Paying Bills

[TrevorSorensen]

Does an organization have to move to pay the bills at their meeting? I cannot find an answer to the question. To me, it seems that the bills will get paid anyway so it would be dilatory.

[Gary c Tesser]

RONR doesn't answer this question: it completely depends on the policies of that organization. It is not automatic. Some organizations authorize, and direct, the treasurer to pay routine bills. (In this century, some organizations have their routine bills paid automatically by the Internet.) Other organizations go through the bills one-by-one, handling them like the donation example on p. 115 (of RONR, 10th Edition, with the falling-apart-by-now bilious gold cover, and in three pieces, at least mine is, thank G-d for Baggies). Why do they do that? Because they like it that way. Or don't get around to joining the 20th Century, as we can assume RONR- 11th Edition will do, with its built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk and fully-typed-out instructions for connecting to the Commodore network.

[Gary c Tesser]

(In this century, some organizations have their routine bills paid automatically by the Internet.)

(Actually, I extrapolate this from lots of people doing it in their private capacity. I would be incredulous if no organizations, or even just very few, do it also; but I do not know this for a fact. Nobody ever lets me go out.)

[George Mervosh]

The society needs to adopt a standing rule (RONR, p. 18) regarding the matter and be done with it.

[TrevorSorensen]

The argument I have heard in the past was that it prevents the board members from being sued if an error in payment occurs. Could a standing rule prevent litigation?

[Chris Harrison]

Could a standing rule prevent litigation?

You would need to ask a lawyer about any legal questions. But I seriously doubt that an organization adopting a standing rule is going to bind any outside body from doing what they want to do.

[Shmuel Gerber]

Does an organization have to move to pay the bills at their meeting? I cannot find an answer to the question. To me, it seems that the bills will get paid anyway so it would be dilatory.

It might depend on whether the organization's debt ceiling has been reached.

[Gary Novosielski]

Some organizations approve bill lists at each regular meeting. Others approve a budget once a year and authorize the treasurer to pay bills not to exceed the budget line for that expense. Some use a combination of methods, one for routine expenses and one for extraordinary ones.