Author Topic: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary  (Read 6709 times)

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Offline MichaelEvans

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2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« on: October 08, 2007, 01:16:43 pm »
the SECRETARY
is responsible for the following:

The duties of the Secretary shall be to:
  • 1. Keep a record of the minutes of each Director and Membership meeting and;
  • 2. Handle all organization correspondence.
  • 3. Give notices for Membership and Board meetings.
  • 4.  Maintain records of member names and addresses.
  • 5.  Authenticate records of the corporation

Failure to actively persue the above responsibilities is legitimate cause for a motion to dismiss by any member of the board.

Please post your comments and questions for the nominees who have accepted the nomination for  below.

Nominees are listed here: http://www.kumoricon.org/forums/index.php?topic=5593.0

Corrections to this list may be made by nominating a person...
... Follow This Link and reply.

To Secretary
   1) What experience do you have in business style organization of records
   2) What do you feel is your biggest desire for policy renovation or update during the 2008 year?
   3) As you will be in charge of Organizational correspondence, how well do you see yourself as being both the professional and social face of the board towards the rest of the Organization?
   4) What plans do you have towards creating private and public records of staff?

Secretary:
How fast can you type? As in, how fast can you record the information at meetings without asking for a pause in discussion?
Do you plan on talking with Publicity about distributing your information through the newsletter?
Have you ever been in charge of a mailing list? If so, how many people were on it?
« Last Edit: October 08, 2007, 01:41:23 pm by guspasho »
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2010-2008: Website Development (So very very much in the last month before the convention at last; Good thing I'm looking for work x.x and have the spare time ~.~)
2007: Website Administration (Mascot Voting Input, Live Schedule)

Offline gemineye42

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2007, 10:06:54 am »

To Secretary
   1) What experience do you have in business style organization of records?


I keep records at my current job, and have for several past jobs in both secretarial and managerial positions. I am fond of using a double-backup system with both electronic records, stored off-site, and paper backups.

  2) What do you feel is your biggest desire for policy renovation or update during the 2008 year?

I actually concur with a lot of the policy changes this year that were made. I feel the last board did a commendable job in clarifying some facts and equalizing rights among the membership. My next steps would be to move for higher staff-appreciation and value.

   3) As you will be in charge of Organizational correspondence, how well do you see yourself as being both the professional and social face of the board towards the rest of the Organization?


As a working professional for many years, I have no trouble keeping things that way. I have gained extensive amounts of customer service experience in my career, which has helped me phenomenally in more aspects than I could have imagined - a simple "thank you" goes a long way these days. Anyone who's spoken to me knows I'm a very social person, and I am always interested in what's going on or what someone has to say.

  4) What plans do you have towards creating private and public records of staff?

I like the current system with private staff records viewable to all approved staff. As far as public records go, I think having names available with positions on the website will help alleviate some confusion for those attendees with a question or an offer to help or run a panel, etc. Upon approval from selected staff I would put names and departments available with the kumoricon.org e-mail addresses. I'd also like to set up a monitor on those inboxes to reduce spam, and also to ensure that questions being asked are answered in a timely manner.

5) How fast can you type? As in, how fast can you record the information at meetings without asking for a pause in discussion?

I actually have not taken a WPM test in a long time, so I am not sure how fast I type. Since I do record meeting minutes regularly at my job without being hindered, I can assume I will do the same for Kumoricon meetings.


6) Do you plan on talking with Publicity about distributing your information through the newsletter?


I plan to talk to Publicity about a LOT of things! I am always keen to share and bounce ideas off of informed, knowledgeable people. I do think a minutes record available in newsletter format may be a good idea, and worth pursuing.

7) Have you ever been in charge of a mailing list? If so, how many people were on it?

I have run a couple mailing lists for games I ran, and currently co-manage the Portland L5R mailing list, which has about 30 members.

A couple of notes I would like to make before I'm done.

I have been with Kumoricon for 3 years. I've always worked in Gaming and this past year managed the Gaming room. I have many years of con experience, most of it back in California from before I moved here, in MANY different areas of the con, including Staff Preservation, Volunteer Organization, and many more. I have loved conventions since I was a child and I see very great things for Kumoricon - which statistically is already doing better than most.

As Secretary, I have a few things I want to really focus on for 2008. Top-notch record-keeping is one of them! My goal with this is so that anyone who does ANYTHING for the con, even just held a sign for an hour, is recorded, so they can be properly recognized and applauded for their efforts.

Secondly, I am really focused on diplomatic awareness, and want the volunteer and staff membership to know that they can come to me with anything. If they are having a problem with their director, another staffer, or something about their department, I want to be their go-to girl and a voice to the board or involved parties. Some folks are scared of approaching someone they have an issue with, and having a mediator available to bring the parties together, address the issue, and encourage a solution is helpful. I'd like to personally take on this role within staff and make sure everyone knows I am a resource available to them.

I would lastly like to mention my apologies for missing meetings last year. I was working a position which did not allow weekends off and had a hard time getting things done. In remedy, I am not working a weekday job and have plenty of time free for meetings and preparation thereof. If I am elected I have set in place a very capable staff to handle Gaming for 2008. I encourage the board to consider the Gaming room in 2007 when considering my application - many of you may not have been able to see, but I worked very hard to make that room run as flawlessly as it did this year, and I laid the groundwork for future managers to continue its success. Some people I can list as references to my character, organization, and willingness to see the con succeed are Tom, Mark Webb, and Jaki Hunt.

I welcome more questions if they come up, and thank you for your consideration!
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Offline RemSaverem

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2007, 10:34:51 am »
Personally I have never really been satisfied with the condition of minutes for the con. I work professionally as a Medical Transcriptionist, and I have also worked within my former LARP pirate fleet in the SCA as log mistress engaging, and volunteered within the War Resisters League engaging, what is known as process recording. Process recording basically is typing as close to verbatim as possible everything that is said or gestured and by whom in the correct chronological order. That's what I'm used to. I'm not saying that magnitude of detail is required or even would be helpful for the majority of con affairs & GMs. However, I have generally felt that way too much was missing or implied rather than stated in terms of what is or is not included in our minutes. I feel they've historically been oversimplified, too much is left out. I have no idea if any of the candidates have any capacity or any inclination to attempt process recording, nor if any of the elected or appointed position holders would be interested in such, at least for closed access minutes, if there are such a thing. For example, are Alto Nimbus minutes taken? If so, are they taken by the same person as the con secretary? Are only AN members allowed to read them? Etc.

BTW I also find it a little embarrassing when posted minutes, such as for the recent elections, are posted with so many typos that would be so easy to correct (rampant spelling errors). It looks very unprofessional.

Would there be a process for minutes to be reviewed prior to posting, by someone supervising the secretary, for (a) acurateness, (b) thoroughness, (c) general proofreading?

BTW no i'm not thinking of running for the position ( i love what i do in programming). i just want to see more professional and more thorough minutes when possible and permissible.
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2004: Beta Station Coord. 2005: Fan Creation Station Coord.;pre-event assistant to the con chair.2006: Fanfic Mgr/C.S. Coord.
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Offline gemineye42

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2007, 11:22:29 am »
I completely agree Rem - as a spelling and grammatical error nut, I would never consider posting something official with any errors (no offense meant to Tara who did the election minutes, as she is not Secretary and it wasn't her job) at all. I keep all of my professional work as accurate as possible, and would likely proof-read my work on minutes before posting them - one of the nice features of Office 2007 (which I have in its entirety) is spell and grammar check. I might also rely on another person to re-read them for me before I post them publicly, but in the interest of time I may not.

Maybe you'll be my proof-reader Rem! Heehee...
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Offline RemSaverem

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2007, 02:07:28 pm »
I completely agree Rem - as a spelling and grammatical error nut, I would never consider posting something official with any errors (no offense meant to Tara who did the election minutes, as she is not Secretary and it wasn't her job) at all. I keep all of my professional work as accurate as possible, and would likely proof-read my work on minutes before posting them - one of the nice features of Office 2007 (which I have in its entirety) is spell and grammar check. I might also rely on another person to re-read them for me before I post them publicly, but in the interest of time I may not.

Maybe you'll be my proof-reader Rem! Heehee...

That's very sweet of you, and of course I'd be open to helping you in any way, but that wasn't the goal for which I was striving. I think it would be logical for the con board to be involved in helping you, or any secretary, to determine whether to have a beta and if so, whether that person should be appointed by you, the board, or rotate among members actually in attendance for the given meeting. For example, you're likely to take minutes of meetings I'm not able or not allowed to attend; the most logical beta would be one attending all the meetings, to be able to beta not only syntax, typos, etc., but also content accuracy and chronology......However, should you start writing any fanfiction, I'd be delighted to beta for you :)   In the meantime, if you randomly wanted someone to look over your minutes, I'd be into helping if permitted.
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2004: Beta Station Coord. 2005: Fan Creation Station Coord.;pre-event assistant to the con chair.2006: Fanfic Mgr/C.S. Coord.
2007, 8, 9, 10: Fan Creation Manager. 2011: Writing & Editing Coord (Publicity).

Offline superjaz

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2007, 05:05:10 pm »
god can you all imagin if i was secratery? the forums would be doomed, trapped in a world of spelling erors and baaaaadd grammer
it scares even me 0.o
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Offline gemineye42

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2007, 09:29:16 pm »
If I had mod privileges, I would edit everyone's posts for spelling and grammar errors! Bwahahaha!
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Offline JeffT

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2007, 09:31:44 pm »
I work professionally as a Medical Transcriptionist, and I have also worked within my former LARP pirate fleet in the SCA as log mistress engaging, and volunteered within the War Resisters League engaging, what is known as process recording. Process recording basically is typing as close to verbatim as possible everything that is said or gestured and by whom in the correct chronological order. That's what I'm used to. I'm not saying that magnitude of detail is required or even would be helpful for the majority of con affairs & GMs. However, I have generally felt that way too much was missing or implied rather than stated in terms of what is or is not included in our minutes. I feel they've historically been oversimplified, too much is left out. I have no idea if any of the candidates have any capacity or any inclination to attempt process recording, nor if any of the elected or appointed position holders would be interested in such, at least for closed access minutes, if there are such a thing.

The minutes shouldn't be a transcriptions of everything that happens. They should present summary, and also include all actions taken of significance (some of which may require a record, legally or otherwise). Literal transcriptions of spoken, and especially extemporaneous and conversational words, read very badly, and don't allow for the influence of body language, tone, seriousness vs. joking, immediate back-and-forth reactions between people and/or the audience, and more. In addition, although the meetings are open to the public, that doesn't mean everything spoken at such meetings should be published to the world at large--only those people who actually made the effort to attend, and are of course visible in the audience at that moment. For example, comments that are potentially embarrassing to an individual (either the speaker or somebody else) might deliberately be left out.

According to Robert's Rules (which we are not bound by), minutes should have even less than the above. They should only contain what is done, not what was said, and in particular, this includes records of several types of motions and their outcomes, but not the contents of discussion or debate. Committee reports are only entered if they are of "great importance" or otherwise ordered to be entered. If we were to be bound by Robert's Rules or similar rules, we would probably have to publish our department reports separately from the minutes.

To reiterate, we aren't bound by Robert's Rules. I just gave this example to show what minutes traditionally contain. I do prefer the extra discussion and reports that are recorded in our minutes currently, but the minutes shouldn't be transcripts, either.
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Offline staze

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2007, 10:09:17 am »
as a note... I didn't take the last minutes. They were taken by Tamara Fuller, as I was running the elections (as you can clearly see by the minutes taken by line). Other minutes are usually taken by me (if it says Secretary: Ryan Stasel, then it's me taking them)...

And personally, and no offense to anyone... spelling and grammar are not the important part of minutes. Content is. They are so someone that wasn't at the meeting can see what happened, basically, or so if someone questions a decision down the road, the minutes can be looked at to see what the verdict was on that issue. We're not prescribing medication, recording court proceeding, or writing a novel.

I try to clean up the minutes as much as possible post-meeting without changing the nature of the events conveyed... but if that isn't good enough, then feel free to take the minutes, correct them, and resubmit them as a correction... that's why we ratify the minutes to begin with. But I think you're going to get a lot of bored people at the meetings if the ratification process is held up by spelling/grammar corrections. =/

Ultimately, this is off topic. And the actual discussion of these appointments is going on in a board forum. Please try to keep it there.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: October 11, 2007, 10:13:22 am by staze »
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Offline guspasho

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2007, 11:52:31 am »
If I had mod privileges, I would edit everyone's posts for spelling and grammar errors! Bwahahaha!

I stopped trying to keep up with that a long time ago.
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Offline staze

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2007, 12:44:37 pm »
If I had mod privileges, I would edit everyone's posts for spelling and grammar errors! Bwahahaha!

I stopped trying to keep up with that a long time ago.

I think I would actually classify that as abuse on the moderators part. My words are my own... and if I wanted someone else to be editing them, I'd ask. I know the comment was in jest... but working at a Journalism school makes me touchy to comments like that.
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Offline gemineye42

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2007, 12:46:57 pm »
I only jest. Like I have time to edit everyone's posts! I have work to do!

=)
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Offline superjaz

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Re: 2008 - Board Elected - Secretary
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2007, 10:28:04 pm »
If I had mod privileges, I would edit everyone's posts for spelling and grammar errors! Bwahahaha!

I stopped trying to keep up with that a long time ago.
is it bad to say i think i had a hand in that  ;D
do i have the titlal of worst grammer-er on the forums? do i get a crown 0.0
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