Adding supportive document to meeting minutes.

[Josh Martin]

11 hours ago, Guest whattahw said:

A matter is of great importance when:

1) new business is added to the agenda.       during a committee report

OR

2) when a chair officer or secretary address opinions of an absentee or for an absentee.

OR

3) is a Questions of Privilege

"To modify the rules governing what is regularly to be included in the minutes requires adoption of a special rule of order, although a majority vote may direct the inclusion of specific additional information in the minutes of a particular meeting." RONR (12th ed.) 48:3

If your assembly wishes to adopt a rule on this matter, it is free to do so. What exactly those rules should be is at the assembly's discretion.

As to the particular items noted here, I would note that main motions are already recorded in the minutes, so that should cover the "new business" items you have mentioned.

I don't really understand this bit about "when a chair officer or secretary address opinions of an absentee or for an absentee." Is this something like the chair saying "I talked to Member A, and he thinks..."? I don't really know why anyone is doing this in the first place, and to the extent that this is done, I don't understand why it should be recorded in the minutes. The purpose of the minutes is to record the decisions of the assembly. The minutes should not record the opinions of members who are present, let alone the (alleged) opinions of members who are absent.

Finally, I don't know that the fact that something is a "question of privilege" necessarily means something "is of great importance." A question of privilege can be as simple as asking that the microphones or temperature in the room be adjusted. I assume you have a particular kind of question of privilege in mind. See RONR (12th ed.) 19:7.

Edited May 1, 2021 at 01:31 PM by Josh Martin