Board Meetings

[Guest Clerk]

Can individuals who hold membership in an organization, but are not Executive Board Members, attend Executive Board Meeting? The association's by laws are silent on the subject  Please cite the section of Roberts Rules on which you base our response.  Thank you.

[Gary Novosielski]

In §1, The Deliberative Assembly, RONR says:

A member of an assembly, in the parliamentary sense, as mentioned above, is a person entitled to full participation in its proceedings, that is, as explained in [§]3 and [§]4, the right to attend meetings, to make motions, to speak in debate, and to vote.

So if the assembly that is meeting is the board, only board members have the right to attend, unless some rule provides otherwise.  But the board controls its own meetings, and anyone may be permitted or invited to attend with the permission of (a majority of) the board.

[Richard Brown]

I agree with Mr. Novosielski but would add that the membership itself can also adopt a rule permitting general  members to attend board meetings. Such a rule should probably provide an exception for meetings held in executive session.