Guest KMDePaola Posted February 25, 2018 at 04:27 PM Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 at 04:27 PM Can anyone who is a member of a private organization request past meeting minutes, Board of Director meetings and Open Membership minutes? There is no reference to this in our By-Laws, but our last Article is that we adopt Roberts Rules. How soon should minutes be available to the members? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmuel Gerber Posted February 25, 2018 at 04:57 PM Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 at 04:57 PM 24 minutes ago, Guest KMDePaola said: Can anyone who is a member of a private organization request past meeting minutes, Board of Director meetings and Open Membership minutes? There is no reference to this in our By-Laws, but our last Article is that we adopt Roberts Rules. How soon should minutes be available to the members? "The duties of the secretary are: ... "... To make the minutes and records available to members upon request ... "... To maintain record book(s) in which the bylaws, special rules of order, standing rules, and minutes are entered, with any amendments to these documents properly recorded, and to have the current record book(s) on hand at every meeting. ... "When written reports are received from boards or committees, the secretary should record on them the date they were received and what further action was taken on them, and preserve them among his records. ... Any member has a right to examine these reports and the record book(s) referred to [above], including the minutes of an executive session, at a reasonable time and place, but this privilege must not be abused to the annoyance of the secretary. The same principle applies to records kept by boards and committees, these being accessible to members of the boards or committees but to no others (but see p. 487, ll. 13–20)." (RONR, pp. 458-460) "A record of the board's proceedings should be kept by the secretary, just as in any other assembly; these minutes are accessible only to the members of the board unless the board grants permission to a member of the society to inspect them, or unless the society by a two-thirds vote (or the vote of a majority of the total membership, or a majority vote if previous notice is given) orders the board's minutes to be produced and read to the society's assembly." (P. 487, ll. 13–20) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Katz Posted February 25, 2018 at 07:33 PM Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 at 07:33 PM Putting together the quotes above, it is fair to say that, first, anyone can request anything, but it doesn't mean they'll get it. A member (who by assumption is not a board member) is not entitled to see any board minutes, unless you have rules to the contrary, and certainly not those of executive sessions of the board. He is entitled to membership meeting minutes. The assembly can instruct the board to give over its minutes by a 2/3 vote, or the board can on its own decide to allow him to see them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted February 25, 2018 at 07:42 PM Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 at 07:42 PM Agreeing with my colleagues, and with specific thanks to Shmuel Gerber for his quotes from RONR regarding the duties of the secretary, if your organization is incorporated or somehow subject to state statutes regarding your type of organization (such as a homeowner association), state law MIGHT provide that regular members of such an organization are entitled to have access to other records, such as minutes of board meetings. But, based solely on RONR, only board members normally have a right to view minutes of board meetings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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