minutes

[Guest birmingplumb]

wasted 1 hour   of 2 hr meeting for reading of minutes. Since 3 previous  monthly meetings cancelled due to no quorum, 12 weeks of executive board  meetings minutes had to be read and approved. 100 people sitting 1 hr wasted...can the minutes be printed and distributed to members on way in and voted on during meeting to allow for more time for important stuff?

[Joshua Katz]

The draft minutes can be printed and distributed, and they need not be read so long as so one wants them read. But they aren't voted on - the chair asks for corrections, and once any corrections have been dealt with by unanimous consent or amendment, declares them accepted.

Also, it would appear you're having the membership approve board minutes. Ordinarily, a body approves its own minutes, so the board would approve board minutes, and the membership would approve membership meeting minutes (which, in this case, would presumably be short since there was no quorum - by the way, a meeting is not cancelled for lack of quorum, it is called to order, then typically adjourned, but a motion to set the time to which to adjourn, or to recess for the purpose of trying to get a quorum, is also in order). Do your bylaws require your membership to approve board minutes?

[jstackpo]

More than likely, there is far too much unnecessary stuff in those minutes.  There should be NO transcriptions of debate, or news items, or committee reports, or general discussion, or "opinions" AT ALL.  All they need contain (other than some administrative material) is the text of motions adopted, defeated, or otherwise disposed of.  the tl;dr version is "Include what was done, not what was said."  See Page 468ff.  If the meeting does not adopt (&c) any motions, the minutes will be real short.

But in answer to your question: Yes, it is proper to distribute your novels ahead of time to avoid lengthy reading in the meetings.

[birmingplumb]

Thank you both---Historical  Local UAW ----can u refer us to someone who will come train this leadership on how to conduct a meeting here in Detroit. I believe we can afford any fee. again thanks -Motown-

[Joshua Katz]

If you visit the National Association of Parliamentarian and American Institute of Parliamentarians websites, they both maintain a referral list so that you can find a professional in your area to conduct a training session. 

[Gary Novosielski]

11 hours ago, Guest birmingplumb said:

wasted 1 hour   of 2 hr meeting for reading of minutes. Since 3 previous  monthly meetings cancelled due to no quorum, 12 weeks of executive board  meetings minutes had to be read and approved. 100 people sitting 1 hr wasted...can the minutes be printed and distributed to members on way in and voted on during meeting to allow for more time for important stuff?

Yes, the DRAFT minutes can be distributed in printed form, and if there is no objection, reading can then be waived. But reading must take place on the demand of a single member.  Any copies printed before approval should be clearly marked DRAFT, as they are subject to change in the approval process.

The chair might say, "Draft copies of the minutes have been distributed to all members; without objection, the reading of the minutes will be waived. <pause> Hearing no objection, reading is waived; are there any corrections to the minutes as printed? <pause>* Hearing no corrections, the minutes stand approved as printed (or as correctedf*)."

Meetings at which a quorum is not achieved are not "cancelled". They are still meetings, and although no substantive business can be conducted, there would still be minutes that require approval.  But they would be extremely short, even if read aloud.

I share jstackpo's suspicion that if it took an hour to read them, the minutes probably contain far more material than is required or even desirable.

__________
* If corrections are offered, they are usually handled by unanimous consent, but if there is disagreement, a majority vote decides what goes in or comes out.  There is no final vote on approval, since approval is required. The only way to object to the contents of the minutes is to offer a correction.

 

 

[Joshua Katz]

2 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

I share jstackpo's suspicion that if it took an hour to read them, the minutes probably contain far more material than is required or even desirable.

 

I'm not sure how long it should take to read 12 sets of minutes out loud, but I'm not convinced an hour is too long. Although it's a safe bet they contain too much, because that's true for most organizations.

[Sid Grice]

Excuse my intrusion. I am asking these questions of the original question, for clarification purposes and as a means to better understand the answer(s).

Q1. "3 previous  monthly meetings cancelled".  Would P.474 ll.31-35 , and P.475 ll.1-7 apply here? (quarterly Time Interval)

Q2. "12 weeks of executive board  meetings minutes". Would P.487 ll.13-24 also apply?  (executive board report)

I was going to start a new thread, but was concerned that reference to this thread would cause complications.

Thank you

[Gary Novosielski]

2 hours ago, Joshua Katz said:

I'm not sure how long it should take to read 12 sets of minutes out loud, but I'm not convinced an hour is too long. Although it's a safe bet they contain too much, because that's true for most organizations.

Well, that's an average of 5 minutes per set, or long enough to sing a really long balad, which does describe most minutes.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

1. No, because there is no indication that it was anticipated that more than a quarterly time interval would elapse. The intervening meetings did, in fact, occur, although they were not able to take substantive action due to lack of quorum. From a parliamentary viewpoint, they were not "cancelled" as the OP claims.

2. Possibly. The OP does not explain why 100 members were having the executive board's minutes read. We can only guess.

[birmingplumb]

Thank you all for the answers. I strongly suspect this 1 hr reading of the minutes, along with cancellation  of the Nov, Dec , monthly meetings due to holiday  ( violates UAW constitution) as well as being recognized or not recognized when there is time- and dozens of other "ways" very important issues are avoided  at Sunday afternoon union meetings- are a organized attempt to keep the membership dazed and confused. Corrupt  UAW International union officials exposed by the Detroit News in bed with management , have also infiltrated our Local Union thus sabotaging any attempt to assemble. So if one single member can "order" the reading of the minutes-how then do we start the Uaw over from scratch and go around current elected officials who will work against change? From within not using Feed oversight  or takeover?

Edited October 30, 2018 at 12:12 PM by birmingplumb

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

Why are they reading minutes of the executive board at a meeting of the general membership? If it is a report, then it doesn't count as "the reading and approval of the minutes" and it cannot be demanded by a single member.

[birmingplumb]

I suspect done to prevent any meaningful discussion orchestrated by those making billions per year off of labor. We have temporary part timers with no benefits or representation paying union dues and given scraps of 8 hrs work per week work and then others related to union officials working same tpt status working 60 hrs per week. It's a mess. I ask for a  parlimentarian expert to come help , maybe sit in and watch the meeting then recommend changes, but don't know who to call that is "the best". Its for a good cause and the people are lost, and scared and being tricked into submission by union---at least they should be able to talk at a meeting. IMO. Motown

[Joshua Katz]

17 minutes ago, birmingplumb said:

I suspect done to prevent any meaningful discussion orchestrated by those making billions per year off of labor.

Well, that's a suspected motive, but it's not a reason. How did it come to pass that the membership approves board minutes? None of your work situation explains that. At some point, that has to have started happening - why? Was there a bylaw passed that made it happen?

 

18 minutes ago, birmingplumb said:

I ask for a  parlimentarian expert to come help , maybe sit in and watch the meeting then recommend changes, but don't know who to call that is "the best".

Both the National Association of Parliamentarians and the American Institute of Parliamentarians maintain, on their websites, a list of professional parliamentarians. You can search by your location.

19 minutes ago, birmingplumb said:

at least they should be able to talk at a meeting.

Not only can they speak at meetings, they can make motions (at membership meetings) such as "I move that we dispense with the reading of the minutes" (assuming there's some good reason you are considering board minutes at all), and can raise points of order (such as, perhaps, that the board minutes have no place at a membership meeting). Remember, the board does not run membership meetings, the members do. The board is not even present as such.