Minutes for a Closed Meeting

[Guest Kelly Boice]

When a meeting is closed, are the minutes confidential or should the minutes only contain the Motion made and passed?

[jstackpo]

Minutes, for a "closed" (I presume you mean what RONR calls an "Executive Session", page 95) or an open meeting, should only contain motions that were made, and how they were disposed of: adopted, defeated, postponed to the next meeting, or whatever. See p 468ff.  Minutes record what was done, not what was said.

[Atul Kapur]

RONR uses the term Executive Session to describe a meeting, or portion of a meeting, "at which the proceedings are secret." (p. 95, line 18).

"The minutes, or record of proceedings, of an executive session must be read and acted upon only in executive session [and, therefore, stay confidential] unless that which would be reported in the minutes -- that is, the action taken, as distinct from that which was said in debate -- was not secret, or secrecy has been lifted by the assembly." (p. 96, lines 9-14)

[Richard Brown]

2 hours ago, Guest Kelly Boice said:

When a meeting is closed, are the minutes confidential or should the minutes only contain the Motion made and passed?

Guest Kelly, I agree with the previous responses but would add that a “closed meeting” and a meeting held in executive session are not necessarily the same thing. A meeting might well be closed to non-members, but yet if it is not being held in executive session, its proceedings are not secret.  Excluding nonmembers and holding the meeting in executive session are two different things.

Edited December 6, 2019 at 11:47 PM by Richard Brown
Corrected typos