Tips for the Relief Society Secretary

When the secretary in our Relief Society Presidency was released, I asked her to send me a message with a list of what she did to help the new secretary transition to the calling. (And yes, the secretary really did ALL this — she was incredible.)

While this is NOT a list of *required* or *official* secretary duties, I am posting it here any so that you can know what some of the things a secretary might be asked to do in Relief Society:

“..here is what I personally did:

  • Take the Roll each Sunday
  • Send an attendance report to Brother Hagen at the end of the month via email
  • Provide Sunday Agenda to person conducting w/ announcments, songs and lesson for the day
  • Welcome and meet visitors on Sunday and include their names on the agenda
  • Assign 2 women for Sunday prayers to include on the agenda
  • Record Good News Minutes on Sunday for ward history
  • Attend Presidency meetings when scheduled
  • Provide agenda for presidency meetings
  • Type up minutes of presidency meetings
  • Monthly prepare and send birthday cards for each sister
  • Type up and distribute monthly RS newsletter by last Sunday of the month which includes:
    • a presidency message which I wrote when my turn
    • Visiting teaching message from Ingrid
    • 2 spotlight interviews
    • the RS calendar
    • good news minutes
  • Distribute newsletters/flyers to secretaries of YW and Primary.
  • Pinned copy of newsletter to Ward Bulletin Board and RS bulletin board
  • Be in charge of the RS folder which goes around each Sunday with flyers, sign-ups and newsletters
  • Make sure RS announcements are getting into the ward Sunday bulletin
  • Go on sister visits with the presidency
  • Took turns with the presidency teaching first Sunday lessons
  • Conducted Sunday meetings when rest of Presidency was out of town
  • Assemble welcome kits for new sisters that move in
  • Keep order in the RS closets
  • Time keeper at Pres. meetings
  • Attend Stake RS Leadership Meetings
  • Collect receipts for the president to sign and get
  • Bishop to sign and give to financial clerk.
  • Try to attend all Relief Society functions to support Presidency
  • Help the President wherever she needs
  • My house was the assembling house for Thanksgiving baskets and the Christmas giving tree project
  • Give a brief report at board meetings
  • Provide a list of names to president of the sisters who haven’t attended Relief Society each quarter
  • Sent out reminders to Ward email list of RS activities
  • Keep up-to-date records of sisters addresses and phone numbers
  • Alert membership clerk when sisters move out and provide him with new address if I have it

I think that is it! Wow, it really seems overwhelming when I type it out! Maybe you’ll want to break it to her slowly.

Have a great day! I really enjoyed our dinner out the other night.

Love, K.