General

The Secretary is one of the four officers of The Folk Project and is primarily responsible for recording the business conducted at the monthly Board meetings. He or she serves a 12-month term, from January to December, and like the other officers, is limited to two consecutive terms.

Work Activities

Specifically, the Secretary is responsible for:

• • Attending monthly Board Meetings and participating in the general business decisions of The Folk Project.

  • Tracking the attendance at each meeting, and informing the president when a quorum is present.

  • Keeping detailed minutes of each meeting, with particular attention to decisions made and votes cast.

  • Collecting copies of any exhibits used at the meeting, to be scanned and incorporated as part of the electronic meeting record.

  • Publishing the minutes to the Folk Project’s wiki, and sending email notification of said publication to the board.

  • Producing a brief synopsis of each meeting for the Folk Project newsletter, in accordance with the newsletter deadline.

  • Handling any correspondence that’s deemed appropriate. (The President is generally responsible for organization-level correspondence.)

In addition to the time spent on travel to and attendance at Board meetings, the Secretary's job involves a time commitment of roughly five hours per month.

Skills and Experience

Prerequisites for this position are:

• • Excellent written communications skills

  • Good listening skills

  • Punctuality (Meetings cannot be convened until a Secretary is there to take minutes.)

In addition, the successful Secretary will be:

• • Well-organized, thorough and attentive to detail

  • Flexible enough to accommodate different recollections of the meetings and make revisions that other Directors deem appropriate

  • Inflexible enough to stand firm against pressure to spin the minutes beyond what he or she considers acceptable

Finally, the following would be considered desirable, in decreasing order of importance:

• • A genuine interest and demonstrated willingness to participate in the activities of The Folk Project

  • Previous service on the Folk Project board, and familiarity with the Secretary’s role

  • Previous experience in a similar role for another non-profit organization

NOTE: Attached to this page (below) are some additional "How To" comments developed by Secretary Lindsey Meyer in 2013. Worth reading if you've gotten this far.