President alters/rewrites minutes

[Guest Ceva]

Richard Brown, excellent advice that I will take.  FWIW I do have both the Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised in Brief 2nd Edition and Roberts Rules for Dummies which I keep on the table in front of me when in these board meetings. I have not purchased the 800-page book but just may have to.  I believe just having these two cursery aids and a laminated Spark Chart has familiarized me enough to irritate the president who could less about following these rules.  

Thank you also for the Parliamentarian organizations. I am definitely hiring a certified parliamentarian to text me during the meetings. He's not a resident so if they know that he's helping me in this this way, they'll ask him to leave. Yes, these are the HOA Nazis from hell.  

As to my earlier questions:

 

Question:  Should this type of description use board member titles or names? If you think this type of description is wrong, please explain why since it seems appropriate in this style.  Of course, the board members then vote on whether that content stays or not in the minutes when it comes back up for approval.

-thank you!

[Gary Novosielski]

16 hours ago, Guest Ceva said:

Gary Novosielski:   If I understand the scope of minutes required by RR, it is to be a record of a board's actions. It does not preclude detail concerning what led to those actions.  Our secretary did not include any he said/she said transcriptions or quotes but of actions taken by specific board members that led to a motion to call police. (i.e. President told Secretary and Member-at-large to turn off their recordings. Secretary complied. Member-At-large did not comply stating concerns for her personal safety. President moved to call police to eject board member.) Question:  Should this type of description use board member titles or names? If you think this type of description is wrong, please explain why since it seems appropriate in this style.  Of course, the board members then vote on whether that content stays or not in the minutes when it comes back up for approval.

Last question:  Since our meeting minutes were rejected by a majority vote, what does the secretary need to do at this point?  Does she revise them based on the objections (we did not vote on each correction unfortunately) heard and resubmit the minutes to be approved at the next board meeting or should it be tabled or never brought back? What would you recommend?

 

One more time: It is not up to the secretary's discretion.   Unless a majority insists on including extraneous material (which seems unlikely in your situation) the rules in RONR do preclude including detail concerning what led up to a motion.  Of course it's possible the motion to call the police included within it the reason for the call.  The exact text of the motion recorded in the minutes would then tell the story.  This is why formal resolutions include "Whereas:" clauses, so that the reasons for the resolution will be included if needed in a particular case.  Otherwise, the reasons are likely to be subjective (the secretary's personal opinion) and, since they were never voted on, are not necessarily the majority view. 

When identifying motions in the minutes, the name of the mover (e.g., Mr. Jones) is included.

The President does not have the authority to order any member to turn off a recorder; the assembly (i.e., the board)  by majority vote decides such matters.  The President similarly does not have the authority to eject a board member, even for disruptive behavior (though he does have the right to eject non-members).  The board itself by majority vote can impose disciplinary action, including ejection, for breaches of decorum in a meeting, but failure to follow an improper order from the president would not qualify, it seems to me.

To answer the last question, the draft minutes should be brought up for correction and approval at your next meeting before you approve the more current meeting's minutes. Any corrections that were agreed to can be added to the secretary's draft, but if none were, the secretary's draft should be the starting point.  If you follow the procedure outlined in RONR (read it over again twice before the meeting) there is no concern that the minutes will not ultimately be approved.