Member Responsibilities: How to Be An Effective Member
The minutes are a legal record of our decisions. All we legally need to do is say where we met, when we met, who met, and what the group decided.
We use the same format for the minutes for every meeting so that the minutes are consistent from secretary to secretary. The order of the minutes follows the agenda of the meeting. The wording of motions does need to be correct in the minutes. Feel free to ask for a motion to be repeated.
The minutes remind us of other decisions made during the meeting including what we agreed we would do, who was assigned any tasks, and any deadlines.
The minutes include any corrections to previous meeting minutes.
It’s not necessary to put in a lot of descriptive material. But we, as a group, include more descriptive material than is required. It can be helpful to review past discussions, especially important and recurring topics.
To recap:
The date and location
Start/ending time of the meeting. We usually include time of lunch break, not breaks - Names of those attending the member meeting and directors attending the directors meeting
Any corrections to previous meeting minutes
Any action items or tasks assigned during the meeting, who is responsible for doing them, and their deadlines
Decisions made during the meeting
Date and/or location of the next meeting
Matching ceiling
Motions that passed or failed
Within 2 weeks of the meeting, submit the draft minutes to the administrator for a committee appointed by the President to review. Once finalized, the administrator will distribute them via email.