I have received this question from Angela in Australia.

One of our board members was having difficulty linking up to Zoom for our last meeting. In fact, didn’t get through until 5 minutes before meeting finished. As secretary I recorded her present, and noted in the course of the minutes at which point she became present so that it could be understood which items she was and wasn’t in attendance for. She has requested that she be noted as having attended “the full meeting” because she had been trying to link up and just wasn’t able to. Could you please advise of the correct procedure?

This is very straightforward. What you have done is correct – to note at what point of the meeting she “arrived”. It is no different to her arriving late to a face to face meeting because she had a flat tyre – she clearly would not have been at the whole meeting.

Her request is not logical, nor reasonable.

The minutes need to she when she was there, and when she was not. Virtual or face to face makes no difference.

A way to do it is to list the person in the attendees and note next to their name either the time they arrived or in fact it is better to state the point in the agenda at which they arrived. So it may look like this in the attendees list – Jane Doe (arrived at item 9)

Please Note: The author accepts no responsibility for anything which occurs directly or indirectly as a result of using any of the suggestions or procedures detailed in this blog. This is not, and should not be taken as legal advice. All suggestions and procedures are provided in good faith as general guidelines only and should be used in conjunction with appropriate advice relevant legislation, constitutions, rules, laws, by-laws, and with reasonable judgement. If you are in any doubt, seek appropriate advice.