What does the secretary do?
The board's recording officer and records custodian.
The secretary is the board's recording officer and records custodian. They document what happens at meetings, including minutes, votes, and resolutions, and keep custody of the association's official records: the membership roll, governing documents, policies, and election materials. If a future board or homeowner needs to know what happened, the secretary's records should answer without guesswork.
Two jobs, one office
Robert's Rules of Order describes the secretary as holding two duties at once: recording what happens, and keeping custody of the association's records afterward.
"The secretary is the recording officer of the assembly and the custodian of it's records except such as are specifically assigned to others."
Source: Robert's Rules of Order Revised, Ch. XI, public domain edition
This description comes from Robert's Rules, the common default when an association's bylaws adopt a parliamentary authority. Some bylaws name Robert's Rules explicitly, some name a different authority, some name none. Check yours.
What "custodian of the records" means
Beyond minutes, the secretary keeps the membership roll, calls the roll when required, and notifies officers and committees of their appointment. A practitioner description applied to HOAs frames the secretary as "the custodian of the association's official memory," maintaining "meeting minutes, member rosters, governing documents, policies, election materials, and other records the association must preserve."
"If a future board, homeowner, auditor, manager, or attorney needs to know what happened, the record should answer the question without guesswork."
Source: The Board Member Secretary: An HOA & COA Governance Guide, Access Management Group
How quickly the secretary must respond to a homeowner's request to inspect records, and which records must be produced, is set by your state's records access statute, not by Robert's Rules. Look up your own state's rule rather than assuming a number of days.
What the secretary doesn't decide
Keeping the record is not the same as making the decision. The secretary documents what the board voted to do; the board itself, acting collectively, is the body with authority to decide it. An individual officer, including the secretary, has no personal authority beyond whatever slice of the board's authority the bylaws or a board resolution has actually delegated to that office.
In practice: if a homeowner asks the secretary to change a policy, or asks why a decision was made a certain way, the secretary's job is to point to the record, not to answer for the board's judgment.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A homeowner emails asking for a copy of last year's annual meeting minutes. Who typically fields this request?
The board votes to approve a new landscaping contract during a meeting. Whose job is it to make sure that vote is written into the record?
A new secretary asks how many days state law gives their association to respond to a records request. What should they do?
Sources
- Robert's Rules of Order Revised, Ch. XI, "The Officers and the Minutes" (1915 public domain edition)
- The Board Member Secretary: An HOA & COA Governance Guide, Access Management Group
- Robert's Rules of Order, Frequently Asked Questions, Robert's Rules Association
Board Roles
Next, see how the secretary's records responsibilities work day to day, not just at meetings.
Whether Robert's Rules applies to your board at all, how fast the secretary must respond to a records request, and which records must be produced all vary by state and by your bylaws.