Sample of a Secretary's Record Book

[Tomm]

Is there anyplace that shows an example of the contents of a secretary's Record Book? I've never seen one!

I'm envisioning what's explained in RONR 47:33 (8) as a simple ledger that perhaps just records events in the most basic way. Those events can be further examined in more detail by referring to the meeting minutes corresponding to those dates. Example:

Jan. 15th 2022 - Amended Bylaw Article II, Section 3.

Feb. 17th 2022 -  Established Special Rule of Order on Time Limit during debate.

March 3rd 2022 -  Added Standing Rule that all Cell phones must be on silent.

Seems to me that this is a much simpler and less obtrusive ways to record things that changed rather than trying to attach dates and footnotes in the actual Bylaws?

[Bruce Lages]

Details of items such as this are wisely left to each organization to arrange as they feel is best to satisfy their specific needs. RONR only mentions certain records that would normally be expected to be maintained among the secretary's records. I do note, however, that the 3 examples you cite are things that should be recorded in the minutes of the meetings at which they were adopted.

[Tomm]

On 8/23/2022 at 7:28 PM, Bruce Lages said:

I do note, however, that the 3 examples you cite are things that should be recorded in the minutes of the meetings at which they were adopted.

I agree, and the Minutes of the meeting would provide the actual details of those items listed in the Secretary's Record Book. It's only my opinion that the manner in which I exampled would make it much easier to research a past action without having to read thru months or years of Minutes to find out what or when the original motion or amendment or rule was all about. The Secretary's Record Book would function similar to an index?  

Like I mentioned, I never saw an example of such a book and was just curious to see or understand how the items recorded were listed.

[puzzling]

making an index to the minutes that way to me doesn't look very useful, the minutes (under RONR rules) only contain what was decided not why it was decided.  the what is only a bit longer than the examples you gave and much more informative.

compare 

On 8/23/2022 at 11:15 PM, Tomm said:

Feb. 17th 2022 -  Established Special Rule of Order on Time Limit during debate.

with

special rules of order:

...

- members may only speak once for a period of maximal 5 minutes during an debate regarding amendments of the bylaws (adopted february 17th 2022)

 

 

The why under RONR is not recorded in the minutes, but the why is probably what you want to find out if you want to research a decision. so you will only get frustrated. 

[Bruce Lages]

On 8/23/2022 at 10:47 PM, Tomm said:

I agree, and the Minutes of the meeting would provide the actual details of those items listed in the Secretary's Record Book. It's only my opinion that the manner in which I exampled would make it much easier to research a past action without having to read thru months or years of Minutes to find out what or when the original motion or amendment or rule was all about. The Secretary's Record Book would function similar to an index?  

Like I mentioned, I never saw an example of such a book and was just curious to see or understand how the items recorded were listed.

As long as it doesn't replace the minutes, or what the society wants recorded in their minutes, the secretary is certainly free to maintain such a chronological record of actions taken by the society in addition to the minutes. I agree that it may even be useful in certain instances.

[Josh Martin]

On 8/23/2022 at 3:15 PM, Tomm said:

Is there anyplace that shows an example of the contents of a secretary's Record Book? I've never seen one!

I'm envisioning what's explained in RONR 47:33 (8) as a simple ledger that perhaps just records events in the most basic way. Those events can be further examined in more detail by referring to the meeting minutes corresponding to those dates. Example:

Jan. 15th 2022 - Amended Bylaw Article II, Section 3.

Feb. 17th 2022 -  Established Special Rule of Order on Time Limit during debate.

March 3rd 2022 -  Added Standing Rule that all Cell phones must be on silent.

Seems to me that this is a much simpler and less obtrusive ways to record things that changed rather than trying to attach dates and footnotes in the actual Bylaws?

The "record books" are a collection of documents - specifically, the minutes, the bylaws, the special rules of order, and the standing rules. Since computers are generally readily available these days, this is often no longer a physical book, but is a collection of files on the Secretary's laptop or on some sort of cloud storage.

The record books are not required to keep a timeline of the sort you describe, although the Secretary certainly could keep such a document in addition to the Secretary's other documents (or could be ordered to do so).

I am certainly in agreement that, if the society wishes to keep this sort of information, the method you suggest would be greatly preferable to adding dates and footnotes to the actual bylaws. While I think it is advisable to include in the bylaws the date they were most recently amended (so it is clear whether a particular copy is current), but I do not think it is desirable to encumber the bylaws with dates on every time they have been amended or when specific provisions were amended.

[Tomm]

On 8/24/2022 at 7:14 AM, Josh Martin said:

The "record books" are a collection of documents - specifically, the minutes, the bylaws, the special rules of order, and the standing rules.

Thanks for the clarification! I was under the assumption it was a separate ledger in the manner I described.

[Richard Brown]

On 8/24/2022 at 9:55 AM, Tomm said:

Thanks for the clarification! I was under the assumption it was a separate ledger in the manner I described.

I am pretty confident that in the days before computers, and especially when General Robert wrote the first edition of Roberts Rules of Order (and for  many editions  thereafter), these records were in the form of actual physical record books or ledgers.  The “requirement“ for record books persists to this day even with the 12th edition!

Edited August 24, 2022 at 05:18 PM by Richard Brown
Typographical correction