Have you ever thought about how difficult it can be to find a secretary and secretary-assistants for the Chair Team? Or what makes people interested in being the secretary of the Agora? Most of you, during the Agora, watch the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson preside over the meeting. But how about the secretary? The only thing people witness is the typing they do during the Agora, but being a secretary is a lot more than just that!
Chair Team in Agora Budapest
The role of secretary of the Agora is the key to the efficient functioning of the Agora. Being a part of the Chair Team, the secretary helps with the preparation of the Agora. He or she is also in charge of taking minutes during Chair meetings and making lists of decisions that were made and deadlines that have been set.
Besides that there is, of course, the responsibility for delivering the minutes of the Agora. This also includes the responsibility for the instruments needed for taking minutes (like recorders and laptops), and and making sure that there are enough secretary-assistants, so everything goes as smoothly as possible. Finally, after the Agora, the secretary is responsible for working out all the minutes. They need to be 100% sure before publishing the minutes that there are no further improvements that need to be done. Moreover, the secretary usually is the AEGEE fair responsible on behalf of the Chair Team.
Chair Team in EBM Valletta
At the same time, (s)he is entitled with the important responsibility of preparing the minutes. Apart from that, the most important skill he/she should have is persistence. The secretary can’t just leave in the middle of plenary, no matter what. A secretary also needs to be really organized in order to accomplish their tasks. Lastly, patience and kindness, being able to work easily with different people, and never leaving something in the middle are all important qualities for a secretary.
Unfortunately, many AEGEEans underestimate this position. Nevertheless, some people are interested in being the secretary because it’s such a challenging position. The first thing to consider is that it provides them with the unique opportunity to work together with the rest of the Chair Team. Furthermore, the secretary is in constant connection with applicants and participants.
Because there are not many people applying for the position and there are a lot of responsibilities as mentioned above, the AEGEEan asked previous Secretaries of the Agora (Anita Kalmane, Sygrit Andringa, Monica Olesinska) and current secretary of the Agora Elena Antova why one should apply as secretary of the Agora. And these are their reasons.
“Why should you become the secretary of the Agora?”
- Because you get to see how the Agora is organized behind the scenes and will be among the very few that know what is really happening during the whole Agora.
- Because you know exactly what has been said and can help AEGEE and other people who were not able to make it to Agora with the minutes.
- Because you can watch the Agora from the other side of the table, and see for example the whole plenary dance and jump up and down.
- Because you’ll never miss a plenary.
- Because you are making a mark in the history of AEGEE since the minutes you write are written by you and your name will always be there, even 50 years from now, and you will also contribute to the registration of AEGEE-Europe.
- Because you can be on stage even though you don’t have speaking rights.
- Because you will gain experience in working in a team on the European level.
- Because you could skip the queues for food, will have internet access most of the time, don’t have to pay the fee and get travel reimbursement (if minutes are finished in time).
- Because as a member of the Chair Team you’ll be in the center of attention for a couple of days, and everybody will respect you.
- Because you will have your own assistants and feel important.
All things considered, being the Secretary of the Agora or one of his/her assistants is an important position and requires a lot of work to be done although it gives them not enough time for fun or meeting people during the Agora.
Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Kastoria