Secretary's Report (Winter 09)

Dalhousie University
Computer Science Society
Tasha Bartlett
Secretary Winter 2009
End Of Term Report

The Position

CSS Secretary Binder
I donated a binder to the Computer Science Society for whosoever takes over the
Secretary position. This binder holds the constitution, and the minutes for the current
semester. As well, it has a guideline of Roberts Rules of Order. The binder should only
include the minutes from the current semester, and have the outdated minutes
removed. The outdated minutes should be on the website for reference if they are
needed. I felt that this was wise since often these three things are referenced in
meetings. As well, if anyone is unfamiliar with Roberts Rules of Order, the guideline is
a quick reference.

Minutes
Taking minutes at each meeting is one requirement of the secretary. I attended all
meetings and took minutes. Although I was sometimes slow at giving out the minutes
afterwards, the minutes were always sent to cssociety@cs.dal.ca such that everyone on
council and the dean would receive our minutes. After the minutes were approved in
the meetings, I would post them onto the Computer Science Society's website
(society.cs.dal.ca).

Communication
The position of secretary as detailed in the constitution states that the secretary is the
one who is to send out all communication to the students on behalf of the Computer
Science Society. Although, as a society we decided that each person should individually
e-mail csannounce@cs.dal.ca. Since the President, Jeremy Gallant, was the one who
controlled the approval of e-mails, e-mailing me to e-mail the mailing list to be
approved by someone else seemed illogical.
As for my involvement with the communication of the Computer Science Society to the
students, I often went onto the Computer Science Society's web site and proof read all
the material. I edited for grammar and consistency. I rewrote sections that did not
make sense as well as removed colloquial language from the website.