2 sets of minuets for one meeting

[Guest jean]

i was wondering since im new to the secretary position in my organization i was told to have 2 sets of minutes. one that gets posted to the web site and sent out to the members and the other for the files. the one that gets posted does not have the money totals and some discutions the president and captain feel the public needs to know. i need to know if that is legal or not.

Back to top of the page up there ^

[hmtcastle]

i was told to have 2 sets of minutes

You were told wrong.

The minutes are the official record of what was done (e.g. motions made) at a meeting. There is only one "set". It does not need to be distributed to the members though members have a right to see the minutes (at the secretary's convenience).

If your organization wants to publish/post additional (or less) information in its newsletter or on its website, it is free to do so. What your president and captain "feel" is irrelevant. And what's "legal" is best asked of an attorney.

[Gary Novosielski]

i was wondering since im new to the secretary position in my organization i was told to have 2 sets of minutes. one that gets posted to the web site and sent out to the members and the other for the files. the one that gets posted does not have the money totals and some discutions the president and captain feel the public needs to know.

You're right to be suspicious. A secretary with two sets of minutes sounds an awful lot like a treasurer with two sets of books.

There can be only one set of minutes, which is the official record of the organization. What the minutes say is not up to the president and the captain. It is up to the organization as a whole. The minutes that are (corrected and) approved at each meeting are The Minutes. You can have a thousand other documents that contain some or all of that same information, but none of them are the minutes. The minutes are the official, physical, approved, signed, copies that you as secretary keep, preferably "in a substantial binder".

Of course, the organization can decide to release none, all, or part of that information to "the public". But again, it is a decision of the organization by a motion, debate, and vote that matters, on this and every other issue that the organization may decide. The opinion of the president and the captain carry no more weight than any two other members.

If it hasn't been decided by (a majority of) the members then it hasn't been decided.

[jstackpo]

"2 sets of minuets for one meeting"

I was tempted to dance around this question, but it is really unkind to make sport of people's typing errors -- I make enough of my own for myself, after all.

Anyway, read RONR pp. 451 ff. (or RONRIB, p. 145 ff.) to get the details as to what belongs in minutes - from what guest_jean says, it sounds as though she may be including more than is called for by RONR.

[Josh Martin]

i was wondering since im new to the secretary position in my organization i was told to have 2 sets of minutes. one that gets posted to the web site and sent out to the members and the other for the files. the one that gets posted does not have the money totals and some discutions the president and captain feel the public needs to know. i need to know if that is legal or not.

There is only one set of minutes, although there's nothing wrong (so far as RONR is concerned) with putting some other document on the website with different information. Discussions don't belong in the minutes, and money totals only belong if they're in motions.