Membership minutes vs Board minutes

[Tom Morelock]

We have only one or two membership meetings per year but several board meetings. so are the membership minutes approved at the next board meeting? also when we do have the next membership meeting, do we read the minutes of the last membership meeting? also do we read/approve the minutes of the latest board meeting at the membership meeting?

[jstackpo]

The Board approves the Board's minutes; the membership meeting approves the membership meeting minutes.

 

If the membership meetings are more than 3-4 months (a "quarter", p. xx (my book is packed for a trip) ) apart, the membership meeting can , indeed should, establish a minutes approval committee to check up on the secretary rather than wait until everybody has forgotten (or mis-remembered) what happened at the earlier meeting. [There is also a page reference for doing that.]

[jstackpo]

And just to be crystal clear, the authorization for the Board to approve the membership minutes must be granted by the members in the meeting.  It ain't automatic.

[Richard Brown]

I believe the citation Dr. Stackpole was referring to is at the bottom of page 474 and the top of page 575.  It reads as follows:

 

"When the next regular business session will not be held within a quarterly time interval (see pp. 89–90), and the session does not last longer than one day, or in an organization in which there will be a change or replacement of a portion of the membership, the executive board or a committee appointed for the [page 475] purpose should be authorized to approve the minutes."

 

As Dr. Stackpole pointed out, the Board does not have the authority to approve minutes of a general membership meeting unless that authority is expressly granted in the bylaws, by some other rule, or by a motion adopted by the general membership authorizing the board to approve the minutes of that meeting.