Form with which the board of directors of a corporation records the contents of its first meeting.
Form with which the board of directors of a corporation records the contents of its first meeting.
Board directors and shareholders must receive a copy of finalized board meeting minutes, whether or not they were present. The board minutes keeper's job is to get the company chairman to approve the minutes and distribute copies on the same date.
Meeting minutes are the written record of what was discussed and decided during a meeting. They typically include the date and time of the meeting, a list of attendees, a summary of the topics discussed, decisions made, action items assigned, and the time of adjournment.
Board meeting minutes confidentiality varies: public companies must balance disclosure with privacy, while private companies have more flexibility. Key measures for maintaining confidentiality include using secure communication channels, confidentiality agreements, and limiting document access.
Failing to do so can result in fees, penalties, loss of liability protection, or closure of the S corporation. Failing to hold at least one annual meeting and not keeping corporate minutes could also jeopardize the standing of your corporation.
In all but a handful of states, S and C corporations must file minutes for board of directors and shareholder meetings to comply with corporate governance laws and regulations.
Robert's Rules (Section -16) state that “the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members.” Minutes are not transcripts of meetings; rather, the document contains a record of actions taken by the body, organized by the meeting's order of business (agenda).
California corporations are legally required to maintain accurate and timely corporate minutes for shareholder and director meetings.
What do the minutes contain? Time, date and place of meeting. List of people attending. List of absent members of the group. Approval of the previous meeting's minutes, and any matters arising from those minutes. For each item in the agenda, a record of the principal points discussed and decisions taken.
Personal observations or judgmental comments should not be included in meeting minutes. All statements should be as neutral as possible. Avoid writing down everything everyone said. Minutes should be concise and summarize the major points of what happened at the meeting.
Minutes of general meetings are usually made available to all members and, in the case of a charitable company, they must be. The following terms are frequently used in minutes. It is important that they are used consistently, and everyone involved understands their meaning.