Question 4

You asked: Is a union local required to record minutes of all meetings they conduct such as GM’s, eboard meetings, and committee meetings?

Let’s get into it.

Yes.

For General Membership meetings the minutes are distributed at the beginning of the next GM meeting and the membership reviews them and then a motion is made to “accept the minutes”. There is also an opportunity for the membership to make amendments to the minutes based on “errors or omissions”.

For Executive Board meeting minutes, it is the Executive Board that approves the minutes as recorded at the following E-Board meeting. Again, there is the opportunity to correct the minutes, if necessary, for “errors or omissions”. Upon application to the Financial Secretary, members can make an appointment to attend the Union head office and read the Executive Board minutes. It is typically the Union’s position that the member viewing the minutes cannot make copies. Truly, that is an undemocratic and controversial position for Union leadership to take and one that is almost impossible to enforce. It just seems to be a very popular position for Union’s to take with regard to reading Executive Board minutes.

With regard to Committee minutes there is no ability for members to gain access to reading them. It is a necessary function of the committee to record their motions and deliberations but they are used for internal reference for the work that the committee is trying to accomplish. There is nothing to prevent a member from requesting to see Committee minutes from either the Chairperson of the Committee or a table officer.

---