7 Secretary Guidelines

7 Secretary Guidelines

Volume I Issue I

© 7 Secertary Guidelines: A Publication by District Secretary Amber Lee

Start off the school year with these 7 guidelines!

Secretary’s Introduction

Page 2 Volume 1, Issue 1

Dear Club Secretaries,

The school year is here which means this is the year for you to lead and serve. This is the time of the year for you to recruit club members. Though many of you attended the Leadership Training Conference and are well aware of your duties, there will always be exceptions. Perhaps, one of us have forgotten some secretary responsibili-ties or do not know the exact way to do them. This is fine, because this guideline is here to help you.

This guideline is a revised and modi-fied version from previous secretary guidelines released throughout the years. Referring to any of them would be fine. Of course, this volume is aimed towards the 2012-2013 service year. Hold onto this guideline and always refer to it when you have a problem! Your other resource will al-ways be reaching me as well.

District Secretary

Amber Lee

Secretary’s Introduction...Page 2 Table of Contents...Page 2 The 7 Starters...Page 2 Defining Key Club Secretary...Page 3 Election Report Forms...Page 3 Monthly Report Forms...Page 4-7 Meeting Agendas + Minutes...Page 8-9 Club Roster / Points...Page 9 Service Projects/Hours Records...Page 10 Committee Reports...Page 11 Communication...Page 11 Secretary’s Final Note...Page 11 Contact Information...Page 11

The 7 Starters

1. Election Report Forms

2. Monthly Report Forms

3. Meeting Agendas + Minutes

4. Club Roster / Points

5. Service Projects/Hours Records

6. Committee Reports

7. Communication

Page 3 The 7 Secretary Guidelines

1. Election Report Forms

2. Monthly Report Forms

3. Meeting Agendas + Minutes

4. Club Roster / Points

5. Service Projects/Hours Records

6. Committee Reports

7. Communication

The Key Club Secretary is a very important job that is recognized by the New York Dis-trict and Key Club International. Just like many of the other Key Club officers, the Key Club Secretary holds a very important role to the district, club, and its members. It is a lot more than the common misconception of paperwork. A Key Club Secretary is

The Administrative Officer of the club

A record keeper

The liaison between the club officers and members

Member of the Division

A Leader

Upon being elected on the month of February to the summer time, you have a total of

7 months to get this done. This is more than enough time to submit an election re-

port form. All election report forms need to be filled out properly as soon as possible.

It is to be sent to your District Secretary, the District Administrator, and your Lieuten-

ant Governor. It can be sent in through the online server, mail, or email.

The election report form should include the following:

Name of your club

Address of your club

Division that the club is part of

Name of Sponsoring Kiwanis

Names/Positions of all officers in your club (President, Vice President, Secretary,

Treasurer, Editor, Webmaster)

Home Addresses, Cell/Telephone Numbers, and Email addresses of all officers

Faculty Advisor(s) Information: Address, Cell/Telephone Number, and Email

As soon as your club elects new officers, a new report form should be submitted. If

any information is changed, always submit a revised form. The most crucial infor-

mation are email addresses, names, and faculty advisor information. When hand-

writing these forms, make sure to write legibly. Also make sure that the email address

written is of everyday use.

Please click to

Your left

You may have seen these links a billion times. The left icon links to the website. The first tab should be the Election Report Form’s PDF file. The icon

to the right is the online ERF submission.

(1) Election Report Forms

The monthly report form, also known as the MRF is the key to relaying your club’s activities, achievements,

progress, and problems to the district. It is therefore essential that you fill it out with the utmost care and

thought.

The monthly report form is to be submitted by the 7th of each month for the service projects held on the pre-

vious month. (Example: Submitting a MRF on the 7th of September is for the projects held in August.) Elec-

tronic submission of the MRF is preferred, though mailing it is an option. The report form asks for / includes

the following:

Contact information

Your club’s projects in the past month

Meetings held by your club in the past month

Problems with your club

A section for additional comments

Checkboxes for Lieutenant Governor Evaluations

1. Contact Information

The contact information is usually the secretary’s information. However, it is preferred that you include con-

tact information of the officer that the District Secretary can easily reach.

(I may or may not contact you if you have a mistake on a report form.)

2. Club Projects

(This is going to be long.) For club projects, you will be asked for the following:

Project Name (optional)

Date of Project

Total Hours –or- Amount Raised –or- Advocacy Points

-Service Categories

Explanation

Project Name

As it is said on top, this part is optional, but recommended. This is essentially to provide a hint of what service

category the project belongs in. Whatever the project was, you can include its name. (For example, Relay for

Life, School Fundraiser, Walkathon, etc)

Date of Project

This part is rather simple, but many people forget to include this. Follow these simple tips:

If your event was held during March, then it will obviously be on the March MRF (filled on April 7th.)

Both the month and date is required for efficiency purposes. If you do not remember exactly, you may put

first week of this month or second week...etc.

Only use one project space for projects held on many dates. (For example, if you volunteer at a soup

kitchen, you can include all the dates volunteered there like 1/11, 1/16, 1/18/. Remember to indicate if

you volunteered the same or different number of hours on each day. Explain the tasks in the explanation.

Page 4 Volume 1, Issue 1

(2) Monthly Report Forms

Kiwanis Family Relations—includes all

divisional meetings.

Local Causes— projects done for your

local homes, schools, and communities.

General—projects not listed as Dis-

trict Projects but provides service to

large organizations.

Be sure to fill out the most appro-

priate category for your projects.

Page 5 The 7 Secretary Guidelines

(2) Monthly Report Forms continued...

Click on the

International

Projects

Key Club International’s major emphasis

project is aimed towards children. Every

year, International works with three or-

ganizations (to the right) as the fundraising

component of Major Emphasis. The cur-

rent service initiative is of course the

Eliminate Project.

The links above links you to the

NYDKC website explaining the

2012-2013 service year’s District

Projects/Governor’s Project.

Total Hours/Amount Raised/Advocacy Points

Total Hours: Indicate the number of hours you served on the project. The trickiest part of filling this

out is people forget to do some simple math. The total number of hours is determined by multiplying the

number of hours served at the event and the number of members that attended this event together.

(45 members serving 5 hours each is 45 x 5 = 225 hours NOT 5 hours)

Amount Raised: If you go to a fundraising event or fundraise while you serve, please include the

amount you fundraised. Keep in contact with your Treasurer for this. For example, if you went to the

Breast Cancer Walk, include the service hours that you walked, but also the money you raised for Breast

Cancer if you did fundraise. This is crucial for record purposes.

Advocacy Points: Please do not get this confused with your club’s point system. This is COMPLETELY

different. Advocacy Points are for petition purposes. For example, if you are trying to get signatures for

having more toilet paper in public restrooms. One signature = one point. Each hour of an advocacy pro-

ject = 5 points.

Service Categories

When filling out the MRF, there is a section that gives the different options of service categories. You

MUST indicate the category so the District Secretary knows what organization you served for, petitioned

for, or raised money for. If you are unsure of the category, please fill out a well-written explanation de-

scribing the event. Below you will find links to this year’s service projects by clicking on the District ban-

ner that will link you to the District website’s explanations of this year’s district projects You will also

find other links below to all of the following categories.

The Governor’s Project (chosen by the District Governor every year.)

Major Emphasis Program (MEP) Initiative

District Projects (usually for fundraising and changes every year.)

International Projects

Local Causes / General category

(2) Monthly Report Forms continued...

Explanations

This is the most important part in filling out the MRF. In the explanation, you can include almost anything.

Write a detailed and elaborate explanation about the event. It can include hours, money raised, and points accu-

mulated. Only with a detailed explanation is it possible for the District Secretary to distinguish what service

category to place your project in.

3. Club Meetings

At the bottom of the MRF, you will find a space where you are to indicate all the meetings that your club held in

the past month. Note: This does not include divisional meetings, only club level meetings, committee meet-

ings, and executive board meetings. Including the date is enough.

4. Club Problems

This part is optional, but encouraged. Whether your club is big or small, it can experience problems. If you list it

here, the District Secretary will see and email you back trying to help you as much as possible.

5. Additional Comments

Please include any additional comments in this section that you may have. The District Secretary will be reading

this as well. You may have comments on the projects chosen or something occurring in your club. Any comment

is welcomed.

6. Lieutenant Governor Evaluations

Make sure your club/club officers fill out the Lieutenant Governor evaluation form for that month. These forms

are essential to the District Governor to rate the performance of your Lieutenant Governor. These forms will

always be anonymous which will only be viewed by your District Administrator, Kiwanis Committee Representa-

tives, and District Governor. Check this box to indicate that you have submitted the form. A club can submit

more than one form (sometimes each officer has different comments). They can also submit one whenever

they want. The link to the form is found below.

Click on picture above. Go on sec-

ond tab link for the MRF in PDF for-

mat to submit by email/mail.

Click on picture above which

forwards you to the MRF online

submission format.

Click on picture above which for-

wards you to the Lieutenant Gover-

nor evaluation online submission.

Page 6 Volume 1, Issue 1

Monthly Report Form Reminders

Page 7 The 7 Secretary Guidelines

There are several things to keep in mind when filling out a monthly report form. Please take time to read this as many of you make these common mistakes. Keep these 10 tips in mind!

1. If your club did not hold any service projects/meetings during that month, fill out a BLANK MRF so we can mark down that you at least submitted one.

2. Make sure to include the RIGHT number of hours, money raised, and points accumulated. Even with an elaborate explanation, I can not predict how many hours you served.

3. Make sure you receive a receipt after you filled out your MRF. If you do not, please notify your District Secre-tary immediately. Remember to check your spam folder.

4. You can submit MRFs early if you are positive that you will not hold any more events/meetings for the re-mainder of the month.

5. If you are unsure whether you submitted your MRF or not, email your District Secretary immediately.

6. Do not list every service project under local causes. Put it in the most appropriate service category.

7. The MRF is to be sent to your District Secretary, Lieutenant Governor, and Club President.

8. You can submit the MRF through postal mail, email, and online submission.

9. If you forgot to include something on the MRF or want to revise a part, you may submit a new one. Please indicate that it is revised.

10. The MRF submitted on the 7th of that month is for the service projects held on the previous month.

Rewards for submitting in MRFs

When submitting all your MRFs on time, your club has the opportunity to

Receive the Perfect Paperwork Certificate Award.

Be nominated for other awards that require all paperwork to be filled out.

Distinguished Secretary Award.

This also helps New York District send records to Key Club International. Let’s show some New

York District pride!

Page 8

(3) Meeting Agendas + Minutes Agendas serve as a professional tool to ensure that the meeting runs smoothly. It is considered out of order if

the meeting starts to run away from the topics on the agenda. Regardless of format, all agendas should be neat,

organized, concise, and to the point. Depending on your club, the secretary, vice president, or president may be in charge of writing the meeting

agendas. This job is usually given to the vice president or secretary. Here are some tips before writing the meet-

ing agenda: Ask all officers if they have any specific topics that they want to discuss at the next meeting and to spe-

cifically include in the agenda. Provide a time frame that the meeting will be held to and from. You should not have to go over two subpoints. For example, you can bullet committee reports as part of

the agenda and then list out all the committees that need to give a report. You SHOULD NOT have to go further than that. Don’t describe what the committees should say. They should know.

A good agenda like a report/resume should not need to go over a page or else it begins to become a discus-sion packet, not an agenda.

Always include the day, date, time, and location of the meeting on the agenda. Include the Key Club Pledge, Pledge of Allegiance, and Introduction of Guests in your agenda in board

meetings and club meetings. Include the person that is to speak about a certain point if it is not the presiding officer. At the end of the agenda, it is recommended to include a section known as “open forum” so officers

can bring up something at the end of the meeting that isn’t related to the rest of the agenda. Include a questions, comments, suggestions section at the end of the agenda. Write out adjournment at the end of the agenda. Utilize graphic standards to make a Key Club agenda neat and organized. Link is on the next page.

Examples were taken from 2011-2012 District Secretary Daniel Ivan Lin.

Volume 1, Issue 1

(3) Meeting Minutes continued...

Taking minutes is another important part of your job as club secretary. Minutes allow for a recount of what was done

at a certain meeting, what was discussed, and helps when a specific point needs to be referred to. Remember, the key

to taking good minutes is being informative, yet concise and to the point. Like agendas, remember that minutes

should also be formal, neat, and organized. Here are some helpful tips:

During the meeting, write down EVERYTHING in the quickest way possible. You may abridge/change the

sentences afterwards.

If you do not have a laptop, it is best to write phrases that you will remember first.

The secretary should always call out attendance before the meetings. Introduce the new attendees in the minutes.

Remember to include the name of the club, type of meeting (committee, board, club), date of the meeting, lo-

cation of the meeting, and the time of the meeting. You can also include the minute taker as well.

Be sure to record the time when the meeting started and the time it ended. Include the duration of time used

during each discussion.

Include all points, especially major points discussed.

Minutes should not go over 4 subpoints. Once it does, it becomes extraneous information.

Include the major motions, votes (calculate the votes) and all discussion topics.

Remember to include the guest speakers’ names as well.

Use the outline of your agenda to take minutes. Both formats should be relatively the same.

You may record what is being said in the meeting with an electronic device if you wish.

Do not repeat points. If a point was already made, you do not have to write it again in the minutes even if it was

mentioned multiple times during the meeting.

Jot down all questions and comments made during the meeting as well.

It is optional but if you wish to present your minutes, you may include a cover page.

You should always have a backup file for your minutes. Send your minutes out to whoever attended the meeting.

This includes club advisors regardless of attendance. Send a copy to your Lieutenant Governor as well.

Page 9 The 7 Secretary Guidelines

(4) Club Roster and Points

You should work with the Vice President of your

club to create a club roster of all the members in

your club with their necessary information which

may include their name, grade, official class,

school number, committee, address, phone #s,

and emails.

This is designed to help you record due submis-

sion and service hours completed. Always backup

this file. This should be done right away in the be-

ginning of the school year to when recruiting mem-

bers is over.

Points can be given out to mem-

bers as a form of motivation. It is

the secretary’s job to count and re-

cord the points they deserve. You

should send points out in a regular

basis so members know how many

points they have. Set a goal for them

when it comes to points as well.

Click for

Key Club

Graphic S

tandards

Page 10

(5) Service Projects/Hours R

ecords

Service Projects records are very important. These records should include the following: (An example can be

found below.) Name of Project

Description of the Project

Month the Project took place

Number of Volunteers/Attendees

Number of Hours Served

Advocacy Points/Amount Fundraised if you find it necessary (optional)

This is helpful to officers for the future, because they have a reference to refer to. Note: You can submit this in

your binder for the Distinguished Secretary award as well.

Service Projects Records

Charts example

Project Name Description Month # of Volunteers # of Hours

Local Beach Clean-up

Members went to the school’s local beach to clean up with other members of the club and division. Reached out to

the other clubs in the division.

August 45 180

Dragon Boat Festi-val

Key Clubbers set up booths, set up, and cleaned up before, during, and after the event.

August 20 100

Breast Cancer Walk

Walked 5 miles to help Breast Cancer. Sponsored by American Cancer Society. Raised $280 for ACS.

October 50 200

UNICEF Trick or Treat

Rang doorbells of people nearby for UNICEF. Raised $580 after months.

October 25 125

Soup Kitchen Used three weekends to serve food to the poor. Washed dishes.

December 15 45

Flowers for Favor-ites

Helped the school wrap flowers for Valentine’s Day. Raised $1200. Key Club received $100 for own funding.

February 22 110

Leadership Train-ing Conference

Annual conference in Albany, New York where all division clubs gathered to learn, retire/elect the new board.

March 18 --

Relay for Life Sponsored by ACS. School created a 12-hour long event with events and booths to raise money for cancer patients

and cancer research with a luminaria ceremony.

March 30 360

Induction Retired the old board and celebrated the year’s of hard work.

March 100 --

(5) Service Hours Records As club secretary, it is also important to record the number of hours each member served throughout the year in an efficient manner. You can include this in the club roster.

Make sign in/out sheets during events.

Create spreadsheets using different software (ex. Microsoft Excel)

Have a person be in charge of these sheets during each event. Set a time that they have until submitting the sheet.

Post updated service hours on the website and at club meetings.

Volume 1, Issue 1

(7) Communication

Keep in contact with the following people at all times:

Your club members: Since you will recording their service hours, it is

helpful to begin memorizing their names and faces. Furthermore, a

friendlier club is created when you know your club members well.

Your club board/committee board: These officers will be the main

source of communication so make sure that these people are always

there working with you . Develop good relations with them.

Club President: Always ask the president if he/she needs help.

Your advisors/school faculty: Most of the time, you will need to ask

them for favors. Show them respect.

Immediate Past Club Secretary : They may have important resources

for you and they will usually train you before DCON/Leadership

Training Conference.

Other Club Secretaries: Sometimes you may want to work with other

club secretaries and share ideas.

Lieutenant Governor: Know who your LTG is. They will provide you

with news from the District and may be the ones writing a recommen-

dation for you in the future.

District Secretary: He/She will always be there for you. He/She may be

the one writing your recommendation letter for awards as well. Fur-

thermore, this person is most familiar with all secretary duties.

Page 11 The 7 Secretary Guidelines

(6) Committee Reports

It is usually the job of the Vice President to assign work for the committees in your club. However, it is your job to col-lect their committee reports, read them, revise them, and give suggestions. This can also be done with the rest of your club. Set up a format of how you want their committee reports to look like. It is best to revise it each year. Here is an example of what you can include:

Name of committee leader(s)

Name all the meetings held during that month.

Specifically indicate what was discussed during each meeting.

After these meetings, what were some notable ideas/discussions?

Please include the links, files, work that you and your committee members have completed during the month.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions

Committee reports are important so that they can be passed on to the next officers and committee leaders so they know how to run their committee(s).

(7) Communication

Keep in contact with the following people at all times:

Your club members: Since you will recording their service hours, it is

helpful to begin memorizing their names and faces. Furthermore, a

friendlier club is created when you know your club members well.

Your club board/committee board: These officers will be the main

source of communication so make sure that these people are always

there working with you . Develop good relations with them.

Club President: Always ask the president if he/she needs help.

Your advisors/school faculty: Most of the time, you will need to ask

them for favors. Show them respect.

Immediate Past Club Secretary : They may have important resources

for you and they will usually train you before DCON/Leadership

Training Conference.

Other Club Secretaries: Sometimes you may want to work with other

club secretaries and share ideas.

Lieutenant Governor: Know who your LTG is. They will provide you

with news from the District and may be the ones writing a recommen-

dation for you in the future.

District Secretary: He/She will always be there for you. He/She may be

the one writing your recommendation letter for awards as well. Fur-

thermore, this person is most familiar with all secretary duties.

Final Note

Remember to hold these guidelines with you before Fall Rally. If you follow these

guidelines, your year will run a lot smoother. I will be coming out with

more resources for the Fall Rally. Even if I am not at your Fall Rally, you will

get the resources from your Lieutenant Governor so don’t worry.

-District Secretary

Amber Lee

Contact Information:

1935 Cropsey Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11214

1 (347) 653 3656

[email protected]

www.issuu.com/amberlee.editor

Youtube channel: Click the link below!

www.keyclub.org / www.nydkc.org

3636 WOODVIEW TRACE INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46268 • 317.875.8755 • US AND CANADA: 800-KIWANIS

September 2012