Minutes

[Guest Carol Ann]

When a roll call vote is taken during the board meeting, is it required to list how each member voted in the minutes or can you just put the results (example: passed 8-2 upon roll call)?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

1 hour ago, Guest Carol Ann said:

When a roll call vote is taken during the board meeting, is it required to list how each member voted in the minutes 

Yes.

[Dan Honemann]

"In roll-call voting, a record of how each member voted, as well as the result of the vote, should be entered in full in the journal or minutes. If those responding to the roll call do not total a sufficient number to constitute a quorum, the chair must direct the secretary to enter the names of enough members who are present but not voting to reflect the attendance of a quorum during the vote."  (RONR, 11th ed., p. 422) 

[Atul Kapur]

I do find that section quoted a little bit ambiguous. Say, for example that in a body of 10 members a roll call vote was 4-3 and the three others responded with "Present", "Abstain", and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Assuming that quorum is defined as a majority of the members, I read the section quoted as saying that I do not need to record the names of the three who abstained (ie: did not vote). But all 10 "responded" to the roll-call.

Or let's look at a second case, where the vote was 3-2, with three responding as before and the other two silent. In this situation, would the names and responses of all three be recorded or just the one necessary to show that there was a quorum? In this case, only 5 voted and would be recorded but 8 responded to the roll-call.

Edited January 15, 2019 at 12:49 PM by Atul Kapur
Added last sentence

[Dan Honemann]

4 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

I do find that section quoted a little bit ambiguous. Say, for example that in a body of 10 members a roll call vote was 4-3 and the three others responded with "Present", "Abstain", and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Assuming that quorum is defined as a majority of the members, I read the section quoted as saying that I do not need to record the names of the three who abstained (ie: did not vote). But all 10 "responded" to the roll-call.

Or let's look at a second case, where the vote was 3-2, with three responding as before and the other two silent. In this situation, would the names and responses of all three be recorded or just the one necessary to show that there was a quorum? In this case, only 5 voted and would be recorded but 8 responded to the roll-call.

Well, first of all, please refrain from using absurdities as examples. It doesn't help at all.

I'm afraid that you may not be reading this section correctly. I think the section does tell us that the secretary is to record the names of all who answered "present" (in other words, announced their abstention), as well as the names of all who voted either in favor of or against the motion being voted on.

Names of members who are present but who do not respond to a roll call are entered in the minutes only when, and to the extent that, it is necessary to do so to reflect the presence of  a quorum.

Edited January 15, 2019 at 05:05 PM by Daniel H. Honemann
Corrected a typo.

[Gary Novosielski]

13 hours ago, Guest Carol Ann said:

When a roll call vote is taken during the board meeting, is it required to list how each member voted in the minutes or can you just put the results (example: passed 8-2 upon roll call)?

The whole point of a roll-call vote is to record who voted how.  If that's not necessary, then why use a roll-call vote?

[Atul Kapur]

13 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

I think the section does tell us that the secretary is to record the names of all who answered "present" (in other words, announced their abstention), as well as the names of all who voted either in favor of or against the motion being voted on.

That makes sense to me. However, given that "To 'abstain' means not to vote at all" (RONR 11th ed., p. 45, l. 16), I suggest that it would be clearer if one word was changed in that sentence:
     "In roll-call voting, a record of how each member voted responded, [or "answered"]
      as well as the result of the vote, should be entered in full in
      the journal or minutes." (RONR 11th ed., p. 422, ll. 9-11)

Both of those words are carefully used elsewhere in this section to reflect that the response can be an abstention.

14 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

please refrain from using absurdities as examples. It doesn't help at all.

I was just trying to preserve continuity with the recent, related thread 🙂