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A body meets monthly and the secretary pro-tem apparently took the minutes at a meeting. At the next monthly meeting, the secretary pro-tem did not have the previous meeting minutes available. The president asked the secretary pro-tem for a copy of the minutes and the person will not return the call nor respond to emails about the minutes. The secretary pro-tem has not been back to another meeting since. Another member who was present at the meeting for which the secretary pro-tem took minutes, recorded the meeting with a device. What recourse does the organization have to obtain minutes from a monthly meeting when the secretary pro-tem of that meeting has gone absent?

Hi, I work for a federal government department. We are in one portfolio and recently started a project that is being managed by another portfolio. The other portfolio hired a new project manager for the project and I had a phone conversation with him yesterday to discuss project deliverables, timelines, etc. We're all working from home and because it's difficult to share information amongst ourselves, I typed out the minutes of the meeting because I was planning to disseminate them to the project team members in my portfolio. I typed out the minutes because members of my team asked me to report back on my discussion with the new PM so we could try to get a handle on what's going on with the project (there's a lot of confusion about what the other portfolio thinks this project is supposed to deliver, information is rarely shared, and they seem to be reluctant to commit to spelling out anything (many of their communications seem purposely vague)). I sent the minutes of the meeting to the new PM to make sure I got the gist of the conversation correct. He made several detailed adjustments (that it would help the team to know) but asked me not to disseminate the minutes because they "might create confusion, misunderstandings and may not adequately capture the context of the one-hour conversation we had." I'm not sure how to respond to his request. Any advice? Thanks. Kris

If a previous meeting's Executive Session's minutes are voted on and approved in the Open Session of the current meeting, do those Executive Session minutes now become record for the open minutes for that meeting? Meaning June's ES minutes are approved in July's Open Session. If they do become part of July's OS record, how should they be recorded?

After being a minute-taker for various organizations for many years, I've been working as volunteer secretary for the past four years for a NPO society in Canada. After the AGM's, I always prepare and circulate minutes with attachments (financial reports, president's and director's reports). Admittedly, this makes the document lengthy--sometimes 20 pages or so, depending upon the number of reports, although the minutes themselves are usually only three or four pages. Recently, I've been told that this is incorrect and that AGM minutes (1) should not include any documents and (2) should not be circulated to members because the minutes are read out at the next AGM (obviously at least a year later). I say this makes no sense because the membership will not be the same each AGM, and members, not all of whom attend the AGM, are entitled to know the business as soon as possible after the meeting. I've searched Google in general and RONR in particular, but can find no definitive answer. I'd appreciate any comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Is there a proper protocol for what information is put into an organizations minutes. The secretary of the association is putting in a medium amount of detail into the minutes regarding what is being discussed during our open board meetings. There are board members who think there should be very minimal amount of detail in the minutes due to them being a public document and concern that a competing organization will access our minutes to try and get detail on what we are working on (there is a history of this). However, there is also concern that we have transparency for our members. What do we do? (see example of minutes) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QBTEsDgBK9WLG36QGZLbW4OnSy4PbbEGgRmjUDMisOI/edit?usp=sharing

I serve on the board of a 501(c)(7) organization. The organization holds monthly board and general membership meetings at which minutes are taken. Our current president recently instituted a rule that causes me some concern. The new rule requires that all draft meeting minutes must be reviewed and approved by the current president before they are published in our monthly newsletter. The president receives the drafts from the club secretary, makes any substantive or stylistic changes she deems necessary, and then forwards the minutes directly to the newsletter editor for publication with the secretary’s and the president’s signatures. No one other than the president knows what changes have been made. The newsletter editor has been prohibited by the president from publishing any draft minutes that the president has not personally approved. Our club’s practice has been that the secretary drafts the minutes and submits them to the newsletter editor for publication. The draft minutes are brought up at the next meeting. At that time, any member of the appropriate group (board or voting member) may move to amend the minutes before they are approved or the minutes may be approved as published. Draft minutes have (at least as far back as 2000) been taken by the club secretary, submitted in draft form directly to the newsletter editor, and published in the club newsletter, which is shared with all members before the minutes are reviewed and approved at the next meeting. Our club’s bylaws state, in relevant part: “Officers. The Club’s officers, consisting of the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer shall serve in their respective capacities both in regard to the Club and its meetings and the Board and its meetings. a. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Club and of the Board and shall have all duties and powers normally appurtenant to the office of President in addition to those particularly specified in these bylaws. The President may appoint, subject to the approval of the Board . . . and all Committee Chairpersons. The President shall not serve in any appointed office and shall be an ex officio member of all committees. * * * c. The Secretary shall keep a record of all meetings of the Club and of the Board and of all matters of which a record shall be ordered by the Club. He/she shall have charge of the correspondence, notify members of special meetings, notify new members of their approval for membership, notify officers and directors of their election to office, keep a current roll of the members of the Club with addresses and telephone numbers, and carry out such other duties as are prescribed in these bylaws.” With regard to parliamentary authority, the bylaws state: “Order of Business and Parliamentary Authority: The rules contained in the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the Club in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special Rules of Order the Club may adopt.” I would like your advice on whether the rule as instituted by our club president would be a violation of Robert’s Rules. Thank you in advance.

What if a meeting occurred and minutes were recorded by the council Secretary, but once complete were distributed via email to only our church Secretary. Then the president called the secretary of the council on the phone and compelled her to revise the minutes and send a revised set of minutes without any indication to any member of the council they were revised in the updated unofficial minutes to the church Secretary. This was all done before any scheduled council meeting and was done without the knowledge of any of the other council members. Does this violate Robert's Rules of Order, since it was done without anyone's knowledge other than the President, Council Secretary and Church Secretary? Thank you Pastor Darian Hybl

If nothing specific in the Bylaws, does Roberts Rules provide that members of a non-profit organization should be timely provided Minutes of Meetings of the Membership (such as an AGM)? as well as Minutes of Board Meetings? upon specific request of a member?

If nothing specific in the Bylaws, does Roberts Rules provide that members of a non-profit organization should be timely provided Minutes of Meetings of the Membership (such as an AGM)? as well as Minutes of Board Meetings? upon specific request of a member?