If you were not at the meeting the minutes were taken for can you vote to approve the minutes or do you need to remember to abstain?

[Guest Linda B]

If you were not at the meeting the minutes were taken for can you vote to approve the minutes or do you need to remember to abstain?

It makes sense you should not move to approve the minutes if you were not there, but if you forget you weren’t there and vote with the majority to approve, should there be an issue made about it when the secretary discovers it and force a new vote to make everything proper the next month?

[jstackpo]

Yes, you are allowed to vote. Voting is one of the rights of membrship.

Your second paragraph secretary has no business "forcing" a new vote.

As others have noted, if knowledge of what you are voting about was a "requirement" to be able to vote, then ALL US elections would be invalid.

[Weldon Merritt]

It makes sense you should not move to approve the minutes if you were not there . . . .

Actually, you should not move, or vote. to approve the minutes even if you were there. Why!? Because a motion to appropve the minues, while not out of order, is not necessary, and a vote on approval should not be taken. When the minutes are presented for approval, the chair should ask for corrections, and once all corrections (if any) are made, the chair should simply declare the minutes approved. Taking a vote implies the possibility that the motion may be defeated, resulting in the minutes not being approved. Not approving the minutes is not an option.

[Guest WannaBe]

Since there is a direct quote from the book that answers this question, refer to RONR, 11th edition, p. 355:

"The minutes are thus approved without any formal vote, even if a motion for their approval has been made. The only proper way to object to the approval of the secretary’s draft of the minutes is to offer a correction to it. It should be noted that a member’s absence from the meeting for which minutes are being approved does not prevent the member from participating in their correction or approval."

[Trina]

If you were not at the meeting the minutes were taken for can you vote to approve the minutes or do you need to remember to abstain?

It makes sense you should not move to approve the minutes if you were not there, but if you forget you weren’t there and vote with the majority to approve, should there be an issue made about it when the secretary discovers it and force a new vote to make everything proper the next month?

Absolutely not -- no one has any business questioning any member's right to participate in the minutes approval process on this basis. As others have pointed out, a vote on the minutes isn't really appropriate anyway. If there is a vote, however, any member present when the vote is taken has an equal right to vote. Whether that member was present at the earlier meeting has no effect whatsoever on his/her right to vote. Forcing 'a new vote' on already approved minutes would not 'make everything proper' -- in fact, such a new vote would be improper.

It may also be worth pointing out that a member who was absent at the earlier meeting may, in fact, have useful corrections to offer. For example, if the draft minutes claim that 'Brian Jones made a motion to have the clubhouse razed,' Mr. Jones, who was absent at that earlier meeting, may wish to emphatically point out that it couldn't have been him who brought that motion before the assembly -- others who were present might then search their memories, and recall that it was actually member Ryan Jones who wanted to flatten the clubhouse.

[Guest Ryan Jones]

For example, if the draft minutes claim that 'Brian Jones made a motion to have the clubhouse razed,' Mr. Jones, who was absent at that earlier meeting, may wish to emphatically point out that it couldn't have been him who brought that motion before the assembly -- others who were present might then search their memories, and recall that it was actually member Ryan Jones who wanted to flatten the clubhouse.

Actually, I made a motion to have the clubhouse raised.

[Trina]

Actually, I made a motion to have the clubhouse raised.

Another correction worth making.

[Rhibran]

Approval of minutes should take next to no time, "approval of minutes. any editions or corrections? No (or edited as needed). There being no corrections (or no more corrections), the minutes of November 12, 2011are approved."