in camera minutes

[Guest meg]

I am on the board of a small non profit society. Should hard copies of in camera minutes be circulated to board members (as is the case with minutes of regular board meetings) or should the secretary simply read the in camera minutes at the next board meeting? Thank you.

[jstackpo]

RONR's default rule for all minutes is that the Sec reads them at the next meeting.

If members (those entitled to see them, that is) want to read them, they make convenient arrangements to do so with the secretary.

[Burke Balch]

I imagine that what is meant by "in camera minutes" is minutes of an executive session. RONR (11th ed.), p. 96, ll. 9-17 states:

The minutes, or record of proceedings, of an executive session must be read and acted upon only in executive session, unless that which would be reported in the minutes--that is, the action taken, as distinct from that which was said in debate-- was not secret, or secrecy has been lifted by the assembly. When the minutes of an executive session must be considered for approval at an executive session held solely for that purpose, the brief minutes of the latter meeting are, or are assumed to be, approved by that meeting.

[Trina]

I imagine that what is meant by "in camera minutes" is minutes of an executive session. RONR (11th ed.), p. 96, ll. 9-17 states:

Does this then mean that draft minutes of an executive session cannot properly be pre-circulated (outside of a meeting) among the members? That certainly seems to be the implication of 'must be read and acted upon only in executive session.'

I am not sure if this (pre-circulation) is what the original poster was asking about, or if the question was simply about passing hard copies of executive session minutes out to the members already gathered for the next meeting.

[Burke Balch]

The book does not explicitly address the question of whether, in an organization that pre-circulates draft minutes, the portion describing the actions taken in executive session should be excluded, but it would seem common sense to infer that this ought to be done. Theoretically, I suppose, members could be trusted not to show or reveal the executive session portion to any non-member -- just as top secret documents are circulated among high government officials with a similar expectation -- but the likelihood of revelation to non-members, inadvertent or otherwise, certainly rises when multiple copies of draft minutes containing secret information are in wide circulation.

[Tim Wynn]

I don't think it could be considered blatantly irresponsible for the secretary to hand secret information to a person who has a duty to keep that information secret, but there is some merit in minimizing the number of copies of such info.