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Comment by Berni on December 14, 2009 at 8:37am

Congratulations to your election - In the firefightingsystem of Austria, the secretary is a very important person, he's responsible for all correspondence, reports, minutes and so on and he updates the personal data of all members. He is usually the third highest rank in a fire department. Good luck and have a great week, Bernd

Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 9, 2009 at 3:22pm

Run copies of the minutes, hand them out and let them read. Saves time at the meeting too.
Roll call? Look at the status board. Who's in? Who's out.
Leaves all kinds of time for checking messages on phone and texting.
Time management is a wonderful thing.

Comment by Christopher Smith on December 9, 2009 at 3:01pm

Congrats on your being elected secretary for your department. I'm sure that you will do fine when it comes time to do roll call and read the previous meetings minutes! Just read loud and clear, that's all that matters.

Comment by Denise Imperiale on December 9, 2009 at 1:32pm

Steve that is GREAT advice! Thank you. Now, why didn't I think of that.

Comment by Steven on December 9, 2009 at 1:29pm

I was nominated and elected company secretary because I was a reporter for a newspaper at the time... Yeah, one more meeting I had to be at every month.... Granted, I was at all the company meetings anyway.

As a secretary, you rarely get to talk much because you're writing down what everyone else is saying... More or less. When I started out I was doing just that, but it wasn't quite necessary for minutes. Read through old minutes from your predecessors, see what the "tradition" is and keep to it. You can add things as you feel comfortable, change some things around, but start out just getting what needs to be done one.

When you're calling roll, you're looking at the paper with all the names and checking them off as you go, not as bad as public speaking. Same thing when you read last months minutes. No one's expecting you to have a great stage presence, just a loud voice! =)

And, usually, the president or CEO or whatever runs the meeting, you just have your role to play. Have fun!

Hopefully you get a place at the head table for all the banquets and get served first, that's always a plus! =)

Comment by Denise Imperiale on December 8, 2009 at 10:16pm

Hah! That gave me a laugh! I see how much work our President has. Could you imagine me as Chief? Well at least I would pester the township for a new engine.

Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 8, 2009 at 4:07pm

I was secretary of my department for 2 years.
Then, I became chief.
Same career path, perhaps?
We'll see.