Ommission and misrepresenations in Meeting Minutes

[Guest Chris C.]

I was recently hired by a Port and one of my duties is to prepare the Board of Commissioners meeting minutes. Recently, there was a much discussed item on the Agenda, where there were numerous comments from the public.  The Port has always had discussion minutes instead of action minutes - long story short, at the most recent meeting a member of the public stated that she (Ms. M) feels the minutes of the previous meeting had omissions and misrepresentations - the Commissioners instructed me to review the recording of the meeting and re-draft and discuss with Ms. M to come to a solution. After listening and re-drafting the minutes - I sent it to Ms. M and her immediate response was her understanding was that the Commissioners wanted us to sit down together to run through the points she think are inaccurately described and that having read the first line of the 2nd draft the problems persist. We can't meet due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

My questions:  1) can she in fact insist on changing the minutes to reflect what she wants (even if it wasn't her talking points?)  2) any suggestions on how to handle this situation

I have strongly recommended to my Manager that we start using action minutes to curtail these situations.

[Richard Brown]

37 minutes ago, Guest Chris C. said:

We can't meet due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Do you not have telephones?   And are you subject to restrictions that prohibit even two persons from meeting?   How is your port commission meeting?

 

37 minutes ago, Guest Chris C. said:

My questions:  1) can she in fact insist on changing the minutes to reflect what she wants (even if it wasn't her talking points?) 

No.

37 minutes ago, Guest Chris C. said:

2) any suggestions on how to handle this situation

Corrections to minutes are handled by majority vote if there is disagreement.  The secretary presents the minutes as drafted.  Other members may propose corrections.  Usually corrections are adopted by unanimous consent.  However, if there is disagreement, the issue is settled by majority vote.  No one has the right to "insist" on anything when it comes to what goes in the minutes.

37 minutes ago, Guest Chris C. said:

I have strongly recommended to my Manager that we start using action minutes to curtail these situations.

I'm not sure just what the difference is between "discussion minutes" and "action minutes".  RONR makes no such distinction and doe not even mention either term.  It refers simply to the minutes and says that they shall be mainly a record of what was done, not what was said.  When you start getting into didscussion and "he said, she said", you start getting into trouble. There is very likely to be disagreement as to exactly what was said by whom.   You might refer to pages 468-476 of the 11th edition of RONR for what information should (and should not) be in the minutes and for the process of approving the minutes. 

Edited to add:  You might also refer to FAQ No 15 on the main website regarding the minutes:  https://robertsrules.com/faq.html#15

Edited June 16, 2020 at 06:47 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Atul Kapur]

She is not a member of the commission so has no authority to insist on anything (even if they had been her points). The Board of Commissioners, on the other hand, has directed you to talk to her and they have the authority to direct you to do so. They, presumably, will be the body that approves the minutes.

Why don't you talk to her and find out exactly what her specific concerns are? Then you can go back to the recording and see if any changes make sense. You can draft a memo to the commission outlining her specific concerns and the changes you made in response or your rationale for not making the change based on your review of the recording.
Yes, this means scrapping the re-draft that you already did. Sorry.

I assume that by "discussion minutes" you mean that they include a summary of the discussions that occurred. I agree with you and Mr. Brown that these are problematic and should be discouraged. However, sometimes public bodies prefer them. Good Luck.

Edited June 16, 2020 at 07:08 PM by Atul Kapur
Cleared up some language