Correcting typographical errors

[Pastor Tim]

At our Annual church meeting, the full text of business items are printed in the conference booklet and distributed to delegates several weeks in advance of the meeting.  Once the item of business has been presented to a delegate body and is open for debate, what is the correct procedure for correcting obvious typographical errors?  

 

1.  If the persons presenting the item of business have identified them between the printing of the book and the debate of the issue, can these simply be pointed out?

2.  If a delegate finds one and calls it to the attention of the delegate body, can the typo be changed without treating the item like an "amendment"?

[Chris Harrison]

If the language in the book is merely informative I don't see any reason why a member couldn't point out there was a typo and move on without any further action being necessary.  On the other hand, if the assembly is constrained in what they can consider by the language in the book I would suggest any corrections be treated as an amendment.  After all what you consider a "typographical error" could vastly change the meaning by fixing those "errors".  For example there is a vast difference between "The Panda Bear eats shoots and leaves" (the panda's dietary habits) and "The Panda Bear eats, shoots, and leaves" (the panda has a meal, shoots up the place, and then walks out) all by adding two little commas.

[Transpower]

I cannot find anything in RONR dealing specifically with this.  If I were the chair, I would handle it by saying "Without objection...the typographical errors are corrected as follows" and then list the changes.

[Timothy]

On one hand, just because an item is in the book doesn't mean that the motion has been made. The person who makes the motion could make the motion with the correct wording and note the typo in the book.

 

However, if the book is serving as notice of something that requires notice or of something that would amend something previously adopted, changing the wording may trigger a need for the item to be handled at a later meeting or for a 2/3 vote to be required where a majority would have otherwise be sufficient. For example, if the book includes a recommendation "to increase the pastor's salary by $100" and what was intended was $10,000, it is quite possible that some of the people who would have voted against it decided not to show up, so pointing out the typo is not sufficient. But if the book says $10,000 and what was intended was $1,000, then pointing out the typo is not a problem.