Meeting Minutes

[Quietstorm]

Good day. Hope everyone is doing well. I have a question of the transcribing of minutes. I tried to point out to our Chairperson that things like personal observations, judgmental comments, or wording, such as... "There were several displeased and heated opinions regarding the addition of the category and the language...", do not belong. He tried to argue that "the minutes have to be accurate and we can't take short cuts". I argued that the minutes should be concise and summarize the major points of what happened at the meeting. Not to include opinion and speculation. Help?

[Joshua Katz]

The minutes should not contain personal observations, judgmental comments or the language you mentioned. They should not include anything said at the meeting, only what was done at the meeting. This is not a short-cut; it's a way to have useful and effective minutes. That said, why are you having this discussion with the chair rather than the secretary?

[George Mervosh]

It's the Secretary's duty to prepare the draft and it should done so according to the rules in Section 48 in RONR. But for fun, have your chair read p. 472ff for RONR's form of the minutes.  They don't get much briefer than that.

[Quietstorm]

Thank you for the response. To answer the question asked by Mr. Katz, during the reading of the minutes by the Secretary I commented on the wording. It was the Chair of the Bylaws Committee who made the comment about how the minutes should be "accurate". Thanks again. Much appreciated.