Memorandum on What an Office Does Not Carry

MEMORANDUM MEM/1997/11

An office is a set of tasks with a date on which it ends. It carries the following and nothing else: the tasks named in the procedure, the keys named in the inventory, and the obligation to hand both on.

It does not carry authority over any person. It does not carry the power to admit, to remove, to require, or to forgive. None of these exists in the Institute for anybody to hold.

It does not carry the right to speak for the Institute. Anybody may say what they think; nobody may say that the Institute thinks it.

It does not carry a standing. A person released from an office is where they were before they took it. Two who have been released hold other offices now.

It does not carry a private file. An officer who keeps notes on members outside the Record is to destroy them and the destruction is minuted.

Where an office is used for something it does not cover, the objection is entered beside the decision the same day, before anybody has decided whether the objection is right. Whether it was right is a separate question and is answered separately.

Release, whether asked for by the holder or by the house, is entered on FRM/2010/05. The form has no space for a reason and none is to be written on it.