PTAC Secretary Training Sept. 18, 2013
PTAC Secretaries:
Leslie
Jane
California State PTA website has information on what is expected of a PTA Secretary:
Click the link for Toolkit.
Summary:
The Secretary takes attendance, records the motions and the person who made each motion, as well as the results of the vote on the motion. It’s helpful for the PTA to have that permanent record so that it can be easily checked if there are questions. It’s best to keep all handouts from each meeting, including copies of the Agenda, the Budget and Check Register. Original copies of the Check Register and Budget stay w/the Treasurer, but it’s helpful for the Secretary to have a copy.
The Secretary’s signature can be required on certain documents, particularly the financial reports when checks have been written. It’s important for the Secretary to record in the minutes each of the checks that have been written and the motion that passed that allowed those checks to be drawn on the PTA account. It’s particularly helpful when the books are audited to have this information recorded.
It’s a good idea to make a binder, with dividers for each meeting. Having the Bylaws with you and the Standing Rules, as well as a list of the officers and committees is also a good idea. In some cases the PTA has a parliamentarian who may take care of these other tasks.
For each meeting, the Secretary normally brings prior minutes for approval. Bringing copies are helpful, unless the President does the copying of the agenda, minutes and treasurer’s report, or displays them electronically.
To keep attendance you can just pass around a sign in sheet or if you want to do more work you can prepare a form which people can initialize.
It’s frequently best to finish writing up the minutes right away while the events are still fresh. Some Secretaries bring laptops and take notes during the meeting in those to save rewriting later. After preparing your draft minutes, you may want to send the minutes to the President and the rest of the Executive Board so that they may read them prior to the next meeting.
Some Presidents like to have the minutes files uploaded to a Yahoo or other group area, so that they can be easily accessed. The hard copy past minutes can be kept in a central place as well, and that is required by the by-laws.
At the end of your tenure, it’s nice to make a CD of the year’s minutes, or at least send electronic copies/files to your successor to make for an easy transition.