Should board members who were not present be able to vote to approve minutes?

[Guest Charlene Lutz]

If a boardmembr is not present at the meeting should he be able to vote to approve the minutes? Likewise, if te board is voting to affirm an action that took place in executive session can a board member who wasn't present in the executive session vote to affirm the action?

[jstackpo]

Yes to both questions.  A member has a right to vote on all matters.

[George Mervosh]

If a boardmembr is not present at the meeting should he be able to vote to approve the minutes? Likewise, if te board is voting to affirm an action that took place in executive session can a board member who wasn't present in the executive session vote to affirm the action?

 

"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. 355

 

I don't know what you mean by "affirming action".

[Thomas Ralph]

If a boardmembr is not present at the meeting should he be able to vote to approve the minutes? Likewise, if te board is voting to affirm an action that took place in executive session can a board member who wasn't present in the executive session vote to affirm the action?

The approval of the minutes should not be put to a vote, and there is no need to vote to affirm an action that took place in executive session.

[Guest Richard Stringham]

Further to the above:

a) When it says: " '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. 355" does "participating" include making a motion to adopt the minutes as well as discussion and voting?

If the member was not a member at the time that the meeting took place, does the right to participate in approval of the minutes at a subsequent meeting still apply?

[Guest Richard Stringham]

Sorry the second statement was supposed to be numbered with a "b".....I'm not sure where the facial expression came from...

[Weldon Merritt]

Further to the above:

a) When it says: " '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. 355" does "participating" include making a motion to adopt the minutes as well as discussion and voting?

If the member was not a member at the time that the meeting took place, does the right to participate in approval of the minutes at a subsequent meeting still apply?

Yes to both questions. Membership rights at any given time apply to whomever is a member at that time. Whether they were a member at some prior time, or will be a member at some future time, is irrelevant.

[Weldon Merritt]

Sorry the second statement was supposed to be numbered with a "b".....I'm not sure where the facial expression came from...

When you type a "b" followed by a clossing parenthesis, the forum software converts it to a smiley face emoticon. I think there is a way to prevent that, but I am not sure how.

[jstackpo]

Further to the above:

a) When it says: " '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. 355" does "participating" include making a motion to adopt the minutes as well as discussion and voting?

If the member was not a member at the time that the meeting took place, does the right to participate in approval of the minutes at a subsequent meeting still apply?

 

 

A "b" with parentheses turns into a automatically.  There is a way to stop that but I didn't think it worth while to dig it out.  Likewise a parenthetical "c" becomes ©.

 

But an (a) stays an (a) (I think as I write this.)  Go figure.

 

And in reference to your actual parliamentary question:  The chair should just say "If there are no corrections to the minutes  ...  [pause...]  ...  hearing none the minutes are approved".

 

Thus nobody has to make a motion for approval.  But the new member is allowed to if he really really wants to.

[Guest Richard Stringham]

Which proves once again that I'm emoticon illiterate!

 

Btw: In this case there was a dispute regarding what should/should not have been included in the minutes. Consensus was not going to happen and the new board member had a motion to offer but felt constrained by not having been at the subject meeting! We'll all know better for the future.

 

Thanks to you both. As usual, this is has been very helpful.

[jstackpo]

Settle your "what's in; what's out" dispute with pages 468 ff.

[Edgar Guest]

There is a way to stop that but I didn't think it worth while to dig it out. 

 

You just click on the "More Reply Options" button and un-check the "Enable emoticons?" box.

 

[Gary Novosielski]

 

You just click on the "More Reply Options" button and un-check the "Enable emoticons?" box.

 

 

Strangely, it puts it right back when quoted.

[Edgar Guest]

Strangely, it puts it right back when quoted.

You need to uncheck the emoticons option each time you post (or edit the post). (It would be nice if members could disable emoticons in their settings.)

 

You just click on the "More Reply Options" button and un-check the "Enable emoticons?" box.