Receiving Reports

[tctheatc]

RONR pp 490-491 speaks to common misconceptions about motions to receive or adopt committee reports. It is said that adopting such a report is unwise except in instances where the group is issuing or publishing it in its name. What would be examples of such cases?

If our church is preparing its annual meeting, and at such meeting a document is prepared containing all the yearly reports of the committee, does issuing that document fall under the examples RONR suggests? Or is RONR speaking to something much more official?

Not surprisingly, we don't issue the report for anyone but ourselves (all the members) but it is done in the name of the association.

I have had some success in ridding ourselves of the common practice of voting to accept reports at monthly meetings. I'm wondering if this yearly scenario is any different.

[Gary Novosielski]

RONR pp 490-491 speaks to common misconceptions about motions to receive or adopt committee reports. It is said that adopting such a report is unwise except in instances where the group is issuing or publishing it in its name. What would be examples of such cases?

If our church is preparing its annual meeting, and at such meeting a document is prepared containing all the yearly reports of the committee, does issuing that document fall under the examples RONR suggests? Or is RONR speaking to something much more official?

Not surprisingly, we don't issue the report for anyone but ourselves (all the members) but it is done in the name of the association.

I have had some success in ridding ourselves of the common practice of voting to accept reports at monthly meetings. I'm wondering if this yearly scenario is any different.

No, when RONR says publishing it means PUBLISHING. As in, to the public. Usually with titles beginning "The Proceedings of the...".

Although these appear to be bound into one document, reports come from individual committees. You don't want to get yourself into a situation that someone wants to approve or adopt only half of this book. If these are just reports from a number of committees to the geneal membership, there's nothing to adopt anyway, unless the committee reports contains proposed actions, recommendations, or something that could actually be acted upon.

And even in that case it's best to handle them as main motions in their own right, not adopt an entire epic report and then try to figure out later what the heck you actually agreed to.

[tctheatc]

Thanks. I guess it was more the word ISSUING that had me scratching my head. same thing, I take it?

[Josh Martin]

What would be examples of such cases?

The most common examples are the annual report of the Board of Directors (in some societies) or the historian's report.

If our church is preparing its annual meeting, and at such meeting a document is prepared containing all the yearly reports of the committee, does issuing that document fall under the examples RONR suggests?

Probably not.

Or is RONR speaking to something much more official?

The primary effect of adopting a report is to endorse every word of the report as the official record of the society. As noted, this is usually done if the report is to be published outside of the society, as most societies understandably wish to control what is reported in its name. Most reports are simply intended to be a record for the society and should not be adopted in this manner.

I guess it was more the word ISSUING that had me scratching my head. same thing, I take it?

In this context, the words mean more or less the same thing, yes.