Meeting Minutes Archives

[Guest Linda L. Gerace]

How long should the meeting minutes be kept available on a website? Seven years? Six years? etc.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

"Website?"

 

There is no rule in Robert's Rules of Order about "web site", nevermind archiving pages on a web site.

 

So, you are free to take down all minutes. Immediately. And know that no rule of RONR was violated.

[Guest Linda L. Gerace]

"Website?"

 

There is no rule in Robert's Rules of Order about "web site", nevermind archiving pages on a web site.

 

So, you are fee to take down all minutes. Immediately. And know that no rule of RONR was violated.

Thank you, Kim!

[Bruce Lages]

Just make sure that your minutes are archived somewhere else - RONR's rule is that they be kept 'in a substantial book or binder', which almost certainly requires a hard copy of the minutes. They also should be kept for the life of the organization.

[Richard Brown]

I agree with what Kim and Bruce said, but it seems to me that you should do what the organization wants.   Maybe you are inquiring on its behalf.  Does the organization have a policy of leaving minutes on the website for a certain period of time, or even indefinitely?  Or has nobody ever really thought about it until now?  Whatever the case, I think you should defer to the wishes of the society itself, but let the society know that nothing in RONR dictates that anything stay on a website. 

 

One more caveat:  I think we are all assuming that this is not some kind of public body which may be bound by open meetings or public records laws re posting certain things on a website.

[Gary Novosielski]

How long should the meeting minutes be kept available on a website? Seven years? Six years? etc.

They don't have to be kept on a web site at all.  But they have to be kept somewhere (RONR suggests a substantial book or binder), presumably forever.

[Timothy]

...presumably forever.

 

Perhaps, but I would think that if an organization ceases to exist it would no longer be necessary for someone to hang-on to the minutes. Eventually, the last secretary will die and their children may throw the substantial book out in the trash. The historian in me wants to say that shouldn't happen, but I don't think anything in RONR would require retention of the minutes beyond the life of the organization.

[Gary Novosielski]

Perhaps, but I would think that if an organization ceases to exist it would no longer be necessary for someone to hang-on to the minutes. Eventually, the last secretary will die and their children may throw the substantial book out in the trash. The historian in me wants to say that shouldn't happen, but I don't think anything in RONR would require retention of the minutes beyond the life of the organization.

 

Yeah, that's why i said "presumably".  And I think you're right from a strictly parliamentary point of view,  But i can also imagine situations where, for legal or tax purposes, it might be a good idea to have records that go back a few years.  One never knows.