Approval of Assembly Minutes
Recommended by the Board of Directors
November 7, 2001
Agenda Item 7

Proposed Change: Each Assembly of Delegates would confirm the appointment of a committee of 6 delegates, one from each region, that would, on behalf of the Assembly, approve the draft minutes of the Assembly after reviewing the corrections and/or approvals received from delegates who attended the meeting.

Background - Assembly of Delegates: Sigma Xi's annual Assembly of Delegates is somewhat unique among organizations. The Assembly is part of the Society's annual meeting and is the required business portion of the meeting where chapter delegates are required to act on certain items of business before the Society, such as the annual eight-point motion on annual dues, Constitutional changes, etc. Because the Assembly is a business meeting, formal minutes of each Assembly are required for the permanent record of Sigma Xi, as is the case for most business meetings. In addition, for most business meetings, a majority of the meeting participants attend the next meeting and approve the draft minutes of the previous meeting. However, in Sigma Xi 60-70% of the delegates at each annual meeting attend for the first time, which means that a majority of the delegates are asked to approve draft minutes of a meeting they did not attend.

Background - Approval of Assembly Minutes: Traditionally in Sigma Xi, draft minutes of each Assembly of Delegates are circulated to delegates who attended the annual meeting for their corrections and/or approval. Recently, this has been done electronically, except for those delegates without e-mail who receive a paper copy via the Postal Service. Along with the draft minutes, the delegates are asked to review a list of delegates and their chapter affiliations for any changes or corrections. Any changes or corrections from delegates are incorporated into a print copy of the minutes and delegate list that is given to delegates at the next Assembly for approval as part of the business before the Assembly; normally, almost all corrections involve changes to the delegate list. Before being asked to approve the draft minutes of the previous Assembly, delegates are advised that the draft minutes before them have been reviewed, and appropriate corrections incorporated, by the delegates who attended the previous annual meeting. By this mechanism, the delegates to each annual meeting formally approve the minutes of the previous Assembly with the knowledge that those attending the previous meeting have reviewed the draft minutes and approved them or requested corrections to the draft minutes.

Proposed New Mechanism for Approving Assembly Minutes: If approved by the November 2001 Assembly, each year the Assembly would approve a committee of six delegates attending the meeting ( the "Committee on Minutes") to review the corrections received from delegates, verify that appropriate corrections have been made to the draft minutes and delegate list, and approve the minutes of the Assembly on behalf of the entire Assembly. In terms of process, delegates would still receive the draft minutes and delegate list to review for corrections following each annual meeting and any corrections would be forwarded to the committee. The approved minutes would then be made available to delegates, chapters, and members on the Society's Web site in advance of the next annual meeting and printed copies could be given to delegates at the next meeting on request. Approval of the minutes of the previous Assembly would not be part of the agenda for each Assembly, since this would already have been done by the committee, nor would delegates routinely receive a printed copy of the minutes of the previous Assembly, thus eliminating the printing expense each year for the draft minutes of the previous Assembly.