Minutes for our final meeting

[Guest Evan]

The ad hoc committee that I am the secretary of had its final meeting last week.  I've got to write the minutes and submit them to the city clerk, like always.  However, there won't be a future meeting for the members to approve these minutes.  Is there anything I should do differently, or is it just the usual procedure for me?

[Joshua Katz]

Ordinarily, committees do not keep minutes. Since yours does, it would have been ideal to approve them at the last meeting. But given that that wasn't done, I guess there's not much to do done about it now.

[Guest Evan]

We are ("were" as of this Tuesday) a municipal committee, so we are required by town and state law to keep minutes of all of our meetings.

I agree, it would have been ideal to accept the minutes of the final meeting during the final meeting.  However, it does take me several hours to turn my notes and audio recording into readable, acceptable minutes.  There's no way I could have done that on the spot without keeping everyone there until sunrise.

I'm mainly curious if RONR says anything about minutes of a committee's final meeting, when it won't meet again to ratify those.  (And if it did, we'd need to take minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, then minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, etc.) 

[Joshua Katz]

4 minutes ago, Guest Evan said:

'm mainly curious if RONR says anything about minutes of a committee's final meeting, when it won't meet again to ratify those.

No; as noted, RONR doesn't contemplate committees taking minutes. (The minutes, by the way, are approved, not ratified.)

5 minutes ago, Guest Evan said:

(And if it did, we'd need to take minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, then minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, etc.) 

Not really - if you met for the sole purpose of approving the minutes, those minutes would be very short, and could certainly be approved at the same meeting where they are taken.

6 minutes ago, Guest Evan said:

I agree, it would have been ideal to accept the minutes of the final meeting during the final meeting.  However, it does take me several hours to turn my notes and audio recording into readable, acceptable minutes.  There's no way I could have done that on the spot without keeping everyone there until sunrise.

 

I wonder if you are including more in the minutes than needs to be included. It is usually rare to need to refer to audio for anything other than the exact wording of a motion that you didn't jot down quickly enough. Regardless:

6 minutes ago, Guest Evan said:

We are ("were" as of this Tuesday) a municipal committee, so we are required by town and state law to keep minutes of all of our meetings.

 

Does the law require that the minutes be approved?

[Joshua Katz]

I should add, though, that RONR does discuss a somewhat similar situation: minutes where the next meeting will not be for an extended period of time, or where the next meeting will be, in essence, a new assembly (such as a convention). In those instances, it says a minutes approval committee should be empowered to approve the minutes. Now, it might be too late for that in your case, BUT here's an idea: a committee may produce a report without meeting if the report contains only what all members have separately agreed to. Perhaps your committee members could unanimously agree to appoint such a committee? Others might disagree.

A related question: you've had your final meeting, but have you reported yet to the assembly to which you are to report? The committee does not go out of existence until it delivers its final report.

[Guest Evan]

17 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

I should add, though, that RONR does discuss a somewhat similar situation: minutes where the next meeting will not be for an extended period of time, or where the next meeting will be, in essence, a new assembly (such as a convention). In those instances, it says a minutes approval committee should be empowered to approve the minutes. Now, it might be too late for that in your case, BUT here's an idea: a committee may produce a report without meeting if the report contains only what all members have separately agreed to. Perhaps your committee members could unanimously agree to appoint such a committee? Others might disagree.

A related question: you've had your final meeting, but have you reported yet to the assembly to which you are to report? The committee does not go out of existence until it delivers its final report.

According to the City Council's motion to create us last year, our ad hoc committee's term officially ends tomorrow.  We approved our final report and it was submitted earlier tonight.  Whether the City Council wants to motion to accept our final report, give us an agenda item to explain it to them, or just read it privately is up to them.

You're right, though.  I'm probably overthinking this whole thing, to be honest.

[Gary Novosielski]

1 hour ago, Guest Evan said:

We are ("were" as of this Tuesday) a municipal committee, so we are required by town and state law to keep minutes of all of our meetings.

I agree, it would have been ideal to accept the minutes of the final meeting during the final meeting.  However, it does take me several hours to turn my notes and audio recording into readable, acceptable minutes.  There's no way I could have done that on the spot without keeping everyone there until sunrise.

I'm mainly curious if RONR says anything about minutes of a committee's final meeting, when it won't meet again to ratify those.  (And if it did, we'd need to take minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, then minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes of the meeting to ratify the minutes, etc.) 

Minutes are neither "accepted" nor "ratified".  They are "approved".