Adopting Minutes

[Guest Leah]

Do the mover and seconder of the motion to adopt minutes have to have been present at the meeting the minutes are applicable to? (i.e. Can a Committee member who was absent on July 7th make a motion to adopt the July 7th minutes)?

[hmtcastle]

Do the mover and seconder of the motion to adopt minutes have to have been present at the meeting the minutes are applicable to? (i.e. Can a Committee member who was absent on July 7th make a motion to adopt the July 7th minutes)?

Firstly, minutes are approved, not adopted.

Secondly, although a motion to approve the minutes is not out of order, there should be no vote to approve the minutes. After any corrections have been made, the chair should simply declare that the minutes are approved.

But any member can suggest (and vote on) a correction whether or not he was present at the meeting in question. In other words, all members have the same rights.

[David A Foulkes]

Do the mover and seconder of the motion to adopt minutes have to have been present at the meeting the minutes are applicable to? (i.e. Can a Committee member who was absent on July 7th make a motion to adopt the July 7th minutes)?

No and yes (in order of your questions above).

However, the minutes should be approved by general consent, which means the Chair asks "Are there any corrections?" and if none are forthcoming, simply states "The minutes are approved." (RONR 10 Ed. pp 343-344)

[gtdsecretary]

What if the answer to the Chair's question is, "I think that I had some changes," and, "I emailed the Secretary a couple of things I found"?

I'm really struggling, here, I admit it!!

I guess the process would be to take each individual line at a time and ... then what? If member A says "there is a typo on this line," that's very straightforward, and you just make editing marks to correct the typo. If member B says, "I don't think that is what we said," then what happens?

As a follow-on, in terms of the recordkeeping issue, is it expected that the hand-corrected copy would be put into the organization's files?

I'd been trying to make the corrections to the word processor copy of my draft, but then I'm left with, what do we consider to be the "approved" version of the minutes -- the one I made notes on, or the result of making the corresponding changes?

[Rob Elsman]

What if the answer to the Chair's question is, "I think that I had some changes," and, "I emailed the Secretary a couple of things I found"?

I'm really struggling, here, I admit it!!

I guess the process would be to take each individual line at a time and ... then what? If member A says "there is a typo on this line," that's very straightforward, and you just make editing marks to correct the typo. If member B says, "I don't think that is what we said," then what happens?

As a follow-on, in terms of the recordkeeping issue, is it expected that the hand-corrected copy would be put into the organization's files?

I'd been trying to make the corrections to the word processor copy of my draft, but then I'm left with, what do we consider to be the "approved" version of the minutes -- the one I made notes on, or the result of making the corresponding changes?

The chairman asks, "Are there any corrections?" Often, corrections are handled by unanimous consent, though a formal motion to Amend is not out of order.

If a word-processor is used to prepare the draft, the final version of the minutes, as approved, can be prepared, with the corrections incorporated in it, and entered in the minute book.

[Josh Martin]

Do the mover and seconder of the motion to adopt minutes have to have been present at the meeting the minutes are applicable to? (i.e. Can a Committee member who was absent on July 7th make a motion to adopt the July 7th minutes)?

Committees do not generally keep minutes, as the committee's reports are the official record of its business. (RONR, 10th ed., pg. 483, lines 6-9; pg. 485, lines 10-14)

I guess the process would be to take each individual line at a time and ... then what? If member A says "there is a typo on this line," that's very straightforward, and you just make editing marks to correct the typo. If member B says, "I don't think that is what we said," then what happens?

Corrections are typically handled by unanimous consent, but if there is disagreement, the matter is settled by majority vote. (RONR, 10th ed., pg. 456, lines 28-29; pg. 128, line 22) Also remember that the minutes are a record of what was done, not what was said. (RONR, 10th ed., pg. 451, lines 25-28) So if "what we said" is referring to the wording of a motion, that's fine, but if it's referring to debate or something else, it shouldn't be included at all. Following this rule should greatly reduce disputes over the content of the minutes.

As a follow-on, in terms of the recordkeeping issue, is it expected that the hand-corrected copy would be put into the organization's files?

I'd been trying to make the corrections to the word processor copy of my draft, but then I'm left with, what do we consider to be the "approved" version of the minutes -- the one I made notes on, or the result of making the corresponding changes?

The final document which includes the changes is the approved version of the minutes. (RONR, 10th ed., pg. 343, lines 28-30)

[Guest Donna]

I am concerned about the corrections of the minutes. Shouldn't the corrections appear in the body of the set of minutes that are being approved?

HELP!

Thank you.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Shouldn't the corrections appear in the body of the set of minutes that are being approved?

Yes.

Indeed, you have to.

The end result must be that the original (or master copy) document stands alone with its corrections, so that future reader has 100% of the information in front of the reader.

No access to future minutes should be required to obtain 100% of the corrections.

You are NOT to write the correction in the minutes of the meeting where the CORRECTION was moved and adopted. - That's not what Robert's Rules says.

That won't do the future reader of last month's meeting's minutes any good, either.

[Guest Nancy N.]

Yes.

Indeed, you have to.

The end result must be that the original (or master copy) document stands alone with its corrections, so that future reader has 100% of the information in front of the reader.

No access to future minutes should be required to obtain 100% of the corrections.

You are NOT to write the correction in the minutes of the meeting where the CORRECTION was moved and adopted. - That's not what Robert's Rules says.

That won't do the future reader of last month's meeting's minutes any good, either.

O, but Kim, isn't that backwards??

[Kim Goldsworthy]

O, but Kim, isn't that backwards??

No.

Example:

1. January meeting adjourns.

2. In February, the minutes of the January meeting are read.

3. If there are corrections, the secretary writes-in (defaces by hand, or later retypes) the changes on the January minutes, leaving the February minutes with NO ANNOTATION of the actual correction.

Thus my original comment:

You are NOT to write the correction in the minutes of the meeting where the CORRECTION was moved and adopted. - That's not what Robert's Rules says.

[Trina]

....

As a follow-on, in terms of the recordkeeping issue, is it expected that the hand-corrected copy would be put into the organization's files?

I'd been trying to make the corrections to the word processor copy of my draft, but then I'm left with, what do we consider to be the "approved" version of the minutes -- the one I made notes on, or the result of making the corresponding changes?

I am concerned about the corrections of the minutes. Shouldn't the corrections appear in the body of the set of minutes that are being approved?

HELP!

Thank you.

....

If there are corrections, the secretary writes-in (defaces by hand, or later retypes) the changes on the January minutes, leaving the February minutes with NO ANNOTATION of the actual correction.

....

And, to respond to a question that may have been implicit in what gtdsecretary and/or Donna asked, there's nothing wrong with the secretary making the corrections in a word-processor document after the meeting, and putting that corrected document in the official minutes book. Some faith in the secretary's honesty and accuracy (in making the corrections as ordered by the assembly) is assumed -- the assembly doesn't go back again, and look over the secretary's shoulder, so to speak, in order to later verify the corrected document. As a secretary myself, I've been concerned about this issue in the past, and believe I'm correctly paraphrasing previous responses on this forum to this question.

[Guest dan]

And, to respond to a question that may have been implicit in what gtdsecretary and/or Donna asked, there's nothing wrong with the secretary making the corrections in a word-processor document after the meeting, and putting that corrected document in the official minutes book. Some faith in the secretary's honesty and accuracy (in making the corrections as ordered by the assembly) is assumed -- the assembly doesn't go back again, and look over the secretary's shoulder, so to speak, in order to later verify the corrected document. As a secretary myself, I've been concerned about this issue in the past, and believe I'm correctly paraphrasing previous responses on this forum to this question.

Although I don't see any such recommendations/requirements in RONR, I believe it would be the prudent thing for someone to review the "official" minutes to make sure corrections were properly recorded. If it is the practice for the Secretary to distribute draft minutes of the previous meeting for approval, then it might be a good idea for the Secretary to distribute the final and approved minutes of the meeting prior to that, if there were any corrections.