Secretary

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What is the Role?

The NSW registry of Co-operatives requires that Thoughtful Foods appoint a Secretary from the director team. See [1] for a general description of the role of a secretary in a cooperative. This role also covers the very minor, but related position of ‘Public Officer’ [2].

Responsibilities

  • Official communication and liaison with the registry of co-ops, drafting and handling official correspondence.
  • Taking minutes at all director meetings
  • Ensures minutes of meetings of the board are accurate and available for membership on request;
  • Ensure dropbox is up to date. Enure that the latest versions of all official documents are uploaded to the director folder in an organised manner.
  • Ensure full name of co-op appears on all notices, official docs, etc. ie - Pigweed Food Co-operative Limited trading as Thoughtful Foods
  • Managing external correspondence, including notifying membership and the registry of co-operatives where appropriate. Note that the Treasurer and Safety officer will often talk directly to the Australian Tax Officer and Insurers respectively.
  • Assisting in organising the annual general meeting, and give minimum 2 weeks’ notice to membership. See Annual General Meeting for more details.
  • Keeping an up-to-date list of current directors and contact details on dropbox


Timeline: Crucial dates throughout the year

Monthly:

  • Take minutes at all director meetings.

Yearly:

  • Organise the AGM in May/June for meeting held in June/July
  • Notify registry of co-ops of new directors after AGM & submit Annual Return. See forms C8 & C12 in the link below. Fines apply if this is not submitted on time (by end of June)

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/About_us/Our_services/Forms/Cooperatives_forms.page


Secretary task details

How to write Director minutes

Minute are a written record of meeting proceedings, taken much the same as in other organisations. In particular to the co-op it includes noting:

  • any external correspondence,
  • decisions made by the directors,
  • important issues raised regarding the co-op’s functioning on which action is, or will occur.
  • collecting and compiling action items,

The minutes should be succinct, formal, neat, written in full sentences and not include extraneous or unimportant details that doesn’t fit the list above. There is a Thoughtful Foods specific agenda template and examples of previous minutes on Dropbox under ‘minutes and reports’. The draft agenda for each meeting should be circulated by the Chair before meetings, although the Secretary should oversee that this happens.

After the meeting

The minutes job is not done when the meeting finishes. After the meeting you must:

  • edit and sending draft minutes to director list promptly.
  • incorporate feedback and resolve disagreements about the minute’s contents,
  • upload finished minutes to dropbox and circulate to director & coordinator email list.


Liaising with registry of Co-ops

Communicating with the registry of co-ops is an intermittent task. The relevant contact details can be found at: [3] The kinds of things we liaise with registry of coops on are:

  • Audits, or a change of auditor
  • Changes to our constitution
  • Changes in legislation involving small cooperatives
  • When a director steps down, or a new one is appointment
  • Change of the Coop's address
  • Submitting our Annual Return


Annual General Meeting

General requirements for planning and running an AGM are set out on the fair trading website [4]


Key points for email notice to membership:


Email notice to all membership must be sent at least 2 weeks before the AGM that includes:

  • Agenda for AGM
  • Minutes of previous AGM
  • notify all members of the number of directors retiring at the annual general meeting; and
  • advise members of:
    • their eligibility to nominate as a director
    • the duties and responsibilities of a director ( document on dropbox)
    • the anticipated remuneration (if any); and
    • the nomination and election procedures. (document on dropbox)
  • It is nice, but not necessary to send the annual finance report and directors report with this email

For guidance, see AGM notice emails from previous emails (which will be in secretary@ gmail account)