Adopted Committee Reports in Approved Minutes

[Guest Robert James]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that committee reports submitted to a board do not need to be voted on under RONR. Even though the chair has been advised of this, she continues to "…take a motion to accept the XYZ Committee report."

 

I would appreciate receiving the correct interpretation and advice regarding this procedure on several points. 

1. Am I correct that the chair should just thank the committee for the report and move on to the next order of business?
    
2. As I understand RONR, voting on committee reports in this manner inadvertently (though directly since it is a vote) makes whatever is contained in a committee's report standing policy rather than simple "advice" or "suggestions" to the board.
    
3. Since the board has taken a vote on these committee reports, each committee report should be contained in full in the draft and approved minutes (not simply referenced as "XYZ Committee submitted their report.").

Aside from the potential mess that this practice could create (inadvertently making policy that is not intended, contradictory to other policies or bylaws, or intended to bypass proper RONR), issues have arisen regarding the proper keeping and sharing of minutes. Without the full report included in the minutes, the reader has no idea what "the motion" was.

 

Thank you for your assistance,

Robert

 

p.s. If at all possible, I would really appreciate it if you could include the RONR section/page reference.

[Josh Martin]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that committee reports submitted to a board do not need to be voted on under RONR.

 

Yes, this is correct. When a report is for information only, the Secretary simply places the report on file. If the report contains recommendations, the reporting member makes appropriate motions to adopt the recommendations - and those are what the assembly votes on, not the report itself. The assembly would only adopt the report itself if the society wishes to adopt every word of the report as an official document of the society. This is usually done when the report will be published in the society's name (as some societies do with the annual report of the board) or when the report is to be an official record of the society (such as the report of the historian).

 

I would appreciate receiving the correct interpretation and advice regarding this procedure on several points. 

 

The reports in question are for information only, correct?

 

1. Am I correct that the chair should just thank the committee for the report and move on to the next order of business?

    

2. As I understand RONR, voting on committee reports in this manner inadvertently (though directly since it is a vote) makes whatever is contained in a committee's report standing policy rather than simple "advice" or "suggestions" to the board.

    

3. Since the board has taken a vote on these committee reports, each committee report should be contained in full in the draft and approved minutes (not simply referenced as "XYZ Committee submitted their report.").

 

1. Yes.

 

2. It would make what is in the report an official document of the society. Depending on the contents of the report, this may mean adopting policies, or position statements, or potentially inaccurate figures (think of Treasurer's reports), but whatever the case, adopting a report when this is not intended will certainly lead to problems.

 

3. Yes, in the rare cases when a report is adopted in full, the report is included in full in the minutes.

 

Aside from the potential mess that this practice could create (inadvertently making policy that is not intended, contradictory to other policies or bylaws, or intended to bypass proper RONR), issues have arisen regarding the proper keeping and sharing of minutes. Without the full report included in the minutes, the reader has no idea what "the motion" was.

 

Committee reports are filed along with the minutes anyway (or at least they're supposed to be), so I'm not quite as concerned about this as the other problems.

 

p.s. If at all possible, I would really appreciate it if you could include the RONR section/page reference.

 

Section 51: Reports of Boards and Committees is on pgs. 503-529 of RONR, 11th ed. In particular, I'd look at pgs. 506-508.

[Guest Guest]

Josh,

 

Thank you for quick and thorough reply.

 

 

The reports in question are for information only, correct?

 

Unfortunately, the chair made it a habit to vote to accept every committee report regardless of the content. In some cases if a clear recommendation was made, either the report itself contained a recommended motion and a board member would then make that motion, or a board member would summarize the intent and make their own. In many other cases, while a policy recommendation was suggested (e.g. "The board should blah, blah, blah…") there was no formal motion, only a vote to accept the report.

 

 

Committee reports are filed along with the minutes anyway (or at least they're supposed to be), so I'm not quite as concerned about this as the other problems.

 

My understanding is that committee reports are being filed along with the minutes. One point I failed to mention was that the chair only wants the secretary to share "the minutes" (which make reference to the committee reports but do not include the text of those reports) and not the committee reports themselves. More to the point, "the minutes" are distributed at no cost to the public (.pdf format via email). She is requiring that the committee reports only be distributed via FOIA request and carry a distribution charge. This is a concern because these committee reports should be part of "the minutes" — especially because they received a formal vote to be accepted. Since the committee reports are submitted as .pdf files, there is also no apparent reason why these files could not easily be included in "the minutes."

 

The argument being put forward to the board is that "the minutes" should include not only the secretary's written minutes but the entirety of the approved committee reports — at no cost. While much of this argument is an internal political squabble (charges of suppression of information, behind the scenes dealings, harsh feelings, and so forth), I want to make sure I'm on solid grounds with RONR in my contention that "the minutes" should contain the full text of all committee reports which received an "acceptance vote" by the board.

 

Robert

[Josh Martin]

In some cases if a clear recommendation was made, either the report itself contained a recommended motion and a board member would then make that motion, or a board member would summarize the intent and make their own. In many other cases, while a policy recommendation was suggested (e.g. "The board should blah, blah, blah…") there was no formal motion, only a vote to accept the report.

 

The former is the correct approach when a report contains reccomendations.

 

The argument being put forward to the board is that "the minutes" should include not only the secretary's written minutes but the entirety of the approved committee reports — at no cost. While much of this argument is an internal political squabble (charges of suppression of information, behind the scenes dealings, harsh feelings, and so forth), I want to make sure I'm on solid grounds with RONR in my contention that "the minutes" should contain the full text of all committee reports which received an "acceptance vote" by the board.

 

Well, you're right, but the vast majority of reports shouldn't be accepted.