Ask the Admin: Meeting Minutes Retention
I got the following e-mail from Dee: I am the Secretary of our neighborhood community association, how long should we retain the minutes. I do not want to keep minutes for many years. Thanks Dee Hi, Dee. Thanks for your question. You don’t indicate if you are talking about Board minutes or membership meeting minutes. [...]
Stylebooks: How to Write Professionally
We all know how important proper grammar and punctuation are in business writing. We all took English in school and learned the basics, but questions of style can be more complex. When talking dates, do we refer to the “1950s” or the “1950’s”? Is it “an historical event” or “a historical event”? Is that title [...]
Ask the Admin: Records Retention
I got this e-mail from Kelly: What is the business standard for the length of time to keep meeting minutes? Thanks for your question, Kelly. You didn’t specify what type of minutes you need to keep. How long you retain meeting minutes will depend on the type of meetings you are referring to. Most record [...]
10 Tips for Setting Up a Mailing List
In my last post, I talked about the Pitfalls of Addressing Mail. Today I’d like to talk about actually creating your mailing list. I have created and maintained many mailing lists over the years, and have learned from my many mistakes how to avoid some of the problems you run across when you create a [...]
Grammar Tip: Easier vs Easily
photo credit: quinn.anya Proofreading is an essential skill for all administrative support personnel. In addition to spelling and typos, you also need to be looking for proper word usage. In a previous post, I talked about confusing the words Prospective and Perspective. Today I have another pair of words that I often find misused. Easier [...]
Create a Desk Reference Manual
photo credit: Dan4th What happens if a sudden emergency occurs and you have to be off work for a week or more? Could a temp walk into your office and be able to easily handle things while you’re gone? She can if you’ve created a Desk Reference Manual with procedures on how to handle your [...]
Working With Confidential Documents
photo credit: ivoryelephantphotography As you progress in your career as an Administrative Assistant, and especially as an Executive Assistant, you’ll be working more and more with confidential documents. Pretty much every interview you go on will ask you about your experience in handling these types of documents. Below are some tips for properly handling confidential [...]
What Are Your New Year’s Goals?
As the holidays wind down, New Year’s Day looms, and with it the spectre of New Year’s Resolutions. While most people look at these resolutions in a personal sense, like losing weight, exercising more, or being more assertive, I’ve found it beneficial to apply the idea of New Year’s Resolutions to work as well. We [...]
Create PDF Files for Free
Many times in an office environment you need to create a file that can be opened by anyone without any specific software requirements. If you have Windows, you can use the Microsoft Image Writer that is in your printer directory, but that doesn’t work for people using Apple or Linux operating systems. The standard document [...]
Controlling Your Graphics
Has this ever happened to you? You place a graphic in your Word document and send it to the back so you can type the text over it. But then you decide the graphic placement isn’t quite right, and you click on it to move it. Only it won’t click. All you do is move [...]
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