Elaborating on Minutes

[Guest Trisha]

I am responsible for taking and transcribing all board and board-level committee minutes for my company. I adhere to RRO procedures and keep my notes as concise and to the point as possible; however, when the draft is reviewed by my superiors (before being distributed to the full board), they elaborate by inserting extraneous words, e.g. from "... associated costs are being tracked" to, "... associated costs are being carefully tracked." They also insert full sentences or include information that was not stated in the meeting. I find this most irritating. Is what they are doing wrong, or is changing what was recorded okay to do? I would greatly appreciate your input on this. Thank you.

[Bruce Lages]

It may not be OK from an RONR perspective (or yours), but it is OK if a majority of the board, or board-level committee members, approve the changes when the minutes are up for adoption. Each assembly has the final say on what its minutes contain, which could, unfortunately, include information not stated in the meeting.  

[jstackpo]

And, not to put too fine a point on it, it is most likely VERY "OK" if your boss, who pays your salary, says to do it. 

But once the ephemera are inserted in the draft minutes, the committee (or board) can vote to remove them, as Bruce L. notes, (unless ALL the committee members work for and are paid by the same boss). 

RONR doesn't claim to apply to all aspects of business and employment relationships.

Edited January 26, 2018 at 08:09 PM by jstackpo
spelling of "to" vs "too'.

[Guest Trisha]

Thank you, Bruce. Your response is very helpful.