new secretary

[trevor]

I've just been nominated as the secretary of BSAC 1600 and wondered if any secretaries out there had any tips. Is there anything, with hindsight, that you wished you'd done from the start? Any useful adivice at all for someone in their first committee postition?
Thanks in advance
Trevor

[TerryH]

I've just been nominated as the secretary of BSAC 1600 and wondered if any secretaries out there had any tips. Is there anything, with hindsight, that you wished you'd done from the start? Any useful adivice at all for someone in their first committee postition?
Thanks in advance
Trevor

I'd say this to any new club officer. Get a small flip
notebook like police/salesmen use and start using it. Put time,
date and who said what/where, next to each note.

If you are an IT geek then get a PDA.

You will be amazed at what you may be accused of doing/not
doing. In many cases "they" are right because you forgot
that brief conversation in the pub with the ......(Insert
here).

Saves a lot of hassle later.

TerryH

[Mike Halligan]

Trevor,

Congrats, good luck.

Excellent advice from Terry.

I'd suggest you take a careful look in the mirror before setting out. You'll discover.............

only one head, no horns - so you're not the Devil incarnate,

two eyes, two ears and one mouth - to be used in strict proportion, i.e. 40% hearing, 40% seeing, 20% speaking (MAX)


Then, always remember (write on your cuff) "This is meant to be fun".


Finally, a work colleague told me 30 years ago "Even after all my service, I still cannot treat this joke as a job". Therefore, when 'it' stops being fun, stop doing 'it'.


Hope this helps,

Mike

[Edward Haynes]

Trevor

I wish I'd known there was a Branch Officers Handbook (BOH) to give me guidance when I first became a Branch Secretary / Tresurer / Diving Officer / Chairman.

I might be a little biased, but have a good read of Chapter 3: Running a Branch (see link).

Edward Haynes
BOH-IE Project Manager
Council Member - Candidate

[Astrang]

I've just been nominated as the secretary of BSAC 1600 and wondered if any secretaries out there had any tips. Is there anything, with hindsight, that you wished you'd done from the start? Any useful adivice at all for someone in their first committee postition?
Thanks in advance
Trevor

I have just become secretary too, and it is not at all easy! And yes people do expect you to record everything, even if they begin by saying you do not need to minute everything, they then change their mind when minutes come out and something has not gone in them! Therefore I would recommend, minute everything, unless politically sensative.

Good luck

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

I have just become secretary too, and it is not at all easy! And yes people do expect you to record everything, even if they begin by saying you do not need to minute everything, they then change their mind when minutes come out and something has not gone in them! Therefore I would recommend, minute everything, unless politically sensative.

An interesting point! Strictly speaking you should record everything, otherwise it is not a true record of the meeting. The old addage is "if it's not written down, it didn't happen", how are future committee members supposed to carry on/progress an issue if there is no record?

That's why we have public and private minutes of BSAC Council meetings, our private minutes are a full record warts and all. But there are some things (e.g commercial, political and personal decisions etc.) that are not in the public minutes as to do so could either invade the privacy of an individual or give commercial advantage.

So consider having that distinction, within BSAC Council the presumption is always "publish" but there are times when, for the good of the club or the protection of an individual, that we can't always publish everything. If you insist on 'write down and publish' everything then all that happens is that things that should not be public get discussed and resolved outside of formal meetings, and there's STILL no record of it!

HTH

Keith L

[Matt]

The term that features regularly in our club minutes is;

'A discussion ensued'

This is a catch all term which generally means there was a heated debate which the secretary had no chance of keeping up with.

Once people have made their views known and decided exactly what there views are, I ask them to restate the important bits. So what gets minuted is a structured summary of the highlights, and most importantly what was finally agreed.

[Bill Bird]

Having had to take notes at meetings between management and unions, I assure you that it is impossible to write everything down. It has to be a precis of what's discussed, but the important issue is write down what you can - trying to pick out the salient points, and especially noting actions and where something ahs been agreed (particularly if a vote took place). Paraphrase it into a compact minute and remember they have to be agreed, so things can be altered to reflect areas where you haven't quite hit the mark.

In four years as Secretary, and upteen years doing this on a professional basis I've never had a set of minutes not agreed, even if I have had to occassionally re-word what's been said/taken place.

Regards.


Bill

=The term that features regularly in our club minutes is;

'A discussion ensued'

This is a catch all term which generally means there was a heated debate which the secretary had no chance of keeping up with.

Once people have made their views known and decided exactly what there views are, I ask them to restate the important bits. So what gets minuted is a structured summary of the highlights, and most importantly what was finally agreed.

[trevor]

I've just been nominated as the secretary of BSAC 1600 and wondered if any secretaries out there had any tips. Is there anything, with hindsight, that you wished you'd done from the start? Any useful adivice at all for someone in their first committee postition?
Thanks in advance
Trevor

Thanks very much for the useful advice.