Correcting minutes

[Guest George]

 

The Chair of our organization gave out incorrect information at a meeting. At the next meeting, we corrected him, and he  acknowledged the error but did not correct the record in the minutes.

Please advise as to what we should ask of him at the next meeting, where the minutes are up for approval. Thank you.

[Gary Novosielski]

Giving out information is not something that would be included in the minutes anyway.  And even if it were, you would not go back and make it seem as if he gave out the correct information when in fact he did not.  So what "record" are you trying to correct?

When the next minutes come up for approval, if there's anything there that doesn't belong there, offer a correction, to have it removed before approval.

In any case, when minutes are up for approval, You don't ask the chair to change things--you offer a correction, providing the exact language that should be in the minutes, or simply to strike some language that's there.  It's not up to the chair to decide what goes in, it's up to the assembly.

Minutes should be a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said.  It should include no debate or other commentary .  Just who moved what, and whether it was adopted, rejected, postponed, referred to a committee, or whatever.  For more information, refer to RONR 12th ed. §48.

[Josh Martin]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:31 PM, Gary Novosielski said:

In any case, when minutes are up for approval, You don't ask the chair to change things--you offer a correction, providing the exact language that should be in the minutes, or simply to strike some language that's there.  It's not up to the chair to decide what goes in, it's up to the assembly.

I concur with this and would add that it is the Secretary who actually maintains the minutes and makes the changes ordered by the assembly.

On 2/9/2023 at 4:32 PM, Guest George said:

Please advise as to what we should ask of him at the next meeting, where the minutes are up for approval. Thank you.

It seems to me like more trouble than it's worth to simply correct an informational statement in the minutes at this point, so my advice would be to do nothing. If the assembly insists, the procedure for correcting the minutes after they have been approved is found in the second paragraph of FAQ #16. I would also note that the assembly is not asking the chair to do anything in this regard, it's telling the Secretary.

If any correction is made in this regard, however, the correction should either be a.) simply striking the statement from the minutes altogether or b.) adding some sort of footnote noting that the statement was in error and explaining the correct information. The minutes should not be amended so as to suggest the chair said something that he didn't say.

In the future, follow the rules in RONR concerning the content of the minutes so you don't have this problem again. The general rule is that "the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members," and more details can be found in RONR (12th ed.) 48:2-5.

Edited February 10, 2023 at 01:35 PM by Josh Martin