I have received a question from a subscriber in the United Kingdom.
I have asked to see the minutes of a committee meeting of our local sports club. I am a member. They are not normally distributed however they have sent me a copy but it is not the version that was approved at a committee meeting. It is a heavily edited version that was altered by the chairman and the secretary without the approval of the committee. Is this an acceptable practice?
Absolutely not – this is not an acceptable practice! The chair and the secretary should not be altering the minutes – they belong to the meeting, not the chair and secretary.
Also if you are a member, you should have access to the entire minutes – it is just good governance.
The ONLY reason people may not give you the full minutes is that there is something they don’t want you to see.
I suggest you ask more questions and let others know your concerns.
Please Note: The author is not a lawyer and 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. 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.
1 thought on “As a member, can I see the committee minutes?”
When secretary of a local charity, we were required to provide a copy of some minutes to our bankers, to action a change in cheque signatories.
The order of business meant the change was dealt with at the end of the meeting. All attendees agreed that the minutes would record the change at the start of the meeting, with that agreement recorded as it happened (at the end).
When I typed up the minutes, the signatory change featured on the first page. I annotated the bottom of page 1, that the bank were provided with a limited version as further information was commercially sensitive. The bank accepted the version they were given as it was clear why a portion of the document was omitted.
The file version retained by the charity records:
Page 1 – Attendees / Apologies etc.
Change of Signatory.
Note for bank that
remainder was
commercially sensitive.
Page 2-4 – Other meeting business.
Page 5 – Recorded formal agreement
to change Bank Signatory
and included reference to
Bank requirements for a
copy of minutes.
Agreement by attendees to:
Change the order of
recording to allow
secretary to:
Annotate minutes to
redact Commercial
portion.
Provide Bank only
what they required.
This kept bank happy plus committee were happy = a happy secretary 🙂