Approval vs acceptance of committee minutes by the Board at Large

[TJEMS Exec]

Is it required that the Board at large approve the minutes of a standing committee. If so, if they were not to approve them what effect does this have on any action taken by the subcommittee? Is it more appropriate to have the minutes " accepted" or approved pro forma. In other words can the Board at large have a veto effect on actions taken by a standing subcommittee after the fact?

[Richard Brown]

7 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

Is it required that the Board at large approve the minutes of a standing committee

No. Committees normally do not keep formal minutes, but if they do, the committees themselves approve their own minutes. No “body“ approves the minutes of a subordinate body. Each body approves its own minutes. 

In addition, approval of minutes it’s not a prerequisite to legitimizing action taken by a body.  
 

[Josh Martin]

10 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

Is it required that the Board at large approve the minutes of a standing committee.

No. Committees generally do not take minutes, since the committee's reports serve as the committee's records. Even if a committee does take minutes, the committee should approve its own minutes.

The purpose of approving minutes is to ensure they are an accurate record of what happened at the meeting. The committee itself is presumably in the best position to know whether this is the case.

12 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

If so, if they were not to approve them what effect does this have on any action taken by the subcommittee?

As noted previously, it is not appropriate for the board to approve the minutes of committees, and in any event, failure to approve the minutes has no affect on the actions contained in the minutes.

13 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

Is it more appropriate to have the minutes " accepted" or approved pro forma.

No. The board should not be doing anything with the committee's minutes.

The committee should submit its reports to the board. If those reports contain information only, no action should be taken on the reports either. The chair would simply declare that they are received and placed on file.

If the reports contain recommendations for action, then motions should be made to implement those recommendations.

15 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

In other words can the Board at large have a veto effect on actions taken by a standing subcommittee after the fact?

Quite possibly, but taking action on the minutes is not the appropriate way to do that.

Committees often are not authorized to take action on their own. Quite frequently, committees simply make recommendations and those recommendations are approved (or not). If a committee is authorized to take action on its own, the parent assembly could still rescind or amend those actions, unless the committee is granted exclusive authority in that area under the organization's rules.

[Richard Brown]

24 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

Is it more appropriate to have the minutes " accepted" or approved pro forma. 

No, at least not in any examples that I can think of. If you have something in particular in mind, please tell us.

24 minutes ago, TJEMS Exec said:

In other words can the Board at large have a veto effect on actions taken by a standing subcommittee after the fact?

No, Unless you have a rule authorizing it or the motion which created the committee or subcommittee specifically authorizes it. I sense that you have some particular situation in mind and more information about it would be helpful.

Edited to add:  I have stricken part of my answer above because I believe that Josh Martin’s response on that point in his post above is  more accurate.

Edited March 15, 2021 at 01:33 PM by Richard Brown
Struck Part of my response and added the last paragraph