Copies of Bank Deposits and Statements

[ajmungons]

I was asked if it is legal for the board to make copies for members of the Bank Deposits and Bank Statements. They would like to make 50 copies of both and be able to pass them out to people in the community. Is this a smart thing or something they should be concerned about doing? They told the members that they could look at them upon request but now they think they should make copies to pass out. Any suggestions.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Any member has a right to examine written reports received from boards or committees and the record book(s) in which the bylaws, special rules of order, standing rules, and minutes are entered. It will be up to your organization and any applicable laws to decide if it wants to provide other documents to members.

[Richard Brown]

Your organization is free to make available, to copy and to distribute whatever organization records the organization so desires to whomever it desires.  Whether that is an advisable thing to do is outside the scope of this forum and is something for your organization itself to decide.    As Hieu said, members usually have the right to inspect organization records, within certain limits, but your organization is clearly considering going way beyond that.

[Edgar Guest]

They would like to make 50 copies of both and be able to pass them out to people in the community. Is this a smart thing or something they should be concerned about doing? 

 

I'd say they should be very concerned about doing this. So concerned, in fact, that they should decide not to do it. Otherwise the general membership should decide for them. See Official Interpretations 2006-12 and 2006-13.

[Richard Brown]

I'd say they should be very concerned about doing this. So concerned, in fact, that they should decide not to do it. Otherwise the general membership should decide for them. See Official Interpretations 2006-12 and 2006-13.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that without knowing more.  I have seen several situations, for example, when "civic" or political groups have been accused of improperly funding activities or spending money and they release their financial records (or the relevant parts of them) to prove that everything is in order and to disprove the allegations against them.

 

Edited to add:  I have also seen the records released to members when a certain faction of members claimed financial improprieties on the part of the organization or its officers.

[Edgar Guest]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that without knowing more. 

 

It's one thing to make public certain financial statements and, in fact, certain organizations are required to do so. It's quite another thing for the board to decide to make 50 copies of bank deposits and "pass them out to people in the community".

[Kim Goldsworthy]

I was asked if it is legal for the board to make copies for members of the Bank Deposits and Bank Statements.

They would like to make 50 copies of both and be able to pass them out to people in the community.

Is this a smart thing or something they should be concerned about doing?

They told the members that they could look at them upon request but now they think they should make copies to pass out.

Any suggestions.

". . . for the board to make copies for members of the Bank Deposits and Bank Statements?"

 

For what it is worth, it violates no rule of Robert's Rules of Order _____:

* to make photocopes

* to pass out financial statements

 

The 'wisdom' or 'folly' of doing so will not be answered using only Robert's Rules of Order.

 

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In my opinion:

 

A bank statement is private.

A bank deposit is private.

I see no good resulting from littering the public streets with photocopies of bank statements and bank deposits.

 

I think a good old fashioned audit is good enough.

A C.P.A., coming in and generating a proper auditor's report, will beat "putting out separate bank deposit slips", every time.

 

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