be given to former Board members.

2. Charge
The secretary manages the communications of the Board and the Society.

3. Term of office
The Secretary is elected to a two year term. An incumbent may run for re-election unopposed, by decision of the Board.

4. Responsibilities for recording meetings

a. Meeting preparation:
For all meetings of the Board and for other official meetings of the Society, in consultation with the President, the Secretary prepares an agenda and solicits reports from appropriate chairs and appointees. For the Board meeting, these reports should be submitted in written form, committee reports having a full list of the committee members submitting the report. One month before the Board meeting, the agenda and reports are duplicated and mailed to all Board members, the Executive Director, and the Finance Committee chair
b. Minutes:
The secretary records the minutes of the business meetings of the Society and the meetings of the Board and executive committee and within two weeks of any meeting submits these minutes for corrections to the president. Once approved, the minutes are circulated as indicated below and a signed copy is forwarded to the archivist, along with a copy of all written reports presented at the meeting, including revised financial reports. Votes taken by email should be attached to the minutes of the following meeting of the Board for informational purposes and without further discussion.
When the minutes are mailed, all reports not part of the pre-meeting packet should be sent at the same time. It is important that if changes were made to the financial report, the revised report be mailed with the minutes.
The secretary prepares a summary of Board actions for publication in the next Bulletin.

1) Format
Following the order of the agenda for Board and executive committee meetings, the secretary summarizes the discussion under each agenda item and records all Board actions and policies in the minutes. At the end of each set of minutes the secretary provides an executive summary of the meeting, consisting of all the Board actions taken and understandings reached in that meeting, and all pending actions (tickler file). The intention of this summary is to provide a reminder to Board members of actions they are responsible for undertaking. The secretary also provides a separate list of any Society policies passed in that meeting. A policy is defined as a decision that is made upon formal vote of the Board and that is intended to govern subsequent actions of the Society. Such policies are added to this handbook. For the minutes of business meetings of the Society, the secretary summarizes the announcements and discussion for each agenda item
2) Index
The secretary maintains an index of the Board minutes, and appends a list of actions and new policies to the minutes.
3) Distribution
The secretary sends the minutes of all meetings to each member of the Board, the editors of Society publications, committee chairs, special appointees, and any other appropriate persons.

5. Other responsibilities

a. Correspondence
The secretary writes correspondence as required by actions of the Board or the president.

Following elections and when chairs and appointees finish their terms or work, the secretary sees that a letter of congratulations or appreciation is sent either from him/her or the President on behalf of the society to that person and, if appropriate, his/her supervisor.

b. Records
The secretary maintains lists of appointees, chairs, and committee members and their terms of office. The secretary keeps a history of such appointments.

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