Medium size - State Owned Corporation (School Board) asks:

At our last board meeting, during the approval of the minutes, a board member wanted to bring changes to the minutes. The changes requested did not sit well with the rest of the board and controversy set in. We always encourage board members to inform us in advance if they notice something is missing from the minutes; that way we have the time to review the request to make sure it belongs in the minutes (or not) prior to the approval of the minutes – but this member did not.

My question is, if a request is made during the approval of the minutes, can we delay the approval of the minutes until the next board meeting to allow us the time to review the request and move on with the meeting; or do we absolutely have to get the minutes approved before we can proceed with the meeting? This would have saved us 30 minutes.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I agree with Raj. Our Corporate Secretary would have said that we'll take the request for changes back for the review in consultation with the Board Chair and bring forward the minutes for approval at the next meeting. 

The other option, would have been for the Corporate Secretary to say that the request for changes will be taken into consideration in consultation with the Board Chair and approve the minutes, as subject to changes. This approach would only work if you get support from the Board.