How to correct signed meeting minutes or rescind and expunge signed ones?? Page number /combine? etc

[Mark-in-Va]

If an organization decided to use Adobe Acrobat tools (e.g., Acrobat Pro DC or Reader) to manage its meeting minutes, to sign meeting minutes, like sign each approved meeting minutes and "Save as a read only copy," and then keep the saved files, can Adobe do the following, and if not, can we ask for it to have this capability:

1.  Correct signed minutes with a marginal notation. (Robert's Rules of Order (12th edition) 48:15 states that approved minutes can be corrected, even many years later, and it says "In such a case the content of the original minutes must not be altered, although it may be advisable for the secretary to make a marginal notation indicating the corrected text or referring to the minutes of the meeting at which the correction was adopted.")

2.  Rescind and expunge from the minutes by drawing a line through the offending words and signing. (Robert's Rules 35:13 if a motion to rescind and expunge is approved, the method is for "the secretary [...] draws a single line through the offending words in the minutes, and writes across them "Rescinded and Ordered Expunged," with the date and his signature.")

3.  Numbering pages, such as 2022-1, 2022-2, etc, and doing so at the end of the year. Clearly one can generate page numbers in the word processing documents used to generate the PDFs before signatute, and then keep track of the page numbers to use for the next word processing document or edit each PDF file before signing (using a footer to consistently place on pages).

4. Combine a year's worth or even several years worth of signed PDF files into a single file. Robert's Rules 48:1 state "The minutes should be kept in a substantial book or binder." This would also imply the ability to add files to the single master file.

5. Have two people sign a set of electronic minutes. For example, Robert's Rules 48:7 says some assemblys have minutes also signed by the president.

Smaller organizations often don't have the funds for some of the digital document tools and signing certificates available, so it will be good to know Acrobat's options and capabilities.

[try67]

You can add comments to a signed document, but then a warning will appear that the file was changed after it was signed. This (and filling in form fields, which includes adding additional signatures, unless the signature field is set to stop it when signed) are the only types of changes you can perform on a digitally signed file.