It is typically accepted that some things in a Church need to be discussed confidentially, or that people may need to recuse themselves from a meeting -- for instance, in matters of Church discipline or staff salaries. The question then is, shall we minute this? In such cases, I have encouraged the Church to keep minutes, even if these are reduced (attendance, correspondence, basic things). OBSERVATION: There are two reasons. 1. If there is no record of such meetings, then anything that happens afterwards could be questioned or invalidated. Under my one ministry, the Honorary Secretary wrote a vital letter. It was not backed up by minutes, and nobody could remember what had transpired. The problem is not so much that someone might become difficult about what a meeting decided, but members of a meeting change, and they forget -- and sometimes, indeed, office-bearers act autonomously when they shouldn't. And 2. Minutes of confidential meetings protect the Church from allegations of secret meetings, which are generally viewed in a dim light.
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