Q: I continue to enjoy and learn from your weekly column. A recent column reviewed the requirements for board minutes of a homeowners association, and I especially appreciated your advice that minutes do not need to include discussion. I am trying to recall whether mandatory inclusion of votes must disclose who voted or only what the numerical result was. I wanted to discuss this with our manager, but cannot locate or retrieve it from the newspaper website.
J.K., Islamorada
A: Minutes have only the basic information about the business conducted by the board or members at an annual meeting. Minutes should be placed in a book and retained for seven years. About the only time the "official" minutes would be used, would be by a judge or trial in a lawsuit.
Quite frankly, the less you put in your minutes the better. Usually committees do not take minutes but keep and submit reports. Minutes include the time, date, location and a statement that a quorum was present.
One of the first agenda items is to present reports. The minutes would reflect who gave what report and the subject of the report. As the agenda moves to previous business and new business, only the item and motion would be recorded. At the time of the vote, the director's name and how he or she voted also would be documented. No discussion would be included in the minutes.
For normal operations, you should have one page for each hour the meeting lasts. The words "keep it simple" apply.
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