You are correct assuming that the membership approved the minutes of a membership meeting. The board approves minutes of a board meeting.
The president may want the minutes to see if there is any unfinished business to put on the agenda at the upcoming meeting. She does not approve them.
There is a way to be able to have approved minutes at the next meeting. The president can appoint 3 (or more) members of the body to approve those minutes after they are drafted by you. Any corrections that the committee has will be given to you and you will make corrections and then publish them. They are approved and can be released to your membership without hesitation.
Like most groups, our PTO meets only once a month. The minutes being available as soon as possible is a very important part of keeping business moving forward through the month. Our solution? Mark DRAFT in BIG BOLD letters at the top of the minutes. At the end of the minutes type "These minutes to be approved at the __________, 2007 meeting. Then, when they are approved, you can remove the DRAFT, fill in the blank and replace the DRAFt minuted with the approved ones.
Even though I have vaolunteered in many organizations, this is the first time that I am the secretary. My previous experience with minutes is that the minutes from the August meeting are passed out at the September meeting. The September meeting is the first time that the minutes are given to members. At the September meeting the minutes are reviewed and approved.
Our by-laws state the following:
Give meeting minutes within one week after any meeting, requiring minutes.
(Yes, I know we need new by-laws)
I have been asked to submit the August meeting minutes to the President for her approval and she wants to email them to the membership and put them on our website.
I have two concerns:
I thought the general membership approved the minutes.
I feel uncomfortable publishing unapproved minutes. What if there is a mistake in the minutes and they are published to the membership?
