Secretary duties assigned to staff-need to be in bylaws?

[dpmiller]

Our bylaws state: "The secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of this chaper and of the Executive Council." We have a staff person, not the elected secretary, who actually takes notes and writes the minutes. Are we in violation of our bylaws? If we want to continue using a staff person in this do we have to provide for it in the bylaws? Bonus question: Should we change "proceedings" to "minutes?" We don't really publish proceedings.

[jstackpo]

I would say that "keep a record" is the secretary's responsibility, but does not require him to take notes or be the scribe. But he is responsible for the content, and could (should, if necessary) edit it until the minutes are approved by the association.

Minutes: Yes. Proceedings, No. p. 475

[Guest Edgar]

We have a staff person, not the elected secretary, who actually takes notes and writes the minutes.

Why doesn't the elected secretary do her job?

[dpmiller]

Thank you JD Stackpole! Appreciate your reply.

Guest Edgar - Thank you as well for your question. The background and skills of elected officers from year to year can vary; whereas the staff person has experience and training in adminstrative support and association management.

[Guest Edgar]

The background and skills of elected officers from year to year can vary.

That's certainly true but if one of the responsibilities of the secretary is to keep a record of the proceedings (which I think could reasonably be interpreted to mean "take the minutes"), I would think you'd want to elect someone who was capable of doing that. It's not rocket science (no offense to secretaries)..

Put another way (and purely rhetorically), when you elect a secretary what do you expect her to do?

[dpmiller]

The secretary is part of the officer team responsible for overall chapter leadership - strategic planning, high level monitoring of programs and operations outcomes. Most of the administrative duties of all of the officers - president, president-elect, secretary, and treasurer are done by the professional staff under the guidance of the officers. Maybe we're unusal in this, but we see the officers and staff in a partnering role where each brings different strengths to the table.

So the secretary would be responsible for making sure the minutes were done accurately and sent out on time and approved at the next meeting but wouldn't need to be the one doing the scribing.

[Josh Martin]

The secretary is part of the officer team responsible for overall chapter leadership - strategic planning, high level monitoring of programs and operations outcomes. Most of the administrative duties of all of the officers - president, president-elect, secretary, and treasurer are done by the professional staff under the guidance of the officers. Maybe we're unusal in this, but we see the officers and staff in a partnering role where each brings different strengths to the table.

So the secretary would be responsible for making sure the minutes were done accurately and sent out on time and approved at the next meeting but wouldn't need to be the one doing the scribing.

It's not consistent with RONR, but it's hardly unusual. I've seen plenty of non-profits where a staff member takes the minutes. With that said, I think it would be best to adopt a rule on the subject so there is no question. Even if your Bylaws don't require the Secretary to take the minutes (which is apparently ambiguous), RONR does, so it would be best to at least adopt a special rule of order providing that such-and-such staff member shall take the minutes.

I'd also note that if someone needs training in "administrative support and association management" to take your minutes, you're probably putting too much in the minutes, but that might be a battle for another day.