• An FCCLA secretary must be familiar with parliamentary procedures.Joseph Sohm-Visions of America/Stockbyte/Getty Images
  
  The Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a high school student organization that promotes personal growth and leadership through family and consumer science education. The FCCLA consists of chapters, many of which have a parliamentary body with a chair, treasurer and a secretary as well as up to five voting members to compete in the organization's STAR Events competition.
  
  

Pre-appointment Duties

• In order to become a secretary, an individual must already be a member of FCCLA. Additionally, the national organization requires a prospective secretary to possess a working knowledge of parliamentary law and an ability to conduct an FCCLA business meeting. In that regard, she will take a Parliamentary Procedure Knowledge Test and execute a demonstration meeting with provided planning materials.
  
  

Meeting Minutes

• For the demonstration and in future meetings, the secretary will need to prepare minutes of the meeting. The secretary will not vote or debate in the proceedings. The job consists only of recording what the other members say and the decisions they make. Upon completion of the initial meeting, The secretary will immediately give this record to evaluators. The secretary will be judged upon whether the minutes are well-organized, complete and contain all of the agenda items in the provided planning materials. To help with this task, the FCCLA provides a template for the secretary that includes basic questions such as whether a quorum is present and the current balance in the chapter's treasury.
  
  

Other Duties

• The secretary works with other members to develop the meeting agenda as well as discuss the chapter's status and progress. He must make the meeting minutes available to members by reading, posting and circulating them in meetings. The secretary reminds the chair of any unfinished business before the next meeting. Besides recording what members discuss, the secretary records attendance, votes and current membership. Most importantly, the secretary must attend all meetings because the meeting minutes are critical to conducting parliamentary business.
  
  

Duties in the National Organization

• The officers of the national board that oversees the entire FCCLA also include a chair, treasurer and secretary. Like his counterpart in a local chapter, the national secretary records all motions and actions as well as keeps a record of all meetings. These records are kept in the headquarters office of the organization.