Conflict in a committee

[Guest DonS]

Can someone help.

Situation:  A standing committee.  One member is at odds with the chairman.  While the chairman was out of town, that person got the rest of the committee together (spur of the moment) and led them to vote to go the parent body and ask for the chairman to resign from the committee?   Is this legal??  I can't find a clear answer.  I find a reference that says two people can assembly the committee without the chair and I find a reference that any report from a committee must be from a majority of the committee when ALL members of the committee were notified of the committee meeting . . . I take this to mean the committee could meet on the spur of the moment without the chair but they cannot bring a report/recommendation to the parent body since all members of the committee were not notified.  IS THIS A CORRECT INTERPRETATION?

[Josh Martin]

Can someone help.

Situation:  A standing committee.  One member is at odds with the chairman.  While the chairman was out of town, that person got the rest of the committee together (spur of the moment) and led them to vote to go the parent body and ask for the chairman to resign from the committee?   Is this legal??  I can't find a clear answer.  I find a reference that says two people can assembly the committee without the chair and I find a reference that any report from a committee must be from a majority of the committee when ALL members of the committee were notified of the committee meeting . . . I take this to mean the committee could meet on the spur of the moment without the chair but they cannot bring a report/recommendation to the parent body since all members of the committee were not notified.  IS THIS A CORRECT INTERPRETATION?

 

If the chair was not notified, neither the meeting nor the report are valid. All committee members must be informed of committee meetings.

[Gary Novosielski]

Whether two people, or one, or ten, can call a meeting has no bearing on the fact that, whoever calls it, all members must be notified of it.  Sounds like this meeting wasn't properly called, and so wasn't a meeting at all.

[Rev Ed]

Do the rules for the Committee allow for the Committee to hold a special meeting?  If so, who can call a meeting (i.e. The Chairman, two members, one member, a majority of membets)? 

 

However, as others have stated, notice must be sent to all members.  So this meeting is likely null and void.  Mind you, if they sent notification to the Chairman's 'address of record', it might be argued that notice was provided, although I would frown on that type of behaviour, and is not what RONR really meant in my opinion.  By "address of record", I mean what address the Chairman has provided for contact - likely his home mailing address.  So, if they placed a letter in the mail to his address while he was away, notice was ''technically" provided (they sent the notice to the address they had for him), but because they knew he was not going to be home during the notice period (the number of days between when the notice is sent out and when the meeting is held) then it is impossible for the Chairman to attend.

 

So, if a special meeting is allowed, and if notice was sent out, then the meeting is legitimate.  Otherwise, the meeting and any decisons are null and void.

[DrEntropy]

Do the rules for the Committee allow for the Committee to hold a special meeting?  If so, who can call a meeting (i.e. The Chairman, two members, one member, a majority of membets)? 

 

I don't believe committees ordinarily have any power to call special meetings as such.  I suppose a special rule of order could be adopted to allow it. Normally meetings of the committee are set when the previous meeting adjourns, or if it simply adjourns without setting a new meeting, it is assumed to meet "at the call of the chairman".   (RONR11th, page 501, l.28ff).  

   As far as RONR11, page 499 l. 21-25, I had always assumed that only applied to the first meeting of a committee, but I could be convinced that it applies to any case where a committee adjourns without explicitly setting a follow on meeting. In any event, as others have so eloquently said, all members must be provided reasonable notice of the time and place of the meeting.

[sMargaret]

Hmm. As a hypothetical, let's say that notice is traditionally supplied by email, and that there was a notice that went out to all committee members with, say, a few days notice of this committee meeting, by someone(s) authorized to call a meeting - although with the knowledge that one member was out of town. 

 

Would that invalidate the meeting? 

[Josh Martin]

Do the rules for the Committee allow for the Committee to hold a special meeting?  If so, who can call a meeting (i.e. The Chairman, two members, one member, a majority of membets)? 

 

Speical meetings are unnecessary for committees. RONR authorizes the chair or any two members to call a regular meeting of the committee.

 

Hmm. As a hypothetical, let's say that notice is traditionally supplied by email, and that there was a notice that went out to all committee members with, say, a few days notice of this committee meeting, by someone(s) authorized to call a meeting - although with the knowledge that one member was out of town. 

 

Would that invalidate the meeting? 

 

So long as proper notice has been given to all members, the fact that one member is out of town would not invalidate the meeting.

[Rev Ed]

Speical meetings are unnecessary for committees. RONR authorizes the chair or any two members to call a regular meeting of the committee.

 

Well, as long as two members call the meeting, and notice is sent to every member, then the meeting is legit.