Politics and transparency at the space

Official minutes for board or member meetings could be documented, approved and posted as pdf after approval. No, I am not skilled enough to do that, but I bet a professional could be hired to attend and provide a transcription. I have no idea about that cost, but if it was $100/Board mtg or Member mtg, it may prove to be a good investment? Or, video the mtg and post that as the documentation? Also, implementing Roberts Rules of Order, even if its a watered down version, would be helpful in improving the meetings. There seems to be a lot sidebar discussions or comments made that are not heard by everyone or distract from the main person speaking, therefore making it difficult to those comments in any mtg minutes. Just my observation from the one member mtg I have been able to attend so far. From the internetā€¦
Tips and suggestions for preparing board meeting minutes:
ļ‚· The person who is taking meeting minutes should generally not be an active participant in the meeting.
ļ‚· That person must sit where all discussion can be heard.
ļ‚· Ideally, do not take an audio recording of the meeting. If this is required, destroy the audio recording as
soon as the minutes have been approved. An audio recording of a meeting may include information that
might be harmful to the organization.
ļ‚· Use the same template for your meeting minutes to reduce preparation time and to give board
members a consistent format of the minutes.
ļ‚· Use the meeting agenda to outline the minutes before the meeting has even started.
ļ‚· Write objectively.
ļ‚· Use board membersā€™ names when documenting important information such as attendance, key
discussions, and official actions. You do not need to include names in most other situations, such as
documenting general discussions.
ļ‚· Do not record the amount of time spent on particular items.

From the internetā€¦https://www.rev.com/transcription, this appears to be $1.00/minute transcribing from a recording submitted of the meeting.

Just so you know,

All meetings with agenda items have minutes, as that is a requirement. The member meeting in question had no agenda items, as such, the only actual minutes would be in session and out of session. We do not scribe discussion, which is what this member meeting. We currently follow Roberts Rules of Order for our board meetings

Minutes for board meetings are currently taken by @Haley_Moore who does a fantastic job at it. She is not on the board, so she meets the qualifications you described.

Destroying audio recordings of our meetings is blasphemy. You should not say something you do not wish to be public in a board meeting. You should always carefully choose your words, as those are the ones people will hear.

We do currently use the same template, and that template has been used for over a year now.

Names are included for attendance, key discussions and official actions. Names are also included in other general discussions.

4 Likes

Luke, thanks for clarifying that for me. From the comments above about the different recollections of what folks did or did not say, comments about lack of transparency from board discussions, etcā€¦ I didnā€™t get the impression mtg minutes were always taken or available to review, so thank you for helping me better understand that. I look forward to attending more members mtgs, they are certainly informative and lively! Thanks, Dave

Past boards have not been as focused on documenting meetings and transparency.

2 Likes

Here ya go,

https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Category:2018_Meetings

1 Like

Thanks for pointing me to the right place. dave