Requiring Written Reports & Order of Business

[A Hunter]

Hi all,

I've been doing some research on how officer and committee reports are actually supposed to be structured and presented, and I have a few questions. 

I am gathering that as Chair I can require the reports to be written, but I'm not sure on the extent of it or if I can require it in advance.  We just recently switched to having all reports written up (which I'm now gathering should have been the case all along), and I'm hitting a lot of resistance to it from some.  For example, I requested well in advance and with a reminder early this morning that all reports be submitted by noon today but only one of the officers or committees have submitted anything.  The goal was to have them in advance so that it could be sent ahead of the meeting with the minutes for people to review and hopefully speed up meetings.

We've previously used agendas (improperly I've learned, but in the format with an Order of Business), but I'm going with a written out Order of Business instead since we've never approved the agendas during the meeting.  I've seen references to the Chair knowing in advance if there is a report and being able to skip over those with none.  If I've called for reports and received none, can I just mark those as no report?  If so and using the situation as above, can I then "skip over" their report slot in the order of business even if they want to report something at that time during the meeting?  Essentially I'm looking for ways of enforcing the rules, and unfortunately it's not happening with constant reminders.  I need some advice on how to handle this without going out of bounds.

Also, if there is no action being recommended and no committee meeting was held what should be permissible in a "committee report"?  I have a Chair who will not call the committee for a meeting and is not a member of our Executive Board (just reports to it), but she likes to use that report slot as a platform to just put forward her own ideas as if it were from the committee.  I've had several issues with this person and is a big reason why I am switching to full enforcement of RONR even though we are below the size threshold for formal rules.  Again, I want to make sure I'm doing as much as I can to reign things in without crossing lines that shouldn't be crossed.

So in short: Can I require reports be submitted in writing prior to the meeting?  If yes, can I prevent people from bypassing that and simply bringing it to the meeting itself?  What exactly should be in a committee or officer report if no action/recommendations are present or needed?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

I see nothing in RONR that gives the chair the authority to require written reports in advance. Nor do I see that you can require written reports at the meeting, because RONR says only that they "should" be in writing. However, your board could adopt a special rule requiring all reports to be in writing. Your reporting non-member would then be confined to reading her report and you need not let her make any other commentary or participate in debate.

Reports don't always contain recommendations. Many times they are merely for information, such as the treasurer's report. In this case, the report is received and that is the end of the story.

[Gary c Tesser]

I don't have time to fuss with cutting-and-pasting, so I'm going to quote, from A Hunter, and respond, as GcT.  Further, my copy of RONR 11th Ed is three miles away, over there in Flatbush (much more than the cubit from my keyboard to my elbow, and still longer than the furlong I can usually canter without breathing hard) (and George, put a sock in it), so I'm going to have to give citations from the 10th (which is warming my knee) -- I presume the estimable A Hunter will be able to suss out the comparable citations in the 11th.  If not, he or she can ask.  And be accommodated, or not.  I'll be over there (in Flatbush) (remember the sock, George) probably Thursday afternoon, so if M. Hunter has not replied by then that he or she has found the citations, and if no one else, drudging underpaid morlocks, has chimed in to provide them, thereby improving there word count, maybe I'll do it.  For $4.50 an hour (but I can deal,) I'm indefatigable (though often tired).

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

I've been doing some research on how officer and committee reports are actually supposed to be structured and presented

[GcT:]

Commendable, and thank you.  Often inquirers don't bother.  I have a cousin who sometimes phones me to ask what a word means (most recently, "recondite," and I'm not going to tell you what it means, because you ought to know by now), because it's easier for him to pick up the phone at his elbow than to walk across the room and open the dictionary, and he's confident that I really didn't need to finish that shower and rinse the soap out of my eyes anyway, and dashing through the place naked and dripping in the 55-degree Fahrenheit to answer the phone is no daunting prospect for an intrepid Hibernian Son of the Hyacinth like me.  Actually he's just fond of me and wants to chat, and he is reminded that we haven't spoken in a while by his coming across some recondite word in his reading.

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

[a] I am gathering that as Chair I can require the reports to be written... if I can require it in advance. 

[GcT:]

[a] No, not you:  RONR (10th Edition) -- p. 493, "General Form ..." -- note that "should in general be submitted in writing" is ambiguous, and not everyone agrees with me, but I hold that "should" here is not just advice, but a prescribed rule. ///  But no, you can't require it in advance:  to do that would mean the organization adopts a rule saying so (ff.).

 

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

The goal was to have them in advance so that it could be sent ahead of the meeting with the minutes for people to review and hopefully speed up meetings.

[GcT:]

In my opinion, this is a good idea -- analogous to having draft minutes distributed in advance -- but just as the secretary doesn't have to distribute draft minutes prior to the meeting on the whim of the president, the committees don't have to submit their reports in advance either (apologies:  I'm repeating myself).

 

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

[a] I've seen references to the Chair knowing in advance if there is a report and being able to skip over those with none. If I've called for reports and received none, can I just mark those as no report?

[GcT:]

[a] Yeah, I think so, but I can't find those references now either. /// Ehh, where do you propose you're  going to mark it? In your memoirs? (If so, I'd like to see them!)  Note that, in the sample minutes (Tenth Edition, Section 48), there's no mention of committee reports that were not given.

 

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

 If so and using the situation as above, can I then "skip over" their report slot in the order of business even if they want to report something at that time during the meeting?  Essentially I'm looking for ways of enforcing the rules, and unfortunately it's not happening with constant reminders. 

[GcT:]

 Um, I think, no, you have to ask. (But see below.)  Again, a kudos to you.  Few would exercise such diligence.  ... and courtesy and punctilious respect for the rights of the members.  You should write here on the World's Premiere INternet Parliamentary Forum regularly, not just this once.

 

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

Also, if there is no action being recommended and no committee meeting was held what should be permissible in a "committee report"?  I have a Chair who will not call the committee for a meeting and is not a member of our Executive Board (just reports to it), but she likes to use that report slot as a platform to just put forward her own ideas as if it were from the committee

 

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

I want to make sure I'm doing as much as I can to reign

[GcT:]

I don't think you're the kind of person who wants to reign, only to rein. :-)

On 5/10/2017 at 5:32 PM, A Hunter said:

[a] So in short: Can I require reports be submitted in writing prior to the meeting?  .. can ... people ...  simply [bring] it to the meeting itself?  [c] What exactly should be in a committee or officer report if no action/recommendations are present or needed?

[GcT:]

[a] No, unless the organization adopts such a rule. (Actually, possibly not that arduous, and in most cases, not contentions)  Yeah; in fact that's the SOP.  The reporting member reads the report, preferably with concrete recommendations, if there are any, gathered together at the end, and then hands the document to the secretary.*  [c] RONR (10th Edition), Section 51, "Types of Reports," (a) (p. 486; nearby in 11th Ed.)  [c] Information, and no report if there is none.

__________

*Or beams it from her smart phone to her smart phone.

Edited May 12, 2017 at 10:28 AM by Gary c Tesser
formatting bollix. Maybe bollocks too. Pfui. // Remove accidental boldface last Paragraph

[A Hunter]

Thank you so very much!  This is exactly what I needed.

[Alexis Hunt]

It's worth also remarking that, in the case of committee reports, the Secretary is required to record the complete report for filing. If a committee insists on giving an long oral report, then that could lead to a very grumpy Secretary!

[Dan Honemann]

Under the rules in RONR (11th ed.), oral reports are at times permissible, but if you look carefully at what is said on pages 525-527, you will see that there are only a very few instances in which this is the case.