I take minutes for a state finance board chaired by our Governor, who is also the board’s president. Other elected officials on the board are the Lieutenant Governor and state’s Treasurer. I’ve been instructed to henceforth identify each as “The Honorable” when referring to them on the roster.
Do I list the governor as the board president AND the governor? Do I say, “The Honorable Susana Martinez, Governor and President?
— Judith in New Mexico
Dear Judith:
I suggest that in the minutes of your board’s meetings the participants be listed only by their function on that board.
If they are appointed to the board due to another position they hold, that’s defined in your charter … or was perhaps included in previous minutes which welcomed them as a new member.
For example, the previous minutes would reflect:
the new member
and their qualifications / other positions / who appointed them / or whatever.
But during a board meetings they are a acting as a member of that board … not as the holder of another position that qualified them to be on the board.
So:
*** If the state treasurer is on the board as a member, in the board’s minutes he’d be listed as a member.
*** Whereas …. If the state attorney general is not on the board, but participates in the meeting for some reason, he is a guest and is participating in the meeting as the State Attorney General … so I would list him as the State Attorney general … thus not a member of the board.
But all this is more a matter of style than substance.
I just submit that the minutes of a particular meeting are not the record of how and why the appointed members got to be on the board.
– Robert Hickey www.formsofaddress.info
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