Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/107

§ 41] meeting (excepting when the place is always the same); (d) the fact of the presence of the regular chairman and clerk, or in their absence the names of their substitutes; (e) whether the minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

The minutes should be signed by the person who acted as clerk for that meeting; in some societies the Chairman must also sign them. When published, they should be signed by both officers.

In keeping the minutes much depends upon the kind of meeting, and whether the minutes are to be published. Under no circumstances, however, should the clerk criticize in the minutes, either favorably or otherwise, anything said or done in the meeting. If they are to be published, it is often of far more interest to know what was said by the leading speakers than to know what routine business was done, and what resolutions adopted. In such cases the duties of the secretary are arduous, and he should have at least one assistant.

In ordinary society meetings and meetings of boards of managers and trustees, on the contrary, there is no object in reporting the debates; the duty of the clerk, in such cases, is mainly to record what is “done” by