Archive of committee notes not minutes

[Janis Arnold]

Hello,

I know that minutes are kept in perpetuity and resolutions should be 'stand-alone'. In other words, a resolution should be able to be understood without providing pages of background.  Some of the resolutions may have been based on committee meetings.  I don't believe in RONR there's any requirement to keep committee meeting notes for a particular period of time (e.g. like tax files :))  but rather I assume it's just a good governance practice to keep for a specified time and can be written into a board's by-laws.  Correct?

Thanks

Janis

[Gary Novosielski]

I suppose it could be done but I've never seen it.

Ordinarily it is assumed that committees speak through their reports which are already received by the parent body,  placed on file, and preserved.  And their recommendations in the form of motions will already be recorded in the minutes.

So the only thing left is the committee's internal notes which there is no special need to keep.

Edited June 20, 2023 at 09:41 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Josh Martin]

On 6/20/2023 at 3:06 PM, Janis Arnold said:

I know that minutes are kept in perpetuity and resolutions should be 'stand-alone'. In other words, a resolution should be able to be understood without providing pages of background.  Some of the resolutions may have been based on committee meetings.

Yes, I think this is correct.

On 6/20/2023 at 3:06 PM, Janis Arnold said:

I don't believe in RONR there's any requirement to keep committee meeting notes for a particular period of time (e.g. like tax files :))  but rather I assume it's just a good governance practice to keep for a specified time and can be written into a board's by-laws.  Correct?

I am in agreement that RONR has no requirements for the retention of a committee's notes (as opposed to reports of the committee, which should be kept on file). An organization is free to adopt such rules on this matter as it wishes. I do not think such a rule would need to be in the bylaws - a standing rule would be sufficient.