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I belong to an AOAO (Condominium Association) small Board of five people. We have 86 owners and our regular Board meetings are open to all the owners. The only reference in our Bylaws to committees is in the description of the duties of the President who "has the power to appoint committees from among the Apartment Owners from time to time as he may in his discretion decide to be appropriate to assist in the conduct of the affairs of the Association.". We have a LOT of work that needs to be done here (due to CoVid and poor Property Management) and I've been told that committees are a good way to do that. But everything I can gather from Robert's Rules makes it sound like committees are appointed by the President and are made up of Board members. We need to offload some of our work and we have owners who are willing to participate. The President wouldn't know who is interested in being on what committee. We have several committees that have just been "created" without anyone being involved much at all. I was led to believe that is the way they happened within our organization. Now that I am trying to create a Mission Statement for one of our committees - I wasn't told to do this, I found out that it was done in the past by going through old records and it sounded like a good idea so I put one together, it has been denied because it doesn't contain the required criteria. My questions are: Is the creating of committees only done in a Board meeting or can they be created outside of the meeting? Can committees that are made up of owners choose who they want their members to be? Does the President have to choose the Chair of the Committee even if it is made up of owners? Can a group of individuals approach the President and express that they want to create a committee? Can a meeting made up of owners be empowered to do the work that needs to be done? i.e. talking to vendors or calling to get quotes. How is the criteria for a Mission Statement of a Committee determined? Can different members of the Board just say "oh, I'll be on the committee without any kind of a vote?" BTW, we're talking about Committees for recycling, landscaping, security, etc. Not earth shattering stuff but much needed. And a couple more questions: How do Board members get work done IN BETWEEN the Board meetings? Can you have informational "work" meetings where everyone shares their "to do" lists so it can all be put on a white board and prioritized and then decide who will be doing what and on what kind of timeline and then get back together to discuss progress? Our President says no, you can't have that kind of a meeting. Then how does the work get done? How can you put something on the agenda if you have no idea what any of the factors of the item are? I think I get how the work gets done IN the meetings using RR and I think it's a great system. I will be strongly encouraging our Board to use Robert's Rules as it states in our Bylaws that we will (they don't do anything even remotely close to it right now). But how do you do all the the work that LEADS UP TO the meetings? This is the first time I've ever been on a Board and I'm trying to get our Board to move more quickly and actually accomplish some things but I'm getting my hands slapped all over the place because I'm not following some set of rules that I can't find. I'm in compliance with our Declaration, our Bylaws and our House Rules. Where are all these rules that I am supposedly breaking? Are they actually in the Book Robert's Rules of Order? I'm having a hard time reading that thing from cover to cover or jumping around trying to find the answers to my questions. I even bough Robert's Rules for Dummies. All of it refers to what happens IN the meetings, not outside of them which is where I keep getting in trouble. Can someone please help? The owners want me to stay on the Board because they feel I'm the one who will finally bring about change within our community. How can I bring about change if the rest of the Board won't let me? They just say "no" and site some rule I've never seen. There must be a way to get things done on a Board, don't ANY regular business practices apply? Sorry for the rant.

Hi there--just double checking that Board committees can make and vote on motions--for example, a motion to recommend a policy change or a set of performance targets? Our non-profit Board has three committees: Audit and Risk, People, and Governance. The folklore is that a consultant once told them committees don't have motions. So when I introduced a motion to recommend something to the Board, people reacted. Have I totally misunderstood a fundamental of committee work?

If the bylaws are silent on the matter, must a Committee Chair notify the President of meeting dates and times. The President does not plan to attend the meetings but wants to be notified as a courtesy, and to know that their work is progressing?

Does RONR 12th Ed indicate how a standing committee can be dissolved? Background: the standing committee I'm referring to is not specifically stated in our bylaws (only the EC and Audit committee); there is no real use of the committee any longer, so our ED & board president are wanting to dissolve it. Thanks in advance for your help! Koleen

Do the minutes of Board Committee meetings (Finance, Governance, Advancement, etc) need to be approved by the Committee or just attested to or signed by the Chair of the committee?

In our organization, the bylaws don't mention committees at all. We simply meet yearly to elect the Executive Board. Can the Executive Board establish standing committees and boards—with standing authority to act on certain matters without specific instructions—that report to it? It is my understanding that such standing committees and boards would need to be in the Executive Board's special rules of order, per page 578.

I'm back. I am chairing a platform committee for a convention. The committee is mandated by the Bylaws and its role is to propose amendments to a platform but that is inferred by the instructions in the Bylaws for what is required to pass proposals. So a member asked if the committee could pass a resolution asking one of its members to do resign one of two seats held. My initial thought was no - that internal committee resolutions wasn't part of its scope and requesting a resignation bordered on a form of discipline... And after going through the appropriate RONR sections, I am still not certain. My instinct feels right but I would like some input.

Hello looking for guidance here. There is a convention committee (created by the Bylaws) that allows for members and alternates to be designated by different bodies. Can one be both an appointee of one body and an alternate for another? Example: Organization A appoints Ms. Smith as its alternate and appoints 5 primary appointees. Organization B appoints Ms. Smith as its primary appointee and Ms. Jones as its alternate. If any one of Organization A's primary appointees do not attend a meeting, may Ms. Smith substitute in as an alternate and then Ms. Jones is the primary for Organization B. Or does Ms. Smith have to decide which she is for the whole existence of the committee? The rules and bylaws for both Organizations are silent on this situation (well on this precise one - it does mention alternates).

I am part of an organization where the chair of standing committee "A" (as part of his official report to the body) announced unexpectedly that a contentious question would be coming before standing committee "B". This is, of course, inappropriate because that announcement had not gone through committee "A" and, therefore, should not have been part of their official report. In addition, the issue is outside the charge committee "A". Although this action cannot be undone, it has some difficult consequences. Members of committee "B" are concerned that they will not be able to vote freely during their meeting (which is open) unless they are able to vote anonymously. RONR (11th ed.) clearly states that voting by ballot may be used "when expressly ordered by the assembly or prescribed by its rules" p. 412. It seems pretty clear that RONR is talking primarily about ballot votes for the entire body. I can't seem to find anything about using ballots in committee. Authorization to use ballots is not written in the bylaws, the committee charge, or any other rules. If committee members want to use a ballot vote, Do they need to have authorization from the entire body, or Can they, as a committee, authorize their own ballot vote? Personally, I think the easiest option is to just go into executive session, which is what I have advised, but the committee members specifically asked about ballots and I'd like some additional opinions on that.

There won't be a committee report from the Annual Race chairman but there will be a motion from the Board to increase entry fees. Where does this agenda item go - under the Annual Race Committee or under New Business (because there is no report)?

This is my first posting, thanks in advance. Our organization has a constitution and by-laws committee and they are in charge of suggesting changes to the by-laws. However, during a board meeting of the the entire board, the board voted unanimously to make a specific change to the bylaws. The committee chair states that this was improper because it did not go through the committee. However, the president, vice president and executive director believe that the board can discuss and vote on any issue of import to the organization and the entire board's decision supersedes any committee (composed of non-board members) and that the board is the only legally statutory body of the organization and that once the board votes, the decision is final (assuming that the vote was legally carried out). Can someone help and clarify this? A reference to rules of order would be most helpful. Thanks in advance, Tom