When to send out minutes of meeting to association

[Guest Nadine Furey]

When is appropriate time to send out minutes of a meeting to the ASsociation? Our secretaury says he cannot send

out minutes until after the next Board Meeting ( 2 months until next Board meeting) as the minutes are not yet approved.

Is he correct? Can draft minutes be sent to the ASsociation and then if they are revised at the next Board meeting, it will

be reported in those minutes. What is your opinion per Robert's Rules of Order?

thanks

Nadine

[Gary Novosielski]

When is appropriate time to send out minutes of a meeting to the ASsociation? Our secretaury says he cannot send

out minutes until after the next Board Meeting ( 2 months until next Board meeting) as the minutes are not yet approved.

Is he correct? Can draft minutes be sent to the ASsociation and then if they are revised at the next Board meeting, it will

be reported in those minutes. What is your opinion per Robert's Rules of Order?

RONR has no problem with doing it the way you suggest. If the secretary is uncoöperative, then the assembly, by majority vote, can direct him to send draft minutes some reasonable interval after the meeting.

My suggestion would be to make sure they are clearly dated and marked "DRAFT", so there is no confusion later when a page is found that does not conform to the approved minutes.

One correction to the correction process, however:

Corrections to the minutes are made to the original minutes. They are not listed in the minutes of the meeting at which the corrections were noted. The only mention in those minutes is to note:

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as corrected.

rather than

... approved as read.

So if it's important to you that the final minutes be distributed, you may need to attach a corrected copy the next month, marked "APPROVED <date>"

[hmtcastle]

When is appropriate time to send out minutes of a meeting to the association?

Assuming you're referring to a board meeting, the draft minutes should not be sent to anyone other than board members (and maybe not even to them). The purpose of distributing draft minutes is so that the members will have a chance to review them before they're submitted for approval at the next meeting. But, for board meetings, that means submitting them to board members, not the general membership of the association.

[Gary Novosielski]

Assuming you're referring to a board meeting, the draft minutes should not be sent to anyone other than board members (and maybe not even to them). The purpose of distributing draft minutes is so that the members will have a chance to review them before they're submitted for approval at the next meeting. But, for board meetings, that means submitting them to board members, not the general membership of the association.

In some organizations, as we know, the membership likes to take a more hands-on fully-informed approach to its dealings with the board, e.g., some authorize attendance of any member of the society at board meetings. This may be a good or bad idea, depending on your point of view, and the specifics of the organization.

But say, for the sake of argument, that the general membership wished to see the draft minutes of the board on a routine basis, prior to approval by the board. How could they order this?

Could it be a standing rule, or would a bylaws amendment be required? (I'm presuming a special rule of order would not be appropriate as this occurs ex-camera.)

[Josh Martin]

How could they order this?

Could it be a standing rule, or would a bylaws amendment be required? (I'm presuming a special rule of order would not be appropriate as this occurs ex-camera.)

I think a special rule of order would be just the thing, actually, assuming the board isn't willing to do the distribution on its own. A standing rule doesn't make sense, since it would then be easier for the general membership to take this action then to order the board to read the minutes of a single meeting.