Manage Your Chapter

Local chapters are an extremely valuable asset to AORN. We want to help you strengthen your chapter, the Association, and the perioperative profession by giving you tools to make your job as Chapter President as easy as possible. We hope these resources are helpful as you plan your chapter year.

Online Tools
Use the following online tools to access useful reports and other resources and information to assist with managing your chapter and chapter meetings.

Record Retention
Documentation is an important chapter function that provides a historical perspective on the chapter and provides a communication tool that can be transmitted from one year to the next. This section should be distributed to the Secretary to enhance his or her orientation to the role. Although other committee chairs and officers are responsible for specific components of chapter documentation, the Secretary should have a good understanding of what needs to be retained for the permanent files. Before reporting off, the outgoing Secretary should review the files for completeness and discard appropriately. If pages are removed from the minutes book on a yearly basis, the outgoing Secretary should archive or file them according to chapter policy.

Membership Records
The chapter should keep a record for each member. Each member record should include the member's name, address, telephone number (home/work), email, place of employment, membership number with renewal date, CNOR status, and committee or officer/board positions held either at the local or National level. Chapter officers can obtain an updated list of current chapter members and their renewal dates online, at any time under Chapter Reports and Rosters.

Financial Records
Each chapter must maintain certain financial records on file to meet tax requirements. Forms that should be kept include bank statements, cash receipt and disbursement records, budget reports, auditor reports, tax reports (Form 990), and tax exemption letters from IRS or group exemption agreements from AORN. Financial records should be kept indefinitely.

Educational Records
These records reflect the educational activities in the chapter. Applications for approval of contact hours, copies of certificates used for attendance, records of attendance, educational activity budgets, activity evaluations, copies of activity brochures, and number of contact hours awarded should be kept according to guidelines required by AORN's accrediting agency (ANCC). The online contact hour approval proceess is very user friendly. If you have any questions, contact Ellen Reeder at Ext 254. All contact hour Chapter education records are necessary for chapter members who need contact-hour verification for CNOR or state licensure renewal.

Minutes
Minutes of all committee and board/officer meetings should be kept. Minutes should reflect all chapter activities, such as nomination and election of officers, fundraising efforts, approval of expenditures, awards, and member recognition's. Any deviation from regular procedure (eg, a change in meeting place, substitution for the presiding officer or committee chair) should be noted. Minutes are a factual record and should be complete.

* National Bylaws require that Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised serve as the primary resource for parliamentary procedure.

Recording Reports in the Minutes
Only the briefest summary of reports by officers and chairs are included in the minutes. Many chapters choose to note that the reports were read and filed. If the committee report includes resolutions for action, the resolution and action taken should be recorded in the minutes.

Recording Motions in the Minutes
All main motions and whether they were adopted or defeated are entered in the minutes. The name of the maker may be entered, but it is not necessary. The name of the person seconding the motion is never entered. If desired, it can be noted that the motion was discussed and amended. An amended motion may be entered in the minutes in the form in which it was adopted, without giving its original form and the amendment.

It is not necessary to record all subsidiary motions. Do not record motions that were withdrawn. Previous notice, such as a notice to rescind or amendments to the bylaws, minutes, or standing rules, must be included in the minutes.

Sample motion: "Madam President, I move that meeting night be changed to Wednesday." This also can be presented as a resolution. This would be entered in the minutes as: A resolution offered by Sally Wright was adopted as follows: "Resolved, that the meeting night be changed to Wednesday."

If the above motion or resolution is amended (eg, to state the second Wednesday of every month) it can be noted in the minutes that the motion as amended was approved.

Reading and Approval of Minutes
The minutes should be stamped "draft" until they have been approved. If possible, the "draft" of the minutes should be attached to the next meeting agenda for review. Because the purpose of reading (reviewing) the minutes is to ensure that they are correct, the chair must allow time for members to correct them. Approved corrections should be made within the original document. "Approved" and the date should be put at the bottom of the approved minutes (with any changes made). Changes should be initialed by the Secretary and the President.

If two or more sets of minutes remain unread from previous meetings, the minutes of the meeting farthest away are read first and approved. An error noticed days, weeks, or months after they are approved may be corrected by a motion to amend. The Incidental Main Motion requires a two-thirds vote. Correction before adoption (approval) only requires a majority vote.

If there is a disagreement as to the proposed correction, the chair, without waiting for a motion, may put the disputed question to a vote by saying: "Those in favor of making the correction as proposed say 'aye,' those opposed say 'no.'

For more information, please contact the AORN Chapter Relations Coordinator at 800-755-2676, Ext. 222.