As our PTO Secretary for 2 years, this is how I handle minutes:
After I type them up, I email them to all the Executive Board Members, and ask them to let me know if any changes, deletions, or additions need to be made. There has never been any big issues about any changes suggested, so this approach has worked out well for us. By the time the next meeting comes around to approve them, everyone will have already read them, and they are usually approved "as is" because changes have already been taken care of... Then the minutes get posted on the website for any parents or teachers who may want to see what's been approved, and what not.
Good luck!
~Francine
Thanks for the input. I made very clear to her what items she should include in the amended minutes. But they were not included. Also, I can't seem to access the archives because I'm not a NPN member.
How much detail is recorded will naturally vary depending on who's taking the notes. You should be voting to approve the minutes as presented, or to approve them as corrected. Certainly if the items were brought up specifically as necesssary revisions, the secretary should have included them.
It should not be up to the secretary's discretion what edits to include. Perhaps the changes weren't completely clear, or she didn't understand the level of detail you wanted.
At our meetings, the President (and others) mark up the draft with any changes during the meeting. Then the secretary simply makes those changes in the computer file and prints the new version.
If it's simply an oversight, you should just be able to call it to her attention. If it's more of a power struggle, then you'll probably need to make sure you keep a copy of the mark ups to compare against the final result.
There was an article in one of the last PTO Network magazine's about what you should/should not include in your meeting minutes. I was surprised at how basic they should be. Do a search in the PTO Archives?
As president of our PTO, I noticed some agenda items reported on were not included in the monthly mintues. At our next meeting, I asked that the minutes of that meeting be amended to include those items. The secretary did not include all of the items I indicated. Is it her decision to make as to what is in the minutes? If I as president or anyone else indicate "have the minutes show", shouldn't it be included?
