Governing Instrument and Articles

Under Section 17 (3) of the Instrument in the January 2008 revisions to the Instrument and Articles:

“The Corporation shall ensure that a copy of the draft or signed minutes of every meeting of the Corporation shall be placed on the institution’s website and shall despite any rules the Corporation shall make regarding archiving such material, remain on the website for a minimum of twelve months”

At Walsall College the minutes will appear on the website after they have been approved by Corporation and signed, because until that point the Corporation could reject any account contained in the minutes as incomplete, misleading or factually incorrect.

Under Section 8(b) of the Articles there is a requirement to place on the website minutes of committee meetings, if they have been approved by the Chair of the meeting. The position of the Corporation is that the minutes have not been agreed by the Chair of the meeting until they have been signed by him/her or have been approved by a meeting of the Corporation, whichever event occurs earlier. Until that point they could be significantly amended, or even withdrawn for a partial re-write, by vote of members of the Committee or Corporation. There may be case where a Chair is willing to authorize release of minutes to an enquirer before they have been formally approved, but this is a matter for the Chair’s judgement not an entitlement.

Access to confidential minutes and the rules governing the points at which minutes cease to be confidential is dealt with at Section D of Chapter 7 of Governance At Walsall College.