Board Meeting Attendance

[Guest Sandra]

Someone wants to know who attended a board meeting before the minutes are approved and released.  We have a confidentiality statement at each board meeting that anything discussed at a board meeting is confidential until the minutes are approved    We post the minutes on the club website.  Is the member entitled to know who attended the board meeting prior to the minutes being approved?

[Richard Brown]

On 1/23/2023 at 9:42 AM, Guest Sandra said:

Is the member entitled to know who attended the board meeting prior to the minutes being approved?

Nothing in RONR either requires or prohibits the disclosure of this information. It is within the discretion of the secretary and/or the board. 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/23/2023 at 10:42 AM, Guest Sandra said:

Someone wants to know who attended a board meeting before the minutes are approved and released.  We have a confidentiality statement at each board meeting that anything discussed at a board meeting is confidential until the minutes are approved    We post the minutes on the club website.  Is the member entitled to know who attended the board meeting prior to the minutes being approved?

Not unless there is a rule or custom that the roll is called at the start of the meeting, which would be recorded in the draft minutes and therefore available to all members.  This is not required by any rule in RONR.   And if the draft minutes contain a notation that Mr. X made a certain motion or was mentioned in some other context in the minutes, that would be obvious evidence of his presence.

But aside from that, No.  A single member may not hold up the approval process by demanding to know who attended.  The only way to object to the approval of the minutes is to offer a correction, which may or may not be agreed to.

In fact it's not quite clear whether this "someone" is even a member of the board, and if not, has no rights in RONR in regard to the approval of minutes, or to attendance records if, in fact, any exist.