Most job descriptions for a nonprofit board secretary read like a legal checklist. In practice the role is simpler and messier: you send the meeting notices, you write down what was decided, you keep the papers, and you end up holding the association’s inbox. This guide covers what the rules usually require, what the job looks like week to week, and what to hand over the day you step down.
What the rules require: usually less than you think
There is no single rulebook for the secretary. Two things decide what yours has to do: your own governing documents (bylaws, constitution, standing orders) and the law of the state or country where the organization is registered. Read both before your first meeting. They say who calls meetings, how much notice members get, how votes work, and what the secretary signs.
Many small groups combine roles, with one person acting as secretary and treasurer, and that is often allowed as long as your governing documents permit it. If you run a French association, the 1901 law says nothing about a board at all: service-public.fr states that an association is not required to have a bureau, and the same person can be secretary and treasurer if the statuts allow it.
The usual duties
Meeting notices. Your bylaws set who must be notified, how and how far ahead. Check whether they allow notice by email before you rely on it. For the invitation itself, our annual general meeting notice template explains why the agenda needs to be precise.
Minutes. This is the least glamorous duty and the most useful. For US organizations filing Form 990, the IRS asks whether every meeting and written action of the governing body was documented contemporaneously. Its instructions say that documentation “can include approved minutes, email, or similar writings that explain the action taken, when it was taken, and who made the decision”. Contemporaneous means by the later of the next meeting or 60 days after the meeting. Whatever your country, those three points (what, when, who) are a good test for any set of minutes.
Records and retention. Governing documents, past minutes, filings, agreements with venues or the council, insurance. The IRS notes that “applicable law and an organization’s policies can require that the organization retain records longer than 3 years”, so check what applies to you before you throw anything out. Store them somewhere that belongs to the organization, not on the secretary’s own laptop.
The membership list and correspondence. Keeping the list current, answering membership requests, passing anything about money to the treasurer. That list holds personal data: our guide on nonprofit email organization touches on data protection.
Filings when officers change. In France, for example, a change of officers must be declared to the associations registry within 3 months, by the newly appointed officers rather than the ones leaving, with an up-to-date list of officers attached. Elsewhere, check what your own registry asks for. Our board change checklist covers the filings and every login to hand over.
The association inbox is where the job really happens
Bylaws talk about notices and minutes. They rarely mention the inbox. Yet that is where the secretary spends most of their time, and where things go wrong.
The pattern is familiar. Four years ago, the chair at the time created ourclub@gmail.com on her phone. The password travels by text message. It sits in a spreadsheet, then on the back of a folder. Nobody knows exactly who can open the mailbox.
Three problems follow.
Sign-in stalls on a phone you do not have. When a new secretary signs in from a laptop, Google may send the confirmation prompt to any Android phone signed in to the account, often the creator’s, and she left the board two years ago.
A shared password protects nothing. Once six volunteers have it in their messages, you cannot tell who is signed in, and every departure means changing it for everyone.
Two volunteers answer the same email. A family asks whether registration is open. The secretary replies in the evening. The treasurer had replied that morning, with a different fee. Neither could have known the other was on it.
For a gmail.com account shared between volunteers, the free option is delegation: a delegate reads, sends and deletes email without the password, but when they send, their own address appears. Delegation has other limits once several people answer every week: we covered them in Gmail delegation limits for small teams, and the other options in sharing a mailbox without sharing the password.
A 30-minute weekly routine
The secretary who burns out is the one who checks the inbox every evening out of guilt. A fixed half hour a week is enough for most groups. Here is a starting point.
- Sort the inbox. Every incoming message gets one owner, and only one: you, the treasurer, a program lead. A message with no owner is a message everyone assumes someone else handled.
- Answer membership and information requests, or pass them on with one line of context.
- Log decisions made by email. “We’re booking the hall for the 12th” in a thread is a decision. Copy it into the minutes or the decisions log, with the date.
- Check the meeting calendar. If an annual meeting is coming, your notice period may start this week.
- Once a month: file and review. File the approved minutes, and read the list of people with access to the inbox. Is someone who left still on it?
If several volunteers share the mailbox, the start of the season is a good moment to reset it: see our new-season email reset and our guide to coordinating volunteers by email.
What to hand over when you step down
A secretary who leaves with the organization’s memory makes their successor start from nothing. Prepare the handover before the annual meeting, not on the night.
- The governing documents: current bylaws, standing orders, registration records.
- Minutes and the decisions log.
- The membership list, somewhere your successor can reach.
- A list of accounts: the mailbox, the domain if you have one, the registry login. For each one: where it lives, in whose name, who has access.
- Access to the mailbox: recovery options in the name of the organization or the new board, and access removed for everyone who is leaving, including you. Do it a few weeks before the meeting, while you are still reachable.
- Open threads, each with one line of explanation: “Waiting for the caterer’s quote”, “The council still has to confirm the hall”.
- The officer-change filing, if your registry requires one. Offer to help, but it is usually for the new officers to sign.
For the mailbox side of the handover in detail, follow our volunteer email handover method.
Where Trupeo fits
Everything above works without paying for anything. Trupeo helps when several volunteers answer from the same address every week.
You connect the address the organization already has, whether on gmail.com, outlook.com or any IMAP provider. Each volunteer gets their own login, so nobody shares a password. Every message has an owner and a status (to assign, to handle, done), you leave internal notes beside the conversation, and you can see when a colleague is drafting a reply. A handover becomes removing one access and adding another. If the organization stops using Trupeo, the address keeps working at its provider.
For a verified association, it costs €5 per connected mailbox per month excluding VAT for two people, and €10 from three people, instead of €10 and €20. See the non-profits page and pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Does a nonprofit have to have a secretary?
It depends on your governing documents and on the law where you are registered. Many small groups have one because someone has to send notices and keep minutes, but the title itself is often optional. In France, for example, the 1901 law does not even require a board.
What should board meeting minutes include?
At minimum, the action taken, when it was taken and who made the decision. That is how the IRS describes acceptable documentation in its Form 990 instructions, and it is a sound test anywhere. Write them up quickly: the IRS treats records as contemporaneous if they are done by the next meeting or within 60 days, whichever is later.
Can one person be both secretary and treasurer?
Often yes, if your bylaws allow it. Small groups combine roles all the time. Check the section of your governing documents that lists officers before you do.
Does the secretary have to handle the inbox alone?
No. Governing documents rarely say so. What matters is that every message has one owner and that everyone knows who answers what. A fixed half hour a week to sort and assign beats a secretary who checks everything, every evening.
What should a secretary hand over when stepping down?
The governing documents, the minutes and decisions log, the membership list, a list of every account with who holds it, the mailbox recovery options moved to the organization, departing access removed, and a note on every open thread.
Sources:
- IRS: Instructions for Form 990: Part VI, line 8, on contemporaneous documentation of meetings (approved minutes, email or similar writings explaining the action, when and who), the definition of contemporaneous as the later of the next meeting or 60 days, and the note that law and policies can require keeping records longer than 3 years.
- Gmail Help: Delegate and collaborate on email: as observed in September 2026, what a delegate can do, that their address appears when they send, and that they cannot change the password.
- Google Account Help: Sign in with Google prompts: as observed in September 2026, prompts sent to any Android phone signed in to the account.
- Service-public.fr: Instances dirigeantes d’une association (in French): the 1901 law says nothing about administrative bodies, no obligation to have a board, and combining secretary and treasurer if the statuts allow it.
- Service-public.fr: Changements dans l’administration d’une association (in French): the 3-month deadline to declare a change of officers to the associations registry, filed by the newly appointed officers, with an up-to-date list of officers attached.