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Guest Heather

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A new board member insists her "abstention vote" to be recorded in the minutes. She also wants "more details" about discussions we had, not just motions/approvals, etc.

We do not do roll call votes. I go by Roberts Rules of Order as much as possible. I feel like I am being bullied into changing things to humour her whim.

How can I respond diplomatically?

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Or if you want to get off the hook of having to argue with her, explain to her that she can make a motion requesting "more details" in the minutes and a (second, separate) motion that her non-voting be included in the minutes.  That will probably be the end of it, especially if both motions get roundly defeated.  Majority to adopt in both cases.

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17 hours ago, George Mervosh said:

I don't particularly care for the idea of encouraging this member to make such a motion.  From the limited facts presented she seems to be the only one who cares enough to mention it to Guest Heather.

 

I would not object to the member requesting that the fact she abstained be noted.   That is a Request and would require a majority to approve. 

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Just now, J. J. said:

I would not object to the member requesting that the fact she abstained be noted.   That is a Request and would require a majority to approve. 

If it were a one time thing or something that happens very rarely a request is a good idea and probably should be granted without much fuss, but this and the other comments about what should be in the minutes seems like something far more than a request.

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6 hours ago, George Mervosh said:

If it were a one time thing or something that happens very rarely a request is a good idea and probably should be granted without much fuss, but this and the other comments about what should be in the minutes seems like something far more than a request.

A representative student body of which I was a part adopted a rule stating that members could ask to have their votes or abstentions recorded in the minutes. It worked quite well.

As for putting more details about discussions in the minutes, it's not uncommon for someone to want such details recorded. But Robert's Rules takes the position that they do not need to be recorded, because they are not a part of the substance of the meeting: they are a detail of process rather than part of the outcome. Nonetheless, they can be useful for later reference for 

The most difficult issue that arises from putting summaries of debate into the minutes is that unless they are done in a skilled and impartial fashion, they can very frequently become the subject of much debate that isn't necessary, where one member thinks that a statement is very important and needs to be in the minutes, and another member objects. Worse, it can become a situation of "X said that all potates are awful" and then X reply's "No I didn't! You misheard me!" and then there is a lot of hullabaloo over this.

Additionally, you can kiss any hope of the secretary being able to participate in the meeting goodbye, because they will be too busy recording what is going on.

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1 hour ago, Alexis Hunt said:

As for putting more details about discussions in the minutes, it's not uncommon for someone to want such details recorded. But Robert's Rules takes the position that they do not need to be recorded, because they are not a part of the substance of the meeting: they are a detail of process rather than part of the outcome. Nonetheless, they can be useful for later reference for 

 

It seems something is missing here.  

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