Releasing Draft Minutes

[CJayroe]

I am the Secretary for our organization and our President is insisting on reviewing and providing her corrections to the Draft Minutes before they are released to the General Membership for review, prior to the next business meeting wherein they will be corrected/approved.  She does not want her corrections "noted" as such in the Draft Minutes, but if anyone else provides corrections she requires them to be presented at the next meeting in front of the membership.  My understanding is that the Secretary records the minutes as accurately and adequate as possible, and ANY corrections/additions to the recorded proceedings should be brought to the membership for acknowledgement and approval. Our Parliamentarian is ineffective, so there is no experienced resource available to provide a judgement call - should this process be brought to the membership for vote?

[Atul Kapur]

The Secretary has no obligation to agree to this request from the President. Page 355 on three occasions refers to "the minutes as drafted by the secretary" or "the secretary's draft."
Note that there is nothing prohibiting the secretary from agreeing to the request, either. The draft remains the secretary's, however, so if the president and secretary disagree, it should be the secretary's version that is submitted.

The membership could require this process, by creating a Standing Rule.

Edited September 22, 2019 at 05:30 PM by Atul Kapur
Specified lack of prohibition.

[Joshua Katz]

Agreeing with Dr. Kapur, it seems correct to me that any changes made by the Secretary, even if in response to comments by another member such as the President, will not be noted anywhere, while changes made at the meeting when the minutes are pending for adoption will be noted in the minutes of the meeting where they are adopted. 

It is true that, as OP says, any corrections/additions should be brought to the membership when the minutes are pending - but to what? To the Secretary's draft, as presented at the meeting. That in no way prevents the Secretary from changing the draft in response to comments from others. 

[Dan Honemann]

15 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

Agreeing with Dr. Kapur, it seems correct to me that any changes made by the Secretary, even if in response to comments by another member such as the President, will not be noted anywhere, while changes made at the meeting when the minutes are pending for adoption will be noted in the minutes of the meeting where they are adopted. 

I don't think so.

[Atul Kapur]

Page 468 - 469

"CONTENT OF THE MINUTES. The first paragraph
of the minutes should contain the following information
...
5) whether the minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved—as read, or as corrected—and the date of that meeting if it was other than a regular business meeting. Any correction approved by the assembly is made in the text of the minutes being approved; the minutes of the meeting making the correction merely state that the minutes were approved 'as corrected,' without specifying what the correction was (see form, p. 472, ll. 8-9)."
(Italics in original. Bold added for emphasis)

And the example on page 472: "The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved as corrected."

[Joshua Katz]

2 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

I don't think so.

 

5 minutes ago, Atul Kapur said:

5) whether the minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved—as read, or as corrected—and the date of that meeting if it was other than a regular business meeting. Any correction approved by the assembly is made in the text of the minutes being approved; the minutes of the meeting making the correction merely state that the minutes were approved 'as corrected,' without specifying what the correction was (see form, p. 472, ll. 8-9)."

 

2 hours ago, Joshua Katz said:

while changes made at the meeting when the minutes are pending for adoption will be noted in the minutes of the meeting where they are adopted. 

Sorry, that was so inartfully worded as to be incorrect.

[Albert]

The acting clerk for the May annual meeting of our time-share association delayed making his minutes available until July.  One thought is that the Clerk of an assembly has a duty to make available his draft account of a meeting proceedings in a timely way. Some states have adopted a rule that a community association shall make copies of minutes available by email on request of a member whenever minutes are kept.  To be avoided is the interpretation that minutes of the annual meeting are not “kept” until recorded. My preference is for the assembly to a standing rule that states that the Clerk shall make his minutes available within seven days of the meeting, and avoid phases that means as soon as possible.