General Question

[Guest BODLSMITH]

How do you settle a conflict in the wording of a motion in the minutes of the previous meeting?

[Joshua Katz]

I think the question is what to do when there is a disagreement as to what the chair said when putting the question to the assembly. (If not, that is what to look to for the wording of the motion.)

The Secretary, presumably, has a version from his notes. That will appear in the draft minutes. If someone disagrees, they can suggest a correction, which would commonly be handled by unanimous consent. That will not work here, though, since there is disagreement. So the member's motion to amend the draft minutes will be debated and go to a vote, where a majority is needed to change the draft. 

If someone else has a third version, he can move a secondary amendment while the first is pending.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 12/10/2023 at 6:27 PM, Guest BODLSMITH said:

How do you settle a conflict in the wording of a motion in the minutes of the previous meeting?

If a correction is offered and there is not unanimous consent in agreeing to it, then the correction is treated exactly like an amendment to the language of the draft minutes. It would take a majority vote to agree to the correction, otherwise the draft language remains. 

The difference is that there does not have to be a final vote on the draft (as there would be for a motion) since failing to adopt the minutes is not an option.  Once all corrections have been handled (accepted or rejected) the chair declares the minutes approved as corrected.