Meeting Agenda

[Guest Marcus]

Is it required that in a annual business meeting the previous minutes must be read?

[David A Foulkes]

There is no difference between an annual meeting and any other. A meeting is a meeting, with one exception. (see below) Whether the minutes are "read", well:

Reading and Approval of Minutes. The chair says, "The Secretary will read the minutes." However, in organizations where copies of the minutes of each previous meeting as prepared by the secretary are sent to all members in advance, the chair announces that this has been done, and the actual reading of them aloud is omitted unless any member then requests that they be read. (RONR 11th ed., p. 354 ll. 9-15)

After any proposed corrections have been disposed of, and when there is no response to the chair's inquiry, "Are there any corrections [or "further corrections"] to the minutes?" the chair says, "There being no corrections [or "no further corrections"] to the minutes, the minutes stand [or "are"] approved [or "approved as read," or "approved as corrected"]." 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. (RONR 11th ed. p. 354 l. 34 - p. 355 l. 11)

The exception is at a Special Meeting. Minutes are not read nor approved at a Special Meeting, unless the purpose of that meeting is to do that.

[George Mervosh]

However if the minutes that are up for approval are last year's annual meeting minutes see RONR (11th ed.) p. 474, l. 31ff

[Gary Novosielski]

Is it required that in a annual business meeting the previous minutes must be read?

If by the "previous" minutes, you mean the ones from a year ago, you're doing something wrong. If the minutes have never been approved, then yes, you'll have to do so at this meeting. But in the future, the assembly should authorize a committee, or the board, to approve the minutes of its meeting. It's not reasonable to expect people to remember what happened last year, and not wise to let minutes go unapproved that long.