Do we need a Secretary?

In our current bylaws, we are supposed to have a Secretary. Nobody wants this position, so the President has been taking her own meeting minutes.

This got me thinking. The concept of a secretary is fading quickly in our society. The position essentially no longer exists in the office.

Thus, should we consider revising our bylaws to eliminate the position of Secretary, to keep our board forward thinking?

Um, I think you're confusing secretary as an assistant to an executive with Secretary as part of a group of an organization officers. The latter HAS NOT gone away - you still need someone to keep track of what the board does during its official meeting.

If your president is comfortable taking the minutes, does it accurately and people vote accordingly, that's fine. But what will you do if the president isn't there and no one has a clue on how to put them together?

If no one wants the job, you can always rotate the work. One month you take them,the next month someone else and so on. There's no reason this has to be diffi, as there are dozens of tips throughout the internet on how to put them together. You can even use a template from Word and follow that.

It may be people don't want the job because they think every single word has to be documented. Perhaps all of you should read a few articles on what a HOA secretary does (starting with your documents) and then determine what can be done to make the work easier.

Someone must take notes to record board decisions. If no one wants to, as mentioned, it might be because they think they must write down every word. That's plain wrong.

But the Board votes and wording of decisions made are part of your HOA's official record, can be used in court, etc. It's is one or only a few, or maybe no other materials, that an HOA really should keep forever.

Our Bylaws allow us to appoint owners who are not directors as officers (except for prez). Perhaps you have a kind-hearted owner who would do that. Note that s/he would have not vote and would not keep executive session minutes.

At many HOAs, both the secretary & the prez must sign the minutes thus bylaws often forbid the from being the same person.

You don't want to combine President and Treasurer. Allowing the same person to sign contracts and cut checks makes embezzlement easier - if they're separate you'd need collusion. Secretary/Treasurer is fine as long as the Secretary isn't the also the VP, since one of the VP's duties is to act in the President's place.

I would also look into the ACTUAL responsibilities of the "Secretary". It may not mean what people think it means. Our Secretarial position was responsible for keeping up with ownership status. They were to document whom lived in what home and were owners/members. This may extend into are they responsible for keeping meeting notes?

As President I was not allowed to act as the secretary. Which meant my notes could not have been "official" HOA notes. That is because President approves the minutes and puts the seal on official documents. Even though at then end of my tenure and we only had 2 members left on the board, my meeting notes were not considered "official".

So if the President takes the notes of the meeting it's okay. Just recognize those meeting notes are NOT official notes of the HOA. Official HOA notes do have legal weight and adherence. It is best to make sure they will stand up in a court of law.