Intro
The smooth running of the club depends on the efficiency with which you handle the records, correspondence and communications.
You may be a new secretary and ‘feeling your way’ or an experienced secretary and want to review your role.
But experienced secretaries will tell you that their duties often expand beyond what is normally expected of the role. Secretarial jobs differ but there are many common aspects. This brochure lists many of the duties expected of a club secretary.
You should read and reply to correspondence promptly (even if only to acknowledge receiving it) and pass it onto the relevant person in the club. This includes letters and emails.
File carefully (preferably in hard and soft copy), preferably in categories to which you can easily refer. Electronic recording of information is now standard practice, and a back up of all electronic records should be held and up-dated on a regular basis. Online file sharing programs may aid in storing documents and communicating them with the committee or members.
As well as this file, some secretaries maintain a register of correspondence ‘in’ and ‘out’.
Whatever system you use, you should try to achieve two things:
Failure to answer correspondence punctually and not knowing where to find correspondence are two of the major mistakes made by inexperienced secretaries. In some cases, these mistakes can cost your club its reputation and money.
Write the annual report and other reports as required. Encourage sub-committees to present brief, written reports at meetings and file these. Written reports will save time at meetings and make your job easier.
Maintain a register of members, life members and sponsors (if required). Maintain all legal documents such as club rules, leases, titles and common seal. This means recording changes and alerting the committee when renewals fall due or when a legal deadline must be met.
The Associations Incorporation Act 2015 commenced on 1 July 2016. The Act provides a framework of regulation for not-for-profit organisations such as sport and recreation clubs, societies and community groups in Western Australia leaving the internal management of associations largely to the members. Associations are still able to incorporate as a separate legal body and thereby limit the liability of its members for lawful activities.
Clubs must review and update their club rules as well as introduce a number of changes regarding:
These are some duties you may be called on to carry out:
Secretaries use various methods for planning their administrative year.
One method involves the secretary and president (and committee) developing an annual planner, which lists the key events and tasks that require action. This planner will help the committee keep abreast of a lot of administration, lighten the secretary’s load and keep your members happy.
This planner can be posted and updated on the clubs website and other social media formats (for example Facebook) which will also ensure that members to be kept up to date with changes as they occur.
An effective secretary will be the following:
The good secretary knows who is doing what and by when.
At times you will need to remind people what they have agreed to do, and the art is in how you do this. A constructive, collaborative approach is likely to be more successful that an authoritarian, harsh method.
At meetings, look for the chance to delegate tasks. Get hold of a copy of Booklet 8 of this Sport and Recreation series, Delegation – help for the overworked committee member.
If you’re committed to serving the members and the club, stay impartial and wherever possible stay out of the power plays and politics.
Like all committee members, you must be thoroughly alert to your club rules and the legal obligations of your club. You should have your copy of your club rules on hand to ensure that your committee is always acting appropriately.
It’s also important to have your annual chart or planner drawn up. It will help you to identify legal and/or financial deadlines and ensure that your committee meets its legal obligations.
Model rules (associations) 2015 came into play in Western Australia on 1 July 2016, and prescribes the following duties for the secretary.
The secretary has the following duties:
Notice of meetings must be sent in accordance with your club rules. If no rules exist related to meetings then your notification must ensure that all members know about the meeting. The secretary will be expected to provide information on the clubs proper meeting protocols according to its rules.
If all those entitled to be at the meeting aren’t given proper notice, there’s a risk that the decisions of a meeting could be invalid. Even those who say they are not able to attend should receive official notice.
The notice must include the following:
Club rules may prescribe that notices sent out by the secretary contain notice of certain resolutions.
The secretary must observe the length of time governing the sending out of notices. If there is not a club or group rule on length of notice, then reasonable notice must be given. The secretary should also check whether rules oblige the organisation to advertise meetings in advance.
The secretary should arrange the meeting place and admission to the meeting, prepare an agenda, record minutes and keep the chairperson informed of any matter which may assist or invalidate proceedings.
The president and/or chairperson and secretary should be familiar with the agenda. Even better, they should plan it together.
It is essential to have a correct record of the proceedings of a meeting, which is why minutes are kept. These serve a varied role – they are both a general record and an attendance record and, in case of later doubt or dispute, they’re a legally acceptable reference and guide.
The minute book is a legal record of a committee’s decisions. You must maintain the minutes written (or pasted) in the book, which should have serially numbered pages.
It’s essential when writing minutes that the secretary uses clear, simple language accurately and without ambiguity. The minutes should be dictated or written up quickly before the memory fades. But just in case, keep notes made at the time until the minutes have been confirmed at the next meeting.
Use the past tense when writing minutes and define points of agreement and disagreement. Try to reflect a logical sequence when reporting the series of events that might have surrounded discussion on a topic or led to a motion about it.
A motion is a formal recommendation put by a member to a meeting for discussion/debate and consideration/voting.
Important motions should include the names of both the mover and seconder. For minor motions, use a simple statement such as: “It was resolved that …”, “It was agreed that …”, or “committee resolved to …”.
Avoid recording expressions of a general nature that will bind future meetings and ensure when recording motions, particularly difficult ones, that you understand them fully.
If you don’t understand a motion, quickly ask the chairperson to have the motion repeated.
It is essential that your minutes record the actions that are to be undertaken and the names of those responsible for following up the committee’s decision. The secretary should also write letters as the meeting has instructed they should be written.
You, as secretary, may have to push this point at meetings – otherwise you may be expected to do everything! But don’t let decisions pass without linking them to a person.
Some secretaries number each resolution and maintain a register of resolutions. This is an effective way of ensuring that the committee keeps on top of its decisions and is seen to be efficient and reliable.
Where possible, the minutes should be circulated before the meeting.
Try to avoid reading the minutes in full to the meeting. It kills the meeting right at the start and you will lose people’s interest!
If you can’t circulate the minutes beforehand, read only the essential parts (i.e. the decisions), unless the member’s request they be read in full.
If you have circulated the minutes before the meeting, the members vote: “That the minutes as circulated be taken as read and confirmed as a true record”. This gives the members the chance to discuss the accuracy of the minutes as a record. If they are not satisfied, they can agree to amend them and the change should be clearly written in.
The members must not, at this time, reopen discussion on the decisions taken at the previous meeting. They are voting only on the accuracy of the record. If the decisions taken were inappropriate (even silly!), they must stay on record and be rescinded, or amended, at the proper time in the meeting.
The secretary has should enlist the help of the chairperson to prevent the ‘meeting nitpicker’ from wasting time looking for trivialities in the minutes. A good meeting is kept on task and the chairperson has to help make this happen!
It doesn’t matter if they’re only hand-written but it’s a guaranteed way of being businesslike and saving time. In this respect, you and the president may have to lead from the front.