Types of Secretary

Because the title 'secretary' is used across such different settings, Std 11 Secretarial Practice groups secretarial offices into five broad types, distinguished by who appoints the secretary, what body they serve, and how much legal or statutory responsibility attaches to the post.

1. Private Secretary — engaged by an individual (a businessperson, a professional, a minister, a senior executive) purely in a personal capacity. A private secretary's authority begins and ends with the employer; there is no independent legal standing, and duties (correspondence, diary management, travel arrangements, confidential filing) exist only because the employer has delegated them.

2. Secretary of a Club, Association or Non-Profit Body — an honorary or salaried office-bearer elected or appointed by the managing committee of a social, cultural, sports, or charitable body. This secretary answers to the committee and the general body of members, keeps the minute book and membership register, and is often the public face of the organisation between committee meetings.

3. Secretary of a Co-operative Society — appointed under the co-operative societies legislation applicable in the state (in Gujarat, the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act) to run the day-to-day administration of the society on behalf of its managing committee — maintaining statutory registers, corresponding with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, and implementing the committee's and general body's resolutions.

4. Secretary of a Local Body or Government Department — a government or semi-government employee (for example, the secretary of a Gram Panchayat, a Municipal Corporation, or a government department) who holds a statutory administrative post created by the relevant local self-government or civil-service law, and who is accountable to the elected body and to government rules of procedure, not to a private employer.

5. Company Secretary — the secretarial office attached specifically to a registered company, recognised and regulated by the Companies Act, 2013. Unlike the other four types, a company secretary must, for most companies of any size, be a qualified member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980, and functions as one of the company's Key Managerial Personnel with statutory compliance responsibilities running to the Registrar of Companies, SEBI (for listed companies) and the Board itself.