New secretary here

[Ninsuna]

The women's group I attend elected a new secretary last night...me. I'm grateful and honoured and touched they gave me this, I knew I wanted a service position eventually but wasn't expecting it this soon.

So my question is, what advice do ya'll have? What do good secretaries do? I am especially concerned with finding/approaching chairpersons each week whose share can inspire the group.
We have a few who sit at the same table and talk and giggle a lot while others are speaking. Is it the secretaries' job to address stuff like that?


I keep telling myself these are savvy women who know what they were doing when they picked me, but I am having a wee little freakout.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Charmie]

i dont have any advice for you,our meetings are done differently here in the Uk.however i would like to say congrats and thanks for your service.

[Dime]

Congratulations!

From what I know of here it varies by club. Sometimes the role is pretty much the classic role of a secretary and in others there is considerably more responsibility. Some will have written By-Laws explaining all the roles of the board members. It is a great opportunity to learn how the club functions.

[McGowdog]

I am the secretary of my group and have been in most every group that I've belonged to. Why? IDK. Maybe it's my willingness to do two things... take the minutes in our group conscience and maintain our groups' phone list. That's all I do really.

An example of our minutes off the top of my head;

How It Works Group Conscience (held last Monday of the month). Date:

Chaired by: ____________
Tradition of that month Long Form read by: __________

Minutes from last month read by me, a motion to accept by ______, 2nded by_____ and passed by group Y/N.

Treasure's report given by; Acting Tresurer, the rent paid for ____ month, and the Prudent Reserve left over. (IF coffee or supplies or books need to be purchased, that's arranged. At the end of the year, we move excess money up to the local CSO for our area which serves Southern Colorado (in Pueblo). They have us listed in the area meeting list and that brings us people to our meeting listed as a Closed A.A. meeting.

Treasurer's Report is read by the treasurer, a motion to accept by ______, 2nded by_____ and passed by group Y/N.

New business;

We go around the room and see if anyone has any new business to bring up. If not, I say NNT for No New Topic.

Then we go around and vote whether to discuss any topics brought up. If we vote to discuss we go around the room and discuss the topic on the table. If necessary, we make a motion for the group to vote on. We vote. If necessary, we discuss minority opinion, then vote again. If it wins, the motion is put into effect. If not, things stay the same.

We adjourn with the Lord's Prayer and the next month, it all happens again.

__________________________________________________ ___________

The A.A. Service Manual says something about this on page S60;

Secretary Qualifications: "Reasonable period of sobriety" may mean 2 years in an area where A.A. is still young, four or five years in an older area.

Sense of order. Taking minutes... sifting through thousands of words... looking for the "kernel".

So a secretary can be the maker of popcorn? Hmmm...

Just suit up, show up, and do your best... and bring your pen and paper. You'll do fine!

[Clutch B]

Is the previous Secretary still around? Usually people are happy to shadow with you until you get on your feet.

Congrats on the position!

Recovery, Unity, Service ...

[Boleo]

Originally Posted by Ninsuna

We have a few who sit at the same table and talk and giggle a lot while others are speaking. Is it the secretaries' job to address stuff like that?

Don't confuse being a secretary with being a chair-person. IMO a secretary is active only in the Group Conscious meetings.

[freya]

Originally Posted by Ninsuna

The women's group I attend elected a new secretary last night...me. I'm grateful and honoured and touched they gave me this, I knew I wanted a service position eventually but wasn't expecting it this soon. .

Congratulations, that's awesome -- and you should give yourself credit both for the willingness to take this on and for the fact that your homegroup members endorse you in doing so!

Originally Posted by Ninsuna

So my question is, what advice do ya'll have? What do good secretaries do? I am especially concerned with finding/approaching chairpersons each week whose share can inspire the group.
We have a few who sit at the same table and talk and giggle a lot while others are speaking. Is it the secretaries' job to address stuff like that?.

Around here, the secretary typically reads the group announcements (upcoming events, reports/requests/policies from group conscience, anything that people might need to know about the meeting facility, etc...) and recognizes anniversaries and guests or newcomers to the meeting. Most of the meetings around here have a separate position for Speaker Seeker / Talker Stalker / whatever you want to call it....because that can get to be a pretty big job if you have to find one every week. And, yes, it usually does end up falling to the secretary to "take care of" people who can't/don't respect the guidelines for appropriate behavior as set by the group conscience.

As Clutch said, the person you're taking over from is probably the best person to go for advice/guidance....and if you find out that the group doesn't have a clear understanding as to what exactly your duties are, then it might be a good idea to request a group conscience to establish that, because it will definitely make your life easier!

Originally Posted by Ninsuna

I keep telling myself these are savvy women who know what they were doing when they picked me, but I am having a wee little freakout.

Ask for help and do your best -- you just need to be a trusted servant, not an infallible ruler!

freya

[Ninsuna]

Perhaps I should be more clear about what I mean by secretary here. We call the person responsible for running a particular meeting (getting the doors open, making coffee, starting the meeting with the preamble and announcements) the secretary. My home group has 3-5 meetings a day, depending on the day of the week. Every secretary is obliged to attend the "business meeting" once a month, but I am not referring to an elected position within that body. I am only responsible for running a weekly women's meeting. Am I making sense here? Sorry for the confusion, I think in different areas we may use different terminology.

[Ninsuna]

Originally Posted by freya

Around here, the secretary typically reads the group announcements (upcoming events, reports/requests/policies from group conscience, anything that people might need to know about the meeting facility, etc...) and recognizes anniversaries and guests or newcomers to the meeting. Most of the meetings around here have a separate position for Speaker Seeker / Talker Stalker / whatever you want to call it....because that can get to be a pretty big job if you have to find one every week. And, yes, it usually does end up falling to the secretary to "take care of" people who can't/don't respect the guidelines for appropriate behavior as set by the group conscience.
freya

Thanks, Freya. It sounds like we do things much the same as you, but we don't have a separate person to "talker stalk" each week and that is the part that gives me most concern. BTW, any women planning to be in my neck of the woods on a Wed night, PM me! lol. Seriously...PM me...please.

[Dime]

I am the secretary of a group and in this particular group the secretary is responsible to make sure that we have a chairperson selected for the month, a leader, chips, a literature person and a coffee person. I also make sure that the chairperson and leader and if not find another chairperson and leader prior to the meeting start. There is no note keeping in my function.

[nelco]

I am sec in my group and I.....

arrive before everyone else. set up the room (usually with the help of members)

pick up milk and cakes/cookies en route. (comes out of funds,)

make sure literature is on display, steps are hung on wall. put up slogans.

Organize speaker from week to week. I travel to other meetings also and if I like someone's share..... I invite them to our group to share their ESH. if there is a member visiting your group, you could invite them back to share..

I also have a list of speakers I collected over the years

sounds a lot but its not......and if you are lucky enough to come from a strong group like I do, you will have lots of members helping you.

collect post and post up on notice board any upcoming convention info etc.

start the meeting......read the preamble, have someone read a piece from big book.... Introduce speaker. ...floor shares....pass basket around for tradition 7......more sharing....thank speaker..someone reads promises...I then read tradition 12......finish the meeting with the serenity prayer and the lords prayer (for those who wish)

I live in Ireland.....and it seems to vary from group to group and area to area. plus every group autonomous...but your group format sounds a lot like mine.

[Tommyh]

thats good for you to do the job.Great!
I would just stick with the usual format during the meetings.Once you get it started,it usually takes care of itself.
i will say one thing my group likes

start on time,and stop on time
and
The older members will probably help out if something weird happens.

[barb dwyer]

I'm our District Secretary, I've pm'd you some info I found online that helped me a LOT ... the job of secretary, I've come to learn, was the first paid job in the history of aa. She was a non-alcoholic, and only took the job as a temp to save up $$$ to go to mexico and study art or something.

It's in one of the commemorative grapevine issues.

Anyhoo - depending on your group - the secretary is the keeper of all the records. The secretary does all correspondence, takes the minutes of the business meeitngs, and in some groups - is even the trusted servant who arranges and calls for the business meetings.

welcome aboard! hope this and what I sent ya helps!

[CarolD]

how exciteing for you.....

[Wolfchild]

Anytime someone accepts a responsibilty to help carry a message of recovery, it's like fireworks in my heart!

Thank you for helping us to strengthen our gratitude for our fellowship by your desire & willingness to serve!!

[Pagekeeper]

I'm the secretary for my home group. My responsabilities are similar to what McDog wrote. I'm the notetaker. I read the minutes. I make changes to the format when necessary. I make sure the format reads "smoothly," and is spelled correctly, no typos, etc. I keep hard copies of the different meeting formats on a disc along with other important info. Last month I had to go back through the minutes and see what the group had decided months ago for expenses for a certain event. I emailed this info to the treasurer, GSR, and chair so that a few people knew and not just one. Sometimes discussions can get heated and complicated. This is when good listening skills and the ability to summarize the main points come in handy.

[Gypsy Feet]

no advice, but the wee little freak out made me giggle