Board members meeting outside official Board meeting

[Guest gardengirl]

Is there a rule or a protocol about having Board members gather and meet privately...away from the open and announced Board meetings that all members can attend?  Done- perhaps - to do things in secret, away from the association members who are -per the Bylaws- allowed to observe regular Board meetings.

 

Is there a maximum number of Board members that cannot congregate and act as the Board away from official Board meetings?  If our quorum is 6 (out of 9 Board members) for official Board meetings, would it be prohibited for, say 3 Board members, to meet/congregate and discuss business without other Board members present?

 

 

[Richard Brown]

Is there a rule or a protocol about having Board members gather and meet privately...away from the open and announced Board meetings that all members can attend? 

 

There is no such rule in RONR.

 

 

 

Is there a maximum number of Board members that cannot congregate and act as the Board away from official Board meetings?  If our quorum is 6 (out of 9 Board members) for official Board meetings, would it be prohibited for, say 3 Board members, to meet/congregate and discuss business without other Board members present?

 

No, there is no such rule in RONR.  You may be thinking of state Open  Meetings laws which prohibit public bodies (city councils, etc) from meeting in secret or in small groups to evade the open meetings laws.  There is no such rule in RONR.

 

Edited to add:  They can discuss club business privately, but they cannot take any official action outside of official meetings even if they all agree to it.

[Richard Brown]

To elaborate, RONR says on page 4 beginning on line 3:  The basic principle of decision in a deliberative assembly is that, to become the act or choice of the body, a proposition must be adopted by a majority vote. . . in a regular or properly called meeting of the body." (Emphasis added).

[Rev Ed]

Sure they can meet up outside of meetings - people do that all time when they meet up to go out for a meal, to see a movie, to have friends over for a meal, etc.  And sure they can talk about the organization.  But this not mean that they had a meeting per RONR, as Richard Brown has discussed above.

[Gary Novosielski]

Is there a rule or a protocol about having Board members gather and meet privately...away from the open and announced Board meetings that all members can attend?  Done- perhaps - to do things in secret, away from the association members who are -per the Bylaws- allowed to observe regular Board meetings.

 

Is there a maximum number of Board members that cannot congregate and act as the Board away from official Board meetings?  If our quorum is 6 (out of 9 Board members) for official Board meetings, would it be prohibited for, say 3 Board members, to meet/congregate and discuss business without other Board members present?

 

Well, they can't "do"  anything in secret because if it's not a properly called meeting it can't effectively vote on anything.

 

But if it's a public body subect to your state's Sunshine Laws, there could be additional restrictions not covered in RONR.