Minutes for Special Called Business deemed out of order

[MarkSmith]

We had a Special Called Business Meeting convened.  Meeting was called to order and Agenda was read.  Member requested to read a statement into the official record as part of the meeting.  Second member made a motion to move the stated agenda to the regularly scheduled business meeting for the following reasons:

- meeting agenda was not announced at two consecutive meetings prior 
- agenda items to be voted on were in violation of the Constitution & Bylaws which stated those items must be carried out at Regularly scheduled business meeting.

Our Bylaws state we will follow Roberts Rules of Order.

Since the meeting was started and statement was read into the official record. Motion was made, seconded, an voted on to move the agenda to the regularly scheduled business meeting should meeting minutes be kept as part of the official record?  Some argue that since the meeting agenda was ruled and voted on as out of order no meeting minutes should be kept.  Others argue that since the meeting was called to order, agenda read on the floor, member read a statement into record, and motion was made and voted on minutes should be kept.

 

I am currently reading RRofO looking for a reference that might cover this question.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

  

[Gary Novosielski]

The minutes of the meeting should record what was done at the meeting, such as postponing this motion until the next regular meeting.  It should also include anything read into the record, as long as the assembly consented to this.

[MarkSmith]

Gary, Thank you for your reply.  Is there a reference in RONR can be used to answer this question?

[Gary Novosielski]

The contents of the minutes, as well as the procedures for approving them, are contained in §48 MINUTES AND REPORTS OF OFFICERS, RONR 11th ed.

Edited August 24, 2020 at 09:40 PM by Gary Novosielski
Correction section number

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, MarkSmith said:

We had a Special Called Business Meeting convened.  Meeting was called to order and Agenda was read.  Member requested to read a statement into the official record as part of the meeting.  Second member made a motion to move the stated agenda to the regularly scheduled business meeting for the following reasons:

- meeting agenda was not announced at two consecutive meetings prior 
- agenda items to be voted on were in violation of the Constitution & Bylaws which stated those items must be carried out at Regularly scheduled business meeting.

Our Bylaws state we will follow Roberts Rules of Order.

Since the meeting was started and statement was read into the official record. Motion was made, seconded, an voted on to move the agenda to the regularly scheduled business meeting should meeting minutes be kept as part of the official record?  Some argue that since the meeting agenda was ruled and voted on as out of order no meeting minutes should be kept.  Others argue that since the meeting was called to order, agenda read on the floor, member read a statement into record, and motion was made and voted on minutes should be kept.

If it is in fact correct that the motions were not in order, then what should have happened is that the chair should have ruled the motions out of order. Apparently, however, what actually happened is that a motion was made "to move the agenda to the regularly scheduled business meeting." This is not a phrase found in RONR, but presumably what was meant was that the items of business listed on the agenda would be postponed to the next regularly scheduled business meeting. It should also be noted for future reference that postponing multiple motions at once in this manner requires a suspension of the rules.

In any event, the minutes record what actually happened, not what should have happened.

It should also be noted that even if the chair had correctly ruled the motions out of order, minutes of the meeting would still need to be kept, it is just that the contents of those minutes would be different. Minutes are kept of all meetings of the assembly.

Finally, RONR does not have any procedure for statements to be "read into the official record" and clearly states that the minutes are to be a record of what was done, not what was said. Nonetheless, if the assembly ordered that this statement be included in the minutes, then I suppose it must be included in the minutes.

Edited August 24, 2020 at 11:27 PM by Josh Martin

[Richard Brown]

Some of our regular posters might argue that the objection which was read by the member amounted to a point of order which should be noted in the minutes, but I don’t see that as a big issue and I believe having the minutes reflect that the matter was postponed until the next regular meeting is sufficient.

[MarkSmith]

All,  Thank you for your responses.  I am fairly new to the RONR concepts but trying to learn as much as I can to ensure I don't misspeak during the meetings.