Committee Meetings: Minutes

No club can function effectively without a good committee which should be a blend of experience, ability and with a regular infusion of new blood. It should be noted that any club member can ask for an item to be put on the agenda and any club member can attend any committee meeting. At the meeting they can take part in discussions but are not allowed to vote on any issue requiring a vote. We are currently blessed with a committee which has experience and ability but it may be that, as with all committees in any organisation these days, it could do with some new blood. Important as the President, Secretary and Treasurer are - and they are very important, the Minute Secretary is vital to the smooth running of any club.

I have club minute books from the early 1890's to the early 2000's and they vary immensely in the degree of detail contained but they all have one thing in common - they allow the reader to reconstruct the meetings that they cover. This is important. The Minute of a Meeting is not just a list of action points or summary of what decisions were taken. It should reflect accurately the discussions, the various points of view expressed and the decisions taken at the meeting. Two examples: first from time to time there are suggestions that the club vest be altered in some way and a special meeting is called. The Minute of the meeting is not just that two vests were discussed and one was decided upon. The flavour of the discussion and the arguments for and against each one should be recorded for future reference along with the results of any vote taken. Second, when there are applications for membership, the actual names of the applicants should be recorded. On occasion the club has had the proposer and seconder for each applicant recorded in the minute. This is vital because when an athlete leaves the club Scottish Athletics need to see an extract of the Minute at which the athlete became a club member. It also matters because when an athlete joins from another club we need to have an accurate note of their joining date since they may have to serve a period of time before they are eligible for team competition.
The Membership Secretary is one of the more important members. I saw Minute Books for a Church Group and also for a Sports Club recently and both stick to the handwritten version in a Minute Book. In a documentary about Manchester United FC the Minutes at the Meeting were read from a handwritten Minute Book. This way the minutes have a permanence missing from typed minutes which can scatter to the four winds if you are not careful!