Retaining notes and recordings of meeting pending approval of the minutes.

[Guest Josecar3]

Prior to the next quarterly public meeting of this civic committee the draft minutes of the previous meeting have been posted pending approval.  Several members of the public in attendance at the previous meeting have noticed possible errors and omissions.  All public meetings of this committee are recorded and backed by notes taken by the secretary.  When the committee was approached about reviewing both the recorded record and the hand written notes, a member of the committee advised that the relevant portion of the recording had been missed by a malfunction of the recording equipment.  Subsequently the secretary was requested to make the hand written notes available for review.  As to public access we exist in a "government in the sunshine" state.  The secretary advised that once the draft minutes have been drawn up the hand written notes are normally discarded.   Of course, that leaves the public attendees no avenue to confirm the minutes of the previous meeting to be a correct record.  Searching Robert's Rules I can find no "Rule" to which this matter is addressed.  I have seen only guidance offered.  Does Robert's Rules of Order give specific direction for the retention of all manner of recording a meeting used for the draft minutes and further direction that all records used be retained until the minutes are approved?

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

No, it does not. It says only that the Secretary prepares a draft, which becomes the official minutes upon approval at a meeting. Since you are acting pursuant to a "sunshine" law, it would be prudent to consult an attorney about your obligations under that law.

[Richard Brown]

4 hours ago, Guest Josecar3 said:

Prior to the next quarterly public meeting of this civic committee . . . . 

You referred to your group as a Civic committee and also made reference to a sunshine state and Public Access.

 

Is this committee considered a public body under your state law? If it is, as GWCTD pointed out, you should perhaps consult with an attorney as you need to comply with your state's sunshine or open meetings law. Other than that, your committee can probably decide for itself what to release as RONR provides no specific guidance on that point.

Edited January 24, 2018 at 12:08 AM by Richard Brown

[Gary Novosielski]

If the members believe that there are errors or omissions, they should be prepared to offer corrections when the draft minutes come up for approval. If there are differences of opinion on the correctness of the correction, a majority vote decides the matter.  When no (further) corrections are offered, the minutes stand approved.