The Role of Chapter Secretary
Chapter Secretary
The secretary position has wide-ranging responsibilities, requiring much more than simply being present at all board meetings.
This document is a template or a starting point, to communicate the role of a chapter secretary to effectively recruit and welcome new leaders to help your board thrive. Customizing this position description to meet your board’s goals and objectives will help ensure that everyone is aware of policies, responsibilities and expectations which bolsters recruitment efforts, maximizes the new leader experience and increases the team’s success.
Position Specific Recruitment
Position success is directly related to finding the right person for the opportunity. The recruitment process is an integral part of that success. Forethought and on-going leadership succession are important facets of a successful recruitment strategy.
Recruiting the right talent at the right place and at the right time, takes time and effort but more importantly, it takes planning. Ideally your board has a leadership succession plan and is building potential leaders as an on-going practice. Recruitment efforts can be facilitated through a committee or an identified individual. Regardless of structure, it is important to be aware of potential leaders to identify planned involvement opportunities.
To generate a pool of qualified people, one must know what they are ideally seeking in a candidate. Reviewing the TU Leadership Manual (Chapter 4) is a great place to start to better understand the facets that make a good candidate.
When looking to fill this position, you might consider the following characteristics:
- Commitment and interest
- Ability to attend meetings
- Clear, friendly and professional written communication skills
- Organized with an eye for detail to be prompt, manage timelines, etc.
- Interest and ability to work as a team
- Previous experience with knowledge of board procedures and/or willing to learn
- Support of the TU conservation mission
Welcoming New Leaders
Welcoming a new leader is another critical piece that will increase the success rate of your new board member. Introducing the new leader, showing appreciation for their service and communicating position expectations goes a long way in setting the person up for success. Some tactics to consider:
- Welcome Packet: Put together a packet of important resources to show organization, effectiveness and that you are vested in their success. Consider including: position description, TU Leadership Manual, board contact information, strategic plan, annual report and other items that might be of interest to them
- Check-In: Schedule meetings with the new leader to allow you both to ask questions and/or better understand any concerns. These meetings can be on the phone or in person
- Mentorship: Connect new leaders with experienced board members to ask questions and share feedback
Chapter Secretary
The board secretary performs a variety of tasks aimed at managing the records and administrative
functions of the team.
The secretary position has wide-ranging responsibilities, requiring much more than simply being present at all board meetings. He or she is an active conduit for communication to members and other stakeholders by giving proper notice of upcoming meetings and timely distribution of materials such as agendas and meeting minutes. Additionally, the secretary should be knowledgeable of the organization’s records and related materials, providing advice and resources to the board on topics such as governance issues, amendments to state laws, etc. that will assist the board in fulfilling their fiduciary duties.
Key Responsibilities
The chapter secretary must ensure that the following responsibilities are completed (personally or delegates tasks):
- In conjunction with the executive committee, prepare an agenda for each month’s board meeting and distribute it out to the board, with associated reading materials, in advance of the meeting.
- Attend chapter meetings in order to prepare and distribute the meeting minutes of the chapter.
- Meeting minutes are detail reports that highlight the predetermined agenda as well as what actually took place (date, time, attendees), determination of vote eligibility (was there a quorum or not), decision making process (vote tally), action items for individuals, etc…
- After each meeting, send the minutes to the attendees to solicit edits and confirm their accuracy before finalizing them.
- Distribute the previous meeting minutes with the upcoming agenda before each board meeting so that they can be formally approved.
- Retain records. These documents may include:
- Board and committee rosters
- Bylaws & revisions (which can be stored in the Leaders Only Tools section of tu.org)
- Strategic Plan (which can be stored in the Leaders Only Tools section of tu.org)
- Agendas and minutes
- Assist in the communication and correspondence of the board to members and the general public, including notice of your general membership meetings to members as required in your bylaws.
- Assist with board member recruitment. Consider chairing your chapter nominating committee.
- Assume responsibilities of the president in the absence of the president and vice president.
- In conjunction with the executive and nominating committees, prepare the slate of board nominees for elections as required per your bylaws.
- With the chapter executive committee, become familiar with and understand TU’s risk management and insurance limitations and ensure the chapter is compliant.
- Ensure the chapter president lists you as the secretary on the chapter officer roster and chapter contact information in the Leaders Only Tools section of tu.org.
- Particularly if your chapter is large enough to file a Form 990, ensure that you have the proper controls in place such as a conflict of interest form, document retention form, whistle blower policy and that you’ve shared the Form 990 with your entire chapter board.
- Ensure donations to your chapter are properly acknowledged.
- Consider appointing an assistant secretary, such that you are transferring knowledge to a successor at an early stage and have someone ready and willing to step in to take the minutes if you can’t be at every meeting.
Elected By/ Reports To
Board of Directors/Board Chairperson
Term Length
Per by-laws
Time Commitment
Monthly meetings; additional time required for committee work and other board commitments.
Budget Support
Limited
Task Calendar
January
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Prepare for February IRS filing deadline with Treasurer
- Review important documents to keep chapter compliant (bylways, TU’s risk management and insurance limitations)
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
February
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Collect and store legacy documents for committee members (online archive of minutes, position instructions, etc)
- Ensure donations to your chapter are properly acknowledged
- Review position documents and update as needed (legacy documents)
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
March-August
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
September
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Collect and store legacy documents for committee members (online archive)
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
- Prepare for filling the Annual Financial Report with Treasurer
October
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
November
- Update Leaders Only Tools section’s online leadership roster
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes and election nominees
- Communicate notices with members and the general public
- Collect and store legacy documents for committee members (online archive)
- Confirm the filing of Annual Financial Report by deadline
December
- Circulate board meeting agenda with previous meeting minutes
- Communicate notices with members and the general public