[Eg-oversight-board] Proposed amendment to EOB meeting minutes

Thu May 12 08:52:01 EDT 2016

Although I've not been commenting, I'm reading and paying attention to this
conversation.  I do want to make just a couple points, again not meant to
sway opinions one way or the other.  The minutes of a meeting are meant to
convey what happened in an accurate manner - both in letter and spirit.
When using IRC, this includes a word for word log.  In real life, this is
rarely the case.  At my library, notes are taken by the secretary in
longhand, prepared by me, read back to the board by the secretary, and
voted on.  At the "prepared by me" portion, I correct things that were
documented incorrectly.  Sometimes this is a spelling error and sometimes
because there's a misunderstanding of what I said by the secretary because
of a lack of attention to or ignorance of context.  As Grace has said,
until minutes are approved by the board, they are a draft.  Now, perhaps
it's a matter of adding an addendum to the minutes, or adding it to the
minutes of the upcoming meeting to reflect that Tanya's clarification came
after the EOB meeting had adjourned.  I don't know.  We'll discuss the
possibilities.  There does, however, need to be documentation of both what
was said and what was meant.

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 1:31 PM, Grace Dunbar <gdunbar at esilibrary.com>
wrote:

> I'm not sure it's fruitful to continue to discuss the "exact" words Tanya
> spoke at the meeting.  But any EOB member may certainly vote against
> adopting the minutes if they feel they aren't accurate.  To me it's more
> important that we make a decision on the issues of
> clarification/amendment.  This is a big enough issue that we can't actually
> change the minutes (although that sort of thing can be done for
> misspellings, date corrections, etc. without Board vote) but rather we do
> need to agree to the clarification, if the Board agrees it's appropriate.
>
> Also, as a point of parliamentary procedure, the meeting minutes are
> essentially a draft until they are "adopted" or "approved" at the next
> meeting.  Even though minutes were taken, they aren't the official record
> of that meeting until the EOB adopts them.  Until then it is reasonable and
> acceptable to change/clarify/amend.  So, now is the time to be having this
> conversation so we can, hopefully, be at a point where we can make any
> clarifications (if necessary) and approve them at the next meeting.
>
> I think Tanya's clarification to the minutes is important because her
> exact words to me after the meeting were, "I think you misinterpreted what
> I was saying."  This says to me that while Chris may have captured her
> words correctly, her *message* was not captured correctly and not
> necessarily through any fault of the Secretary.  In my opinion the message
> she was trying to convey is equally or perhaps more important than the
> exact words.  Goodness knows I've misspoke on occasion and I wouldn't want
> my words going down in perpetuity without having the opportunity to clarify
> what I meant.
>
> Thanks!
> Grace
>
>
> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 12:27 PM, Chris Sharp <csharp at georgialibraries.org
> > wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm trying not to get pulled into this, having happily ended my tenure on
>> the EOB, but since I was the recording secretary for the meeting, and my
>> minutes are being called out here, I feel I have to respond.
>>
>> Here is my issue with accuracy in the words of the record: I recall
>>> Tanya using the phrase "giving direction" with regard to "a vendor"
>>> but I don't recall her using the phrase "point of contact."  That
>>> difference between my recollection and the minutes as recorded by the
>>> secretary is concerning because the latter implies more specificity
>>> than the former.  In other words, what Chris typed implies Tanya was
>>> talking specifically about an official conference contact, but what I
>>> recall her actually saying implies no such thing, only that she was
>>> receiving direction.  Her clarification to several people suggests
>>> Chris' typing implies more meaning that was actually provided by
>>> Tanya, but the intent is materially beside the point of whether the
>>> words typed match the words spoken.  I don't believe they do.  They
>>> are, quite obviously, not a direct transcription of what Tanya said,
>>
>> which means they were interpreted by Chris before being recorded.
>>>
>>
>> The unedited-for-wiki Google doc version of the minutes has the following
>> for the wording in question:
>>
>>    -
>>
>>       Sponsorships
>>       - Conflict of interest to have a point of contact be a vendor
>>
>>
>> To my recollection, Tanya was listing off the issues she wanted to talk
>> about, and she said "Sponsorships", then said, more or less verbatim as
>> written, the bullet point above.  My goal at the time was to capture as
>> faithfully as possible the wording that Tanya used, so I would be surprised
>> if what she said was too far off from that.
>>
>> Having said that, I am a human being prone to the same mistakes as
>> everyone else, and the Board is always given a chance to review and correct
>> meeting minutes at the following meeting.
>>
>> I've said my peace here.  How you handle the wording of the minutes is up
>> to the Board.
>>
>> --
>> Chris Sharp
>> PINES System Administrator
>> Georgia Public Library Service
>> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
>> Atlanta, Georgia 30345
>> (404) 235-7147
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> eg-oversight-board mailing list
>> eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org
>> http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eg-oversight-board
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Grace Dunbar, Vice President
> Equinox - Open Your Library
> gdunbar at esilibrary.com
> 1-877-OPEN-ILS  |  www.esilibrary.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> eg-oversight-board mailing list
> eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org
> http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eg-oversight-board
>
>

-- 
Ruth Frasur
Director of the Historic(ally Awesome) Hagerstown - Jefferson Township
Library
10 W. College Street in Hagerstown, Indiana (47346)
p (765) 489-5632; f (765) 489-5808

*Our Kickin' Website <http://hagerstownlibrary.org>,  Our Rockin' Facebook
Page <http://facebook.com/hjtplibrary>,  and The Nettle Creek Players
<http://nettlecreekplayers.com>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.evergreen-ils.org/pipermail/eg-oversight-board/attachments/20160512/966559c5/attachment.html>