3 Keeping Minutes
Evangel Presbytery’s official standards for keeping minutes can be found in Appendix 1 of the presbytery’s bylaws. The information included in this section of the handbook is intended to supplement the presbytery’s standards without adding further requirements.
Meeting minutes must be kept with utmost care. They are the official record of the decisions of a deliberative body. Once approved, they are the final word on what happened and what was decided at a meeting. Good minutes help promote integrity and accountability, and they act as a practical reference for future discussions and decisions of the session. The keeping of minutes is also typically the stated clerk’s most consistent and frequent area of responsibility.
3.1 Principles for Keeping Good Minutes
1. Clarity
Put yourself in the shoes of an elder from another church reading your minutes. Will he have enough information to clearly understand what decision was made, who was involved, and why the decision was made? For example, use full names of individuals (i.e., not just first names) and organizations (i.e., not just abbreviations) at least the first time they appear in each set of minutes.
2. Concision
Minutes are intended to record essential information only. They should not be a detailed play-by-play of deliberation. The most important thing to record in minutes is any official action taken by the session. For example, it is not necessary to record every amendment that is made to a motion before it is finally voted on and approved; it is only necessary to record the motion in its final form. (For more information on recording motions in the minutes, see Recording Motions in the chapter on Robert’s Rules of Order for Clerks.)
3. Consistency
There are many different ways to approach spelling, punctuation, abbreviations, outline structure, etc. The most important thing is to be consistent in how you handle such matters of formatting and style. Consistency helps minutes to be more clear, and it makes minutes more useful as a reference. For example, it is common to use a computer program to search the minutes for all mentions of a particular name. Being careful to spell names correctly and consistently helps ensure that you will be able to find the information you need.
3.2 What Minutes Should Be Kept?
A clerk of session should be sure to have a permanent record of both regular and special called meetings of the following groups:
- The session, a.k.a. the board of elders.
- Session-appointed commissions. “A Commission is authorized to deliberate upon and conclude the business referred to it. It shall keep a full record of its proceedings, which shall be submitted to the court appointing it, entered on its minutes, and regarded and treated as the action of the court” (BCO 17.1).
- The board of deacons. While deacons’ minutes do not need to be submitted to the presbytery for review, they do need to be submitted to the session (BCO 11.4). The clerk of session will most often rely on the secretary of the board of deacons to keep minutes for deacons meetings, but it is still the clerk’s responsibility to ensure these minutes are accurate, well organized, and available for review.
- The congregation. Because of the size of the body meeting, congregational meetings are often more formal in their proceedings than session meetings. Minutes for congregational meetings are just as important as session meetings and should adhere to the same principles as session minutes.
A church may have many committees that meet regularly, and those committees may choose to take minutes. However, it is not necessary for the clerk of session to have a permanent record of all committees’ minutes.
3.3 Where to Take Minutes
We strongly recommend taking and circulating minutes for review in the body of an email.
- Email programs allow basic text formatting (bold, italics, lists, etc.) without the problems associated with attachments. Attachments clutter up hard drives and can’t be searched as easily as email can be.
- Taking minutes in the body of an email helps reduce conflicting versions of minutes.
We recommend using a consistent pattern in subject lines of emails with minutes. It is best to include:
- the church name (or abbreviation)
- the type of meeting and the name of the body meeting (e.g., “Session Meeting”, “Congregational Meeting”, etc.)
- the word “minutes”
- the date of the meeting
- the status of the minutes being circulated (e.g., “FOR REVIEW”, “FOR APPROVAL”, “CORRECTED”, etc.)
For example:
TPC Special Called Session Meeting Minutes 2022-03-30 FOR REVIEW
Following a consistent pattern in subject lines will make it much easier to search for minutes in your email archives.
3.4 Adoption Process for Session Minutes
The following is a recommended (but not required) process for ensuring that minutes get properly reviewed and adopted by the session in a timely manner. After taking minutes…
- Edit and proofread the minutes shortly after the meeting.
- Send edited minutes to the moderator for review and correction. It is good for the clerk to work hard to understand the personality, working habits, and preferences of the moderator, so as to ensure the effectiveness of his leadership of the session. In general, the stated clerk should seek to accomplish any minutes-related tasks which are most helpful to the moderator. For example, it may be helpful for the clerk to make a practice of reminding session members of their assigned action items between meetings.
- Send moderator-reviewed minutes to session members for review before the meeting at which they will be adopted. Provide sufficient time for review. Avoid sending minutes out the day of the meeting where they are to be adopted. It is best to give a few days or a week for session members to review minutes and to provide you with any additional corrections prior to the meeting where they are to be adopted. When exactly you send minutes may depend on the preferences of the members and/or the moderator of your particular session.
- Provide a copy of the reviewed minutes to the session at the meeting where they are to be adopted.
- Help ensure that the session votes to adopt the reviewed minutes. This most often happens at the beginning of a session meeting. It may occasionally happen via email.
- File newly adopted minutes with the permanent record of minutes immediately after the meeting where they are officially adopted. For good filing practices, see Organization of Records.
The same process outlined above can be used by the session to review and approve congregational meeting minutes as well.
3.5 The Permanent Record
Once minutes are officially approved by the session, they need to be added to a permanent record which is stored on a computer. Minutes from each meeting should be stored in word processing files or PDF files, and they should be well organized. See the chapter on Organization of Records for guidance on organizing your approved minutes.
3.6 Examples
3.6.1 Basic Minutes Template
We recommend clerks come to each meeting with a basic minutes outline already prepared. This will save time and distraction during the actual meeting. If the clerk has access to a meeting’s agenda before the meeting, it is a good practice for him to prepare an outline for minutes based on that agenda.
The following template will be a helpful starting point:
Name of Church, Board, Committee, Commission, etc.
Purpose of Meeting, often “Regular Scheduled Session Meeting”
Time, Date, Year
Location (and/or virtual app used for meeting remotely)
Present: Name (position related to body meeting), …
Excused absences: Name (position related to the body meeting), …
1. ——— led devotions from ———, [brief summary]. ——— opened the meeting in prayer at #:## am/pm.
2. Clerk’s business
a. Establishment of quorum
b. Adoption of previous meeting minutes
c. Recording of any actions taken by email between meetings (if applicable)
d. Attendance, membership, statistics, etc.
e. Celebration of sacraments
i. Lord’s Supper
ii. Baptisms
3. Action item review
4. Treasurer’s report
5. Pastoral care
a. …
b. …
#. …
#. Next meeting set for [Time, Date, Year], at [Location]. ——— will lead devotions.
Meeting adjourned at #:## am/pm.
Respectfully submitted,
———
Stated Clerk (or Clerk pro tem)
Name of Body Meeting