Meeting Minutes When Going Straight to Executive Session

[Guest Brett Lemons]

One of our primary committees will be meeting next month to discuss sensitive employment topics.  The Committee will not act or discuss any items in open session; instead, they will go straight to executive session.  Typically, this committee will discuss a number of items in open session, then will go into executive session.  In those instances, the minutes are the usual Item 1, Item 2, etc., and end with "Chair Smith moved the committee to executive session at time".  How should the meeting minutes describe going straight to executive session?  Something like, "Chair Smith called the meeting to order at time and moved into executive session immediately" ?  Thanks in advance for any advice or assistance.

[Gary Novosielski]

RONR's rules require that the date and time of the meeting as well as the hour of adjournment be include in the minutes.  There is no rule that requires recording the time of entry to or exit from executive session, so you're free to record it as you please.

[rulesasker]

RONR also does not require minutes for committee meetings. But if you have a practice of taking minutes, using RONR might be a good idea so they are consistent with the parent body.

[Joshua Katz]

Agreeing with my colleagues, it still requires a motion to enter executive session even if there is no open business to be conducted.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 5/24/2024 at 9:26 PM, Joshua Katz said:

Agreeing with my colleagues, it still requires a motion to enter executive session even if there is no open business to be conducted.

Agreeing with @Joshua Katz, there's no reason to eliminate the name of the maker of that motion, even if the time is not recorded.

[Brett Lemons]

Thank you all for the responses, I appreciate it!