Motion to adpot/2 monthly meetings

[Chris R]

my group has 2 of the same monthly meetings, in order to accommodate for people who cannot attend one or the other due to work.

my question is this, At the 1st meeting, after the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting there is; a motion to adopt, a seconder, a vote and then carried to the second meeting. At the 2nd meeting after the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting, what is required? simply a vote and then the minutes are accepted? Is a new motion to adopt required?  What about a seconder?

 

Thanks!!!

[Drake Savory]

There is no motion to adopt the minutes.  After all corrections have been made (voted on if necessary) the Chair simply declares that with no further correction, the minutes are approved.

[Chris R]

On 10/8/2022 at 11:21 AM, Drake Savory said:

There is no motion to adopt the minutes.  After all corrections have been made (voted on if necessary) the Chair simply declares that with no further correction, the minutes are approved.

so if I'm following correctly,

a) after the minutes are read, if there is no corrections, the chair can simply declare the minutes approved? 

b) in my 2 meeting situation, 1st meeting after the minutes are read, if there is no corrections, it would simply be carried to the second meeting. At the 2nd meeting if again after the minutes are read and if there is no corrections, then the chair can simply declare the minutes approved? 

[Drake Savory]

Point a) Yes and even if there are corrections, once they are all made the Chair (not can but) does declare the minutes approved as read/corrected.

 

I'm confused by the second meeting.  How can it be the same?  You certainly don't have the same people make the exact same motions with the exact same debate in the second meeting, do you?

[Chris R]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:09 PM, Drake Savory said:

Point a) Yes and even if there are corrections, once they are all made the Chair (not can but) does declare the minutes approved as read/corrected.

 

I'm confused by the second meeting.  How can it be the same?  You certainly don't have the same people make the exact same motions with the exact same debate in the second meeting, do you?

So basically let’s say I have 100 members. 50 on a day shift, 50 on a afternoon shift. So for that reason in October we will have 2 monthly meetings. 1 at 2 pm and one at 4 pm so that all members have an opportunity to attend. The executive board is at both meetings. Both meetings will have minutes read from the September meetings. It is different motions and such and so if something starts at the first meeting we carry it over to the second meeting. Or if a motion is started at the second meeting it will carry over to the first meeting the next month.

Edited October 8, 2022 at 05:15 PM by Chris R

[Richard Brown]

On 10/8/2022 at 10:27 AM, Chris R said:

so if I'm following correctly,

a) after the minutes are read, if there is no corrections, the chair can simply declare the minutes approved? 

Correct. See sections 47:9-12 Of RONR (12th Ed.) regarding reading and approval of the minutes, paying particular attention to 41:10, quoted below:

41:10 A formal motion to approve the minutes is not necessary, although such a motion is not out of order. After the minutes have been read (or after their reading has been omitted by unanimous consent as described in the previous paragraph), and whether or not a motion for approval has been offered, the chair asks, “Are there any corrections to the minutes?” and pauses. Corrections, when proposed, are usually handled by unanimous consent (4:58–63), but if any member objects to a proposed correction—which is, in effect, a subsidiary motion to Amend—the usual rules governing consideration of amendments to a main motion are applicable (see 12).

41:11 After any proposed corrections have been disposed of, and when there is no response to the chair’s inquiry, “Are there any corrections [or “further corrections”] to the minutes?” the chair says, “There being no corrections [or “no further corrections”] to the minutes, the minutes stand [or “are”] approved [or “approved as read,” or “approved as corrected”].” The minutes are thus approved without any formal vote, even if a motion for their approval has been made. The only proper way to object to the approval of the secretary’s draft of the minutes is to offer a correction to it.3 It should be noted that a member’s absence from the meeting for which minutes are being approved does not prevent the member from participating in their correction or approval.

As to handle things in your “second meeting“, this is a customized procedure of your organization and RONR provides no procedures for how to handle it.

Edited to add:  stay tuned, as one or two of our members with more experience with labor unions and organizations such as yours that have multiple meetings to accommodate shift workers might weigh in with a suggestion.  It might take a while for such a member to see this thread and respond. 

Edited October 8, 2022 at 05:28 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Josh Martin]

On 10/8/2022 at 9:52 AM, Chris R said:

my group has 2 of the same monthly meetings, in order to accommodate for people who cannot attend one or the other due to work.

my question is this, At the 1st meeting, after the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting there is; a motion to adopt, a seconder, a vote and then carried to the second meeting. At the 2nd meeting after the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting, what is required? simply a vote and then the minutes are accepted? Is a new motion to adopt required?  What about a seconder?

I would first note that this appears to be some sort of "shift meeting" system. RONR has no guidance for how this works, and such a system is not permitted unless authorized in the organization's bylaws.

In regard to the general process for approving the minutes:

• The minutes are read (although this step may be omitted if the minutes have been distributed in advance, unless a member requests it).
• The chair asks if there are any corrections.
• If there are corrections, they are generally handled by unanimous consent, but if needed, the procedure of a motion, second, and a vote would be permissible.
• After any corrections are handled, the chair declares the minutes approved.

No motion or second is required for approving the minutes, and no vote is taken on the final approval of the minutes.

[Atul Kapur]

There are many complications that arise when you have a split meeting and you need to develop special procedures to handle this model.

Whatever special procedures you devise, a similar process should apply to the approval of the minutes (recognizing that, as stated above, there is no formal motion).

[Alicia Percell, PRP]

Agreeing with Brown, Martin, and Kapur above that this is not a Robert's Rules question.  This is all going to be driven on whatever your bylaws say about how the 2-shift-2-meeting situation works.  Perhaps if you posted relevant text from the bylaws about requiring motions to carry from one meeting to the next, how motions are adopted, etc., we could be more specific.  Do your bylaws say that a motion must be adopted by a certain vote threshold at BOTH meetings for it to pass?  Or do you count the number voting yes in each meeting and see whether it exceeds a certain fixed percentage of the membership?

RONR assumes that there's only one meeting for a given agenda, and all the members are expected to attend that one meeting if they want to have a say on the business conducted there.

The procedure for approving minutes in RONR is basically a specialized case of adopting something without objection, so my instinct is that the best approximation of the RONR minutes approval process would be that if there are no corrections at either meeting, they're approved.  The 2-meeting situation is so far afield of the norm that it's best to craft a process in your bylaws.  If there are no corrections offered at either meeting, then it seems easy.  But what if there are no corrections from the first meeting, but someone in the second meeting wants to offer a correction?  The people in the first meeting didn't get to have a say on that proposed change.  Non-minutes motions would seem to have the same challenge...