What Does Secretary Do? How to Make a Good Minute?

What does Secretary Do?
To sum up what a secretary do, it is to be the guardian of the process of meetings. A secretary is responsible to arrange the meeting and to make the records of process as well as any decisions made during the meeting.

Before the meeting, a secretary needs to have good preparation. It includes making arrangements for meeting, finding the venue, and deciding suitable refreshment or any facilities needed. For the agenda, it depends on the chair preferences. However, a secretary is often chosen for preparing it as well.

Regarding the agenda, it is important to make it not overloaded. Therefore, a discussion with the chair and other important people involved is needed.

Discussing about it will also cover about things that can be postponed for the next meeting or what should be covered in the written report.

Secretary’s Job at the Day of Meeting
First of all, secretaries need to know who will attend the meeting. Hence, a list of attendees is needed to be handed to the safety guards. Before the meeting starts, they need to come to the venue early for checking that everything is fine and all the things needed are present.

The next job is arranging the seating. The way how a meeting runs can be influenced by the seating. As secretary, you should mind who will participate and if it is needed, the seating should be planned well. If there is a plan to use name badges during the meeting, just arrange it in alphabetical order. The name badges are put on a table next to the door where the attendees can pick it up right after they enter the door.

It is also important to have enough copes of papers. Some people might not have the copy yet, and it will be troublesome if the member of the meeting does not get it on the day of the meeting. If the sum of papers is too much, provide a folder.

Managing the Minutes
For the minutes, you should have a sheet with a table consisting of names, organization and contact from the attendees. The sheet can be circulated during the time when the attendees introduce them self. For a brief summary, listen to the discussion and summarize it in brief, clear, and complete writing.

For more detailed minutes, just write down the main points spoken by every attendee. Write the name or initial as well. For making the writing easier, having initials or keywords for common phrase is a good and efficient way.