Guest Jorge Posted February 14, 2020 at 06:51 PM Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 at 06:51 PM At recent committee meeting we had all new members of the committee joining for the first time. The topic of approving the minutes of the prior committee meeting came up and there was a question as to whether it was appropriate for these new committee members (no prior member was in attendance) to approve meeting minutes where they had not been in attendance. The Chair asked the business leaders in the room (who had attended the last committee meeting) if they had read the minutes and if they could confirm the minutes presented were accurate. Once the leaders in attendance did so, the Chair then moved to approve. Was this an acceptable way to handle this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. J. Posted February 14, 2020 at 07:06 PM Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 at 07:06 PM The members can vote, no matter if they attended or not. The correct procedure is for the chair to ask for corrections to the minutes. If there are none, the chair declares the minutes approved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted February 14, 2020 at 07:12 PM Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 at 07:12 PM I think my good friend, J.J. missed that this was a committee, because committees are not required to keep or approve minutes at all. " In small committees, the chairman usually acts as secretary, but in large ones and many standing committees, a secretary may be chosen to keep a brief memorandum in the nature of minutes for the use of the committee." RONR (11th ed.), p. 500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atul Kapur Posted February 14, 2020 at 08:33 PM Report Share Posted February 14, 2020 at 08:33 PM If you are in a situation where the entire membership of a body is changing, then I suggest that the final meeting of the "old" group appoint a minutes approval committee. They can approve the minutes and report to the first meeting of the "new" group that the minutes were approved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted February 15, 2020 at 06:28 AM Report Share Posted February 15, 2020 at 06:28 AM 11 hours ago, George Mervosh said: I think my good friend, J.J. missed that this was a committee, because committees are not required to keep or approve minutes at all. " In small committees, the chairman usually acts as secretary, but in large ones and many standing committees, a secretary may be chosen to keep a brief memorandum in the nature of minutes for the use of the committee." RONR (11th ed.), p. 500 On the other hand, it's clear at this point that this particular committee does take minutes, and approve them. So i think there's no harm in pointing out that actual committee members, whether they attended the prior meeting or not, are explicitly authorized to participate in the approval process, while random "business leaders" who happened to be present in the gallery, are not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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