civil engineering

1. .
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND WATER
ENGINEERING
COURSE NAME: ENGINEERING COMMUNICATION
SKILLS
PART 1.1
COURSE CODE : TCW 1103
LECTURER : LUZANE T.L.
LECTURE : COMPARE AND CONTAST THE
DUTIES OF A CHAIRMAN AND THOSE OF A
SECRETARY
PRESENTER : RODNEY MWETWA
ASSIGNMENT 5

2. GROUP MEMBERS
 Sthandokuhle Ncube N02019339X
 Dumoluhle Dlamini N02019957N
 Rodney Mwetwa N02019384P
 Christopher Fundirwa N02017580H
 Mbekezeli Sibindi N02019600E

3. CONTENTS
 1. MAIN OBJECTIVES
 2. DEFINITION OF TERMS
 3. DUTIES OF A CHAIRMAN +
SUMMARY
 4. DUTIES OF A SECRETARY +
SUMMARY
 5. LIMITATIONS OF A SECRETARY
AS COMPARED TO A CHAIRMAN
 6. CONCLUSION

4. MAIN OBJETCIVES
 TO COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE
DUTIES OF A SECRETARY AND A
CHAIRMAN USING :
 1. LIST OF DUTIES FOR BOTH A
SECRETARY AND A CHAIRMAN
 2. STATING THE LIMITATIONS OF A
SECRETARY AS COMPARED TO A
CHAIRMAN

5. DEFINITION OF TERMS
 CHAIRMAN - A chairman is an executive
elected by a company's board of directors who
is responsible for presiding over board
meetings.
 SECRETARY - a person who works in an office
and prepares letters, keeps records, schedules
meetings, and makes other arrangements for a
particular person or for an
organization.(dictionary.cambridge.org)
 DUTY - something that one is expected or
required to do by moral or legal obligation.
(dictionary.cambridge.org)

6. DUTIES OF A CHAIRMAN
 1. TO PROVIDE LEADERSHIP - The
overarching role of the chairperson is to
provide leadership, they must be an effective
strategist and a good networker.
 2. To ensure the Management
Committee functions properly - The
Chairperson is responsible for making
sure that each meeting is planned
effectively, conducted according to the
constitution and that matters are dealt
with in an orderly, efficient manner.

7. .
 3. To ensure the organisation is managed
effectively - The Chairperson must co-
ordinate the Committee to ensure that
appropriate policies and procedures are in
place for the effective management of the
organisation.
 4. To represent the organisation as its
figurehead - The Chairperson may from
time to time be called upon to represent the
organisation and sometimes be its
spokesperson at, for example, functions or
meetings.

8. .
 5. To take a leading role in
determining the composition and
structure of the board -This will
involve regular reviews of the overall
size of the board, the balance between
executive and non-executive directors
and the balance of age, experience
and personality of the directors.

9. SUMMARY
 The essential tasks of a Chair are:
 providing leadership to the board
 taking responsibility for the board’s composition and
development
 ensuring proper information for the board
 planning and conducting board meetings effectively
 getting all directors involved in the board’s work
 ensuring the board focuses on its key tasks
 engaging the board in assessing and improving its
performance
 overseeing the induction and development of
directors
 supporting the chief executive/MD

10. DUTIES OF A SECRETARY
 1. Ensuring meetings are effectively organised
and minuted
 Liaising with the Chair to plan meetings
 Receiving agenda items from committee members
 Circulating agendas and reports
 Taking minutes (unless there is a minutes
secretary)
 Circulating approved minutes
 Checking that agreed actions are carried out.

11. .
 2. Maintaining effective records and administration
:
 Keeping up-to-date contact details (i.e. names,
addresses and telephone numbers) for the
management committee and (where relevant) ordinary
members of the organisation.
 Filing minutes and reports
 Compiling lists of names and addresses that are useful
to the organisation, including those of appropriate
officials or officers of voluntary organisations
 3. Upholding legal requirements :
 Acting as custodian of the organisation's governing
documents
 Checking quorum is present at meetings
 Ensuring elections are in line with stipulated procedures

12. .
 4. Communication and correspondence :
 Responding to all committee correspondence
 filing all committee correspondence received and
copies of replies sent
 keeping a record of any of the organisation's
publications (e.g. leaflets or newsletters) and
 reporting the activities of the organisation and
future programmes to members, the press and the
public (unless there is an Information or Publicity
Officer).

13. SUMMARY
 In summary, the Secretary is responsible
for:
 Ensuring meetings are effectively
organised and minuted
 Maintaining effective records and
administration
 Upholding the legal requirements of
governing documents, charity law,
company law etc (where relevant).
 Communication and correspondence

14. LIMITATIONS OF A
SECRETARY AS COMPARED
TO A CHAIRMAN
 1. Payscale is not up to the mark:
 The most common disadvantage that you can hear
from everyone about the secretary job is the pay
scale. Even though there are a lot of hikes or
moving to higher positions it does not have a very
good salary package compared to other jobs.
 2. Belongs only to women:
 As it is a 9 – 5 routine job or a traditional desk job,
it considers only for women. There is also a notion
that it is a very routine kind of a job and there is no
variety in the tasks that one performs and hence
the job becomes boring at one point in time.

15. .
 3. Image of the job role:
 Secretary Job exists for a good time and it
dramatized as female employees misused or
mishandled during the job as it requires to stay 24/7
with the higher officials.
 4. No career growth:
 Career growth a very important aspect consider for
all kinds of jobs. And people have an assumption
that this job has a routine work of only dealing with
paperwork and documentation process and does
not have any scope of improvement in the career
aspect.

16. CONCLUSION
 CHAIRMAN - A chairman is an executive elected
by a company's board of directors who is
responsible for presiding over board meetings.
 SECRETARY - a person who works in an office
and prepares letters, keeps records, schedules
meetings, and makes other arrangements for a
particular person or for an organization.
 From the above stated points we understand that
these two work hand in hand with each other, but
the chair has a higher position and authority and
the secretary assists the chairman

17. SOURCES
 dictionary.cambridge.org
 www.diycommitteeguide.org
 www.iod.com
 www.wikipedia.org