Minutes and Correspondence
Minute book
Minutes are a brief but accurate record of the business transacted at the meeting to which they refer. They are compiled by the secretary from notes taken by them while the meeting is in progress. These notes are later written out in ‘proper form’ and may be entered into a book called the minute book, which is especially kept for that purpose. They may be duplicated and circulated to members, but when this is done one set should be kept separately in a file which takes the place of the minute book. When minutes are typed but not duplicated they should be pasted into the minute book.
What minutes should contain
Minutes may vary in length. Some seek to record the remarks of those taking part in the proceedings, but this makes the minutes lengthy and it is not always easy to summarise complex discussions. In the case of voluntary organisations where there is no full time secretary, it is best to keep the minutes as brief as possible. The minutes should always be numbered, item by item or paragraph by paragraph consecutively, for ease of reference and to avoid mistakes or confusion. The numbering may be started again for each meeting, but (particularly where the minutes are duplicated and circulated in loose-leaf form) it is helpful to number consecutively, starting at the beginning of each year (so that if the first meeting ended at item 8, the second meeting would begin at item 9).
Although every organisation has its own style of minute-writing, there are certain features which all minutes should contain. They are:
Minutes
- Apologies for absence
- All motions and amendments in the exact form they are put by the chair, no matter what their fate may have been. Even though they were withdrawn, defeated or superseded, they should be entered into the minutes (it is necessary to have a record so that the policy of the organisation is readily available). But if a motion or amendment does not receive a seconder, it should not be entered, except for a committee meeting where standing orders provide that a seconder is not required.
- The names of the movers and seconders of such motions and amendments.
- The numbers of those voting
- The chair’s decisions on matters of order
- Date of next meeting
It is particularly important to include details of motions and amendments in order to give those who were not present the flavour of the meeting. For example, it would give the wrong impression if a sub-committee reporting back to a parent body were merely to record that a particular motion had been carried, rather than that it had been passed by a narrow majority after an amendment urging an alternative course had been rejected by only a couple of votes.
Dealing with minutes of the previous meeting
In compiling the agenda, the item ‘Minutes of previous meeting’ should come first or appear immediately after the formal item ‘Apologies for absence’. If the minutes have been duplicated and circulated in advance it is not necessary to read them, but otherwise the minutes should be read at the beginning of the meeting by the secretary. Strictly speaking there should then be a motion, moved and seconded from the floor, ‘That the minutes be signed as a correct record.’ But usually it is sufficient for the chair to move a formal motion by asking the meeting if it agrees that the minutes should be signed as a correct record.
Signing the minutes
Once the minutes have been passed, they should be signed by the chair and the date entered underneath their signature. The chair’s signature is a necessity in the unlikely event of the minutes having to be produced in a court of law.
Discussion only on accuracy
No discussion should be allowed on the motion (or the chair’s proposal) that the minutes be signed unless it concerns the accuracy of the minutes. Members are not being asked to approve of the decisions made at the previous meeting, but merely to say whether or not the minutes accurately state the business done at the previous meeting. Confusion about this can be avoided by always including in the motion the words ‘as a correct record’. If there is a motion from the floor that the minutes should be approved it is advisable, but not essential, that it should be moved and seconded by members who were actually present at the last meeting, and who should therefore know that they are a correct record. Until the minutes have been passed, not other business can be proceeded with.
Important of accuracy
Members should make sure that the minutes contain every resolution which was passed at the previous meeting. The minutes are the evidence of what occurred, and if a resolution was omitted by the secretary in writing the minutes, there would be no record at all that the resolution had ever been passed. If the minutes had to be produced in a court of law or elsewhere as evidence, it would, in the absence of conclusive evidence to the contrary, be assumed that no such resolution had been passed.
Corrections to the minutes
If a member believes that there is an error in, or an omission from, the minutes, they should not interrupt the reading of the minutes, but when the secretary has finished, the member should insist on the error being rectified. Often the correction will be accepted by the secretary, and inserted at once in the minutes, but if the error is not admitted, the member drawing attention to the point should move an amendment to have the minutes rectified.
The amendment should be seconded by another member, and put to the vote by the chair, who may allow some discussion. If the amendment is carried, the correction must at once be inserted in the margin of the minutes and initialled by the chair. If there are no further errors, the chair should put the motion ‘That the minutes as amended be signed as a correct record’; if there is a majority in favour, the minutes are declared passed.
No rescinding a minute
Sometimes, in order to prevent a resolution passed by an earlier meeting from being put into effect, an attempt may be made to rescind that part of the minutes dealing with such resolution. This procedure should not be accepted by the chair; the expunging of a minute which is an accurate record of a decision previously reached is equivalent to destroying the evidence of the proceedings. The correct method of rescinding a resolution is explained in chapter 4.
Amending minutes of sub-committees
Questioning the minutes of sub-committees which report back to full committees or union branches can be a problem, because when they are presented to the parent body they will not usually have been approved by the sub-committee. If any member of a sub-committee doubts their accuracy, they should raise this before they are discussed by the parent body and if their fellow sub-committee members support them, the minutes can be amended.
Members of the parent body who are not also members of the sub-committee are concerned not with the accuracy of the minutes, but with their policy and recommendations. Therefore, sub-committee minutes should be dealt with on the lines of delegate reports, as explained in chapter 10. If any items have been referred by the sub-committee to the parent body, the motion for the acceptance of the minutes should read: ‘That the sub-committee’s recommendations be endorsed with the exception of those items separately appearing on the Agenda’.
Matters arising from the minutes
Once the minutes have been passed, it is usual for the chair to ask ‘Are there any questions arising from the minutes?’ to enable members to ask whether any action has been taken on a particular item. The secretary or other officer may then make a brief report on what has been done. The chair should not allow any general discussion on the subject, but must confine it entirely to points of information. If anyone wants certain action to be taken, they should notify the chair and bring the subject forward again at the end of the meeting, under ‘Any Other Business’. Otherwise the meeting might go on discussing the minutes all night to the exclusion of more important business.
If the officers are aware of an important matter relating to something considered at the previous meeting which seems likely to lead to considerable discussions, it should be placed on the agenda as a separate item rather than dealt with under ‘matters arising’.
After matters arising from the minutes have been disposed of, the chair should proceed with the other items on the agenda.
Dealing with correspondence
There are three ways of dealing with correspondence which comes before meetings. The correspondence can be taken as a whole; each letter can be dealt with separately; or the letters can be grouped in subject form. The practice on this varies, and may depend on the volume of correspondence. Where correspondence is small, the secretary might read all the letters (the secretary may summarise the less important letters to save time), after which the chair might ask members if they have any comments or whether they wish to raise anything. The trouble with this method is that unless members make a note of points in the earlier letters, discussions may focus on the letters read last. To ensure that important letters are not overlooked, the secretary should (with the chair’s approval) put such letters down as separate items on the agenda.
The method of taking every letter separately is surer, but can be unnecessarily lengthy, and probably the best method is to group together all letters dealing with the same subject and, if possible, in the order most suitable for consideration. As well as being speedier, this helps members to focus their minds on the subject as a whole and in logical sequence, and enables the meeting to obtain a broader view.
Noting correspondence
Whatever system is adopted, it needs to be recorded in the minutes that letters have been received. If no action on any of them is proposed, the chair should move formally ‘That the letter(s) be noted’. Any proposals for action arising from the correspondence will take the form of motions and should be dealt with accordingly.