Approval of minutes after change in membership

[Guest Susan S.]

A standing committee that meets annually recently met and discussed approval of the minutes from the last meeting. For starters, I'm not sure that a committee needs to approve minutes, do they? The committee did not meet in 2020 due to COVID, so the last meeting was in 2019. The committee membership has changed since then, and only one of the current members was in attendance at the 2019 meeting. If they do need to approve minutes, can this be done by only one member or by the group (4 individuals, including 1 ex-officio), 3 of whom did not attend the 2019 meeting? 

Thanks for any assistance. 

 

[George Mervosh]

13 minutes ago, Guest Susan S. said:

 For starters, I'm not sure that a committee needs to approve minutes, do they?

 

No they do not.

[Richard Brown]

7 minutes ago, Guest Susan S. said:

A standing committee that meets annually recently met and discussed approval of the minutes from the last meeting. For starters, I'm not sure that a committee needs to approve minutes, do they?

No, a committee does not usually keep minutes, although it may.  Usually the chair keeps notes and that is all, although sometimes a secretary is chosen to keep a memorandum in the nature of minutes.  There is no specific requirement that committee minutes be approved.  See 50:24 in RONR (12th ed).  

I suspect, though, that this committee is not what we usually think of when we think of a committee.  What type committee is it?  Is it really an ordinary standing committee, such as a bylaws committee, party committee, grounds committee, etc?  Or is it a "committee" in the sense of a state central committee of a political organization which is actually the governing body of the organization and more like a board than a committee?

In addition, an assembly (or committee) should not normally wait a full year to approve minutes.  If the body meets less often than quarterly, it really should appoint a "minutes approval committee" to approve the minutes while the proceedings are still fresh in everyone's minds.  See 48:12 of RONR.

16 minutes ago, Guest Susan S. said:

The committee did not meet in 2020 due to COVID, so the last meeting was in 2019. The committee membership has changed since then, and only one of the current members was in attendance at the 2019 meeting. If they do need to approve minutes, can this be done by only one member or by the group (4 individuals, including 1 ex-officio), 3 of whom did not attend the 2019 meeting? 

If the minutes are going to be approved, it should be the current committee members to do so, even though only one of the members attended the 2019 meeting.  RONR does not require that only members who were in attendance at a particular meeting may participate in the approval of the minutes of that meeting.  Presumably, the three new members will show some deference to the one member who did attend the meeting, but they are not required to.  You should note, however, that an assembly should not actually vote on approving the minutes.  If there are no corrections (or after all corrections have been made), the chair simply declares the minutes approved.  41:9 - 41:12 of RONR.

 

[Guest Susan S.]

Thanks for the responses! This is an internal audit committee of a postsecondary education commission, identified in the bylaws as a standing committee. It also includes a member from a related board. It is not the governing body of either organization. Both the commission and the board of the corporation meet at least quarterly and conduct all business. Thanks again, got the information I needed.