From the outside, the clerk appears like a cross between a chair and a secretary. Clerks prepare the agenda, do the necessary administration and guide the meeting through the items of business. The clerk has to discern the outcome (often called ‘the sense of the meeting’) of each item and prepare a minute. The final decision about whether the minute represents the sense of the meeting is the responsibility of the meeting itself, not of the clerk.
Taken from Britain Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice