NonprofitBODMinutes are the official memory of your board. If a decision isn't in the minutes, in the eyes of a regulator or a court it may as well not have happened. But more is not better — a good record is precise, not exhaustive.
What to record
- Date, time, and whether the meeting was in person or virtual
- Who attended, who was absent, and when people arrived or left
- Confirmation that a quorum was present
- Every motion: who moved it, who seconded, and the vote count
- Key decisions and the fact that conflicts were disclosed
What to leave out
- Word-for-word discussion — minutes are not a transcript
- Personal opinions or side commentary
- Anything you wouldn't want read aloud in a lawsuit
Approve and lock them
Minutes should be approved at the next meeting and then treated as final. Late edits to an "official" record raise questions. NonprofitBOD timestamps each set of minutes and ties motions to the members who voted, so the record is defensible by design.
The test is simple: could someone who wasn't in the room understand what was decided and that it was decided properly? If yes, your minutes are doing their job.