The reading of the minutes of the preceeding meeting being called for:—
Coun. enquired whether it was necessary to read the minutes. If it is for no other purpose than to refresh the minds of the brethren it would not be necessary because most of the brethren could recollect all that passed at the last meeting and to read the minutes seems to him to be a waste of time.
Coun. said while he was writing in the church history last evening he noticed an expression of brother Joseph to the High Council where he states to the council that reading the minutes of the preceeding should always be the first item of business. He considers that order as necessary in this council as it is in the High Council. [p. [133]]
This is likely a reference to the 27 June 1840 meeting of the Nauvoo high council. Those minutes read: “Resolved— That the minutes of the Last Council be always read at the begini[n]g of the next, by the Clerk, that the chain of buisness may be more easily come at & error in the records detected.” (Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 27 June 1840; see also JS History, vol. C-1, 1066.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.