secretarial duties

[sillyp]

Our group (a city political organization with 40 members) meets monthly and distributes information about meetings and events by email. I am the secretary, and I send those emails out to members. If there is information people need (like, the Treasurer's report, or various lists and paperwork) it is attached to emails that go out to the group.

 

A couple of our members claim to have no email addresses--or to not look at the ones they do have. Is it necessary for me to print up copies of everything that was emailed out to members for these people? If so, must I mail the items to their homes, or can a few copies just be made available at the meetings? As it is, I call them on the phone to inform them of meeting dates/locations.

 

Our bylaws have a couple of duties listed for the Secretary, but these deal with state filings only. There is no other job description listed for the office of Secretary.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

 

[Guest Edgar]

All members have a right to be notified of all meetings. How that is accomplished is up to each organization to determine.

 

Whether (and how) any additional information is provided is also up to each organization (and, of course, fairness should be a consideration).

 

I would suggest that your organization adopt a policy so it's not up to whoever happens to be secretary at any given time.

[Gary Novosielski]

RONR [11th ed., p. 89] allows notice of meetings to be sent "by a form of electronic communication, such as e-mail or fax, by which the member has agreed to receive notice".

 

For those of your members who have not agreed, you'll need to fall back on the primary method, "by postal mail to the member's last known address".

 

Those two methods apply "unless a different standard is specified", which you are free to do, presumably in your bylaws.

[Josh Martin]

Our group (a city political organization with 40 members) meets monthly and distributes information about meetings and events by email. I am the secretary, and I send those emails out to members. If there is information people need (like, the Treasurer's report, or various lists and paperwork) it is attached to emails that go out to the group.

 

A couple of our members claim to have no email addresses--or to not look at the ones they do have. Is it necessary for me to print up copies of everything that was emailed out to members for these people? If so, must I mail the items to their homes, or can a few copies just be made available at the meetings? As it is, I call them on the phone to inform them of meeting dates/locations.

 

Well, you certainly will need to mail the notices of the date, time, and place of the meetings to them. Phone calls are not a permissible form of notice unless your bylaws so provide. No rule in RONR requires that the additional information you mention be sent in advance, so making a few copies available at the meetings seems acceptable unless your rules provide otherwise.