Skip to main content

Why Take Minutes

Regulatory requirements

The Board of Neighborhood Commissioners requires that neighborhood council boards keep written minutes of all board meetings.1

Neighborhood council bylaws often require that minutes are taken at committee meetings as well.2

Finally, parliamentary procedure also requires taking minutes.3

Recordkeeping

Perhaps more important than the regulatory requirements are the benefits of taking minutes. Minutes are the official record of neighborhood council meetings.

Written minutes allow neighborhood council members, stakeholders, and the general public to be aware of the neighborhood council’s activity. This transparency is vitally important for a neighborhood council because it is a government body that should answer to its stakeholders.

Written minutes also demonstrate agreement by the members on what the board or committee has done. Well-written and approved minutes eliminate potential ambiguity and uncertainty about the neighborhood council’s actions.

  1. “Neighborhood Councils shall keep written minutes of all regular and special board meetings.” Los Angeles, CA, Board of Neighborhood Commissioners, Policy No. 2016-01 (1), ↩

  2. This is likely to be in article VII, section 3, in the paragraph on committee meetings. ↩

  3. “The minimum essential officers for the conduct of business in a deliberative assembly are a presiding officer … and a secretary, or clerk, who makes a written record of what is done—usually called ‘the minutes.’” RONR (12th ed.) 3:6 ↩