Secretary - Donna Yeo

For my birthday, I received a gift that says “Secretaries are loyal, efficient, dedicated and secretly run the world!”

“Loyal |ˈloiəl|

giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution”

I see the secretary's job as one of supporting your fellow committee members and coordinating between different organizations and people to make sure that everything goes smoothly. How do I define support? Making sure that that your fellow comm members has all the tools necessary to make his/her vision a reality. Obvious examples include finding a location to host the event, or equipment to write. Less obvious, by supporting them spiritually and emotionally, if they are in need. As for allegiance, this may not be an issue to some, but it took a lot of effort for me to do what is best for the cosdu instead of what I wanted to do.

“efficient |iˈfi sh ənt|

(esp. of a system) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense

• (of a person) working in a well-organized and competent way

• [in combination ] preventing the wasteful use of a particular resource”

Time management is essential. Wastage is the anti-thesis of efficiency. An example would be getting grants from the university. Because there is a dateline for all paperwork (forms will be your best friend), not submitting relevant forms on time would be a waste of this valuable resource. Organization. Remind everyone of what they have to do and when they have to do it. Additionally, I try to make it a point that I can answer whatever questions my committee may have. Spending time guessing the answer, then searching for it and realizing that most of the guesses were just fluff is not productive Don't know the answer? Find them. Take the opportunity to increase your knowledge. Haven't you heard, knowledge is power.

“dedicated |ˈdediˌkātid|

(of a person) devoted to a task or purpose; having single-minded loyalty or integrity

(of a thing) exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular service or purpose”

May 2008, I did not get the opportunity to give me speech when I ran for secretary in the previous AGM, so I'll recapitulate the essence of it here. I have always rejected positions where leadership or commitment is required. Selfish as it may be, I preferred to do as I pleased, when I pleased. In early 2008, the divine intervened, pardon the audacity of this statement, and I felt that if there was ever anyone or anything I wanted to commit to, it was COSDU and the people that were in it. I'm glad I did, for cosdu and company certainly formed most of my fond memories of 2008. Integrity. You will have access to a lot of information. For example, member's personal information. So what I will say is DONT MISUSE YOUR POWER.

“Secretaries are loyal, efficient, dedicated and secretly run the world!”

The giver of the gift does knows the truth of the matter. The secretarial job, or by any other name, exist in almost every organization and I will say this, secretaries do, in fact, rule the world!