Who takes the Annual Meeting Minutes...

[Oezuwn]

... when the Secretary is not re-elected?  I've been serving my term for the last 2 years in my condo association.  I enjoyed the work but the hijinks of the power crazed President, who was in the Board minority last year, was too stressful for me to deal with.  I re-ran anyway but wasn’t re-elected (fine by me).

There were many staged dialogues at the annual meeting that were not on the meeting agenda.  The President planned it that way. The wrong doers swayed the home owners by falsehoods & easily disproved comments but the damage had been done. I was voted off the Board due to their baseless, nasty politicking that clueless, apathetic home owners, fell for. 

Why should I spend 6-8 hours writing the Minutes (it was a long meeting) when the President is going to eliminate things she doesn’t want in them & add things, like her & other speakers who spoke provable falsehoods at that meeting, swaying unsuspecting home owners to the prez's irresponsible ‘side’ of the argument.  The President, for these last 4 years, has acted like her position is totally unilateral decision making when she wants something, even if it’s not in our docs or if she’s in the minority when a motion is being made. She doesn’t accept, “Majority vote, rules”. We have an apathetic community & the same old ‘baddies’ run for the Board & get re-elected.

She’s still withholding our last Board Meeting Minutes from Aug. 27 b/c it’s totally reflective of what happened & it puts her in the wrong but factual light.  Now, she's going to do the same routine with the annual meeting Minutes.  I feel like leaving the tape (we record our meeting) on her doorstep.  She alters the Minutes & toys with them in order to suit herself & her message & then gets our property manager to email those altered Minutes, out to our home owners who don’t know the difference.  I ended up fighting her every time I submitted Minutes, citing our docs, state law & RR’s. She just keeps pounding away until I can’t take the ‘abuse’ anymore.  Sadly, she’s just been re-elected & her 2 sidekicks got on the Board, putting them back in the majority.  

Summary Questions: Why should I work on these last Annual Meeting Minutes when she’s going to alter them anyway? Am I still the secretary when I’ve been voted off? Why can’t I wait till the next secretary (one of the wrong doers) gets that position & give them the tape of that Annual Meeting? Thanks

[Josh Martin]

On 9/20/2024 at 1:04 PM, Oezuwn said:

Who takes the Annual Meeting Minutes when the Secretary is not re-elected?

As I understand the facts in this matter, the board is elected by the membership at the annual meeting, and then the board elects its own officers at the first board meeting following the annual meeting. And your question relates to a situation in which the Secretary is not re-elected to the board.

If this is correct, then it will first depend upon whether the bylaws require officers to be board members. If not, then this person will remain Secretary until a new Secretary is elected.

On the other hand, if the bylaws require officers to be board members, the position of Secretary will become vacant, and the membership will need to elect a Secretary Pro Tempore to serve for the duration of this meeting. Since this was not done, however, I imagine the expectation was that the outgoing Secretary would serve in that capacity.

On 9/20/2024 at 1:04 PM, Oezuwn said:

Why should I spend 6-8 hours writing the Minutes (it was a long meeting)

Even for a long meeting, if you are spending six to eight hours writing the minutes, I strongly suspect you are putting too much information in the minutes.

In any event, the Secretary's responsibility is to perform the duties of that office for the entirety of their term of service, even if they are not re-elected.

On 9/20/2024 at 1:04 PM, Oezuwn said:

Am I still the secretary when I’ve been voted off?

It depends on whether the bylaws require the Secretary to be a board member. If not, yes, you are still the Secretary. If so, you are no longer the Secretary.

On 9/20/2024 at 1:04 PM, Oezuwn said:

Why can’t I wait till the next secretary (one of the wrong doers) gets that position & give them the tape of that Annual Meeting?

Well, I suppose you can do whatever you want, but personally it strikes me as rude, petty, and a dereliction of duty to dump your work off on your successor.

In my opinion, it remains your duty to complete the minutes. What happens with them after that is not your problem. I certainly would not, however, put six to eight hours of work into writing the minutes.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 9/20/2024 at 2:04 PM, Oezuwn said:

Why should I spend 6-8 hours writing the Minutes (it was a long meeting) when the President is going to eliminate things she doesn’t want in them & add things, like her & other speakers who spoke provable falsehoods at that meeting, swaying unsuspecting home owners to the prez's irresponsible ‘side’ of the argument.

Well, none of the arguments on either side belong in the minutes.  The maker of a motion, the text of the motion, and the result of the vote or other disposition are all that belong there.  You can say that it was debated but not the contents of the debate. If you're trying to include who said what, that's why it takes you hours to write them up.  The minutes are a record of what was done, not what was said.

[Richard Brown]

If you were secretary for that annual meeting, I think it is your responsibility to prepare the minutes from that meeting. I agree with my colleagues that you are likely putting too much information in the minutes. I also want to point out that the president should have absolutely no control over the minutes or what is in them or when they get approved. She has no right to edit them, but can suggest corrections when they are up for approval just like any other member although, depending upon the size of the body that is approving the minutes (the board or the general membership?) She should possibly have nothing at all to say about the minutes without first relinquishing the chair.  Some presidents feel that they have the right to make corrections to the minutes. That is not the case if you have no rule on it and if RONR is your parliamentary authority.

Edited September 20, 2024 at 07:19 PM by Richard Brown
Added last two sentences

[Oezuwn]

Thank you, all for your thoughtful & helpful answers.

In my association, we do require officers to be board members.  As I understand your answers (but correct me if I’m wrong) I am now technically, NOT a Secretary, since I was not re-elected. No, there was not a Pro Tempero secretary in place.  I’m going to have to write the Minutes, just for ‘a good look’ but this time, it’ll be bare bones. 

As you’ve suggested, I should keep it short & I couldn’t agree more.  The annual meeting was led by our President who breaks rules on the Board, like we breath air.  She’ll attempt to alter the annual Minutes to reflect her & her newly elected, cheating sidekicks’ diatribes of falsehoods they uttered at that meeting & managed to boot me off the Board. They engaged in a smear campaign against me based on false accusations (that are easily debunked) & riled up of the community enough to NOT re-elect me.  What a dirty bunch of “Officers”.