BLOG

Effective Board Secretaries Help Community Associations Thrive

Laura Manning-Hudson
September 23, 2022

Image

Florida community associations are required to keep certain records and make them available to all their members, so the position of secretary as the official record keeper of an association is of vital importance.

The most effective association secretaries are typically detail oriented, highly organized, efficient, and responsive.  They must be able to coordinate records and communications with property management and the other members of the board, executive committee, and other association committees.

Strong writers and communicators often do well in the position.  Secretaries are responsible for keeping the “meeting minutes” for all official association board meetings, so they must be able to listen closely to detailed discussions and distill them into clear and concise summaries.  The best ones understand that these minutes must be accurate yet concise.  They are not meant to document everything that everyone said at the meetings, but rather to list the topics and reports that were discussed, and all the actions taken.

Community association secretaries should understand that the focus of the meeting minutes must be on recording all votes and decisions.  They need only include a summary of the discussions, with a complete and accurate listing of the motions made and the resulting votes.

Other typical duties of the secretary involve state and municipal filings and paperwork, which will hopefully be handled under the guidance of qualified management and legal professionals.  Also, for the annual elections, secretaries will often be responsible for coordinating the distribution and collection of ballots and proxies as directed by the governing documents and Florida law.

Effective secretaries are among the most essential elements for community association boards of directors to function at the highest possible level.  By always ensuring that the right individual is manning the position, community associations can build a foundation for excellence in all of their management and administrative matters.

Our firm’s South Florida community association attorneys write about timely and important matters for associations in this blog, and we encourage association directors, members and property managers to enter their email address in the subscription box on the right to automatically receive all our future articles.