Honorary Secretary duties

The secretary’s role is to be the guardian of the process of meetings. This is usually the person who makes the arrangements for the meetings and keeps formal records of the group’s discussions and decisions: the minutes of the meeting.

  • Prepare the agenda in collaboration with the Chairperson. Collate and circulate any associated documents that are to be discussed/referred to at the meeting.
  • Arrange the date, time, and venue of the meetings (use doodlepoll or similar). A notice of at least 21 days is required to call a meeting.
  • Keep a formal record of the main business of the meeting in the form of Minutes, and a separate list of actions.
  • Write up and circulate a draft set of minutes to the rest of the council for comments and corrections. Amend draft minutes and circulate with the agenda for ratification at the council meeting.
  • The agreed minutes are the final record of the meeting and should be filed with other governance documents (now maintained in a PMNHS Dropbox folder).
  • Between meetings, remind the council of the agreed actions and keep up-to-date with progress.
  • Maintain contact details of council members.

Annual General Meeting.

  • Preparation, of the agenda and collation of officer’s reports in collaboration with Chairperson.
  • Prepare and send out a notice of the AGM and request nominations for election at least 21 days in advance of the meeting. The information is usually printed in the Bulletin and posted on the website and sent to members via Mailchimp email (in collaboration with the Website Officer).
  • Co-ordinate nominations. Council members are usually elected for 3 years and can be re-elected on a vote by conference delegates. Check which members need to stand down before re-election.
  • Keep a formal record of the main business of the meeting in the form of Minutes, including proposers and seconders for the election of members. The draft minutes should be circulated to the council to check for accuracy but agreed by members at the following AGM.
  • Maintain any amendments to the constitution ratified at the AGM.