Minutes - how to write if no motion was made?

[Guest Kim]

My question, in brief, is can details of discussion be included in the Minutes?

 

I am Treasurer, on a small board for a livestock registry. The Secretary resigned and the By-Laws allow the Treasurer to do her duties. I had no idea how to write Minutes, so I looked that up online. I just ordered the current edition of Robert's Rules and the In Brief book, so I can find the correct answers, but the books are not here, yet. If I'm going to do this, I want to do it properly.

 

I submitted the Minutes of the last meeting to the President, for approval. My minutes included the listed agenda items. If a motion was made, it gave the exact wording of the motion and the results. I did not include any notes on discussion/debate, because what I read is that discussion should not be noted. The Minutes from prior BOD meetings have always included notes on discussion.

 

Some of the agenda items were discussed, without a motion being made. I wasn't sure how to write that in the Minutes, because our organization members need to know what is going on in meetings. For those items, I put the agenda item and that there was discussion. An example:

" Region 2 position
Discussion was held regarding nominations being open for Region 2 Director. No motions or votes were made."

 

The President sent back the Minutes with the corrections she would like to have added. She admitted that she had made mistakes running the meeting. We are all new at following Robert's Rules.

Her corrections involve adding details of discussion. For example:

"4) On the Region 2 position, we discussed putting a notice of the available seat on the membership meeting notice requesting self nominations to go up for membership vote."

 

My concern, regarding listing discussion, is that I would have to make a judgement call on which/how much discussion to include in the Minutes.

 

Thank you.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

See FAQ #15.

[Weldon Merritt]

 

My concern, regarding listing discussion, is that I would have to make a judgement call on which/how much discussion to include in the Minutes.

 

 

That is a very legitimate concern, and one of the reasons discussion should not be included. Keep in mind that it is your draft that is to be presented for approval. While there is noting wrong with asking the president to take a look and offer suggestions, you are under no obligation to accept any of the president's suggestions. Once the minutes are submitted for approval, the assembly is free to make corerctions, if they think they are warrented; but until then, you are in control of the draft.

[Guest Kim]

Can the other board members require me to make corrections that include adding discussion?

Or, do I have the right to say that discussion is not going to be included in the Minutes?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

The assembly could decide to include discussion in the minutes even though it may not be a good idea to do so.

[Weldon Merritt]

The assembly could decide to include discussion in the minutes even though it may not be a good idea to do so.

 

Correct. But they can do so only through the minutes-approval process. No one has a right to require you to include anything in your draft. But once you present the draft, the assembly can make whatever corrections they believe are appropriate, regardless of how inappropriate the corrections may be under the rules in RONR. If you feel strongly enoigh about it, you can resign; but short of that, in the end you must make whatever corrections the assembly orders.

[Shmuel Gerber]

Correct. But they can do so only through the minutes-approval process. No one has a right to require you to include anything in your draft. But once you present the draft, the assembly can make whatever corrections they believe are appropriate, regardless of how inappropriate the corrections may be under the rules in RONR. If you feel strongly enoigh about it, you can resign; but short of that, in the end you must make whatever corrections the assembly orders.

 

Are you saying that the assembly can order corrections after the fact, but cannot, at the meeting of which the minutes are [i.e., will be] the record, direct the secretary to include certain things that happen at that meeting?

[Weldon Merritt]

Are you saying that the assembly can order corrections after the fact, but cannot, at the meeting of which the minutes are [i.e., will be] the record, direct the secretary to include certain things that happen at that meeting?

 

No, that's not what I meant; but I can see why what I said could have been read that way. Certainly, during the meeting, the assembly can order that discussion be included, and the secretary must comply. But I was addressing Guest Kim's sitauition, in which the draft minutes already have been prepared, and the president wants her to inlcude things that Kim does not believe should be included. And I read Hieu's response in the same context.