COMMITTEES

[Arthur541]

Is there such a thing as a pool of members for a committee in RONR?  I do not think so.  I am asking because my HOA has gotten into the habit of making up "pools" of members for committees, from which the chair calls a few and sets up a meeting.   Comments?  

[jstackpo]

The usual "pool" is ALL the members. 

But more to the point, do your HOA Bylaws authorize the president, on his own, to establish committees (to do something, decide or recommend something, &c.) , and then appoint members (or anybody, actually) to those committees (to actually do the work, whatever it may be)?

[Arthur541]

Thank you for replying.   A very good point about the "pool"    No, the bylaws do not authorize the president on his own to establish committees and then appoint members to those committees.  What the bylaws state is    "The Board may, by resolution duly adopted, appoint committees.  Any committee shall have and exercise such powers, duties, and functions as may be determined by the Board from time to time, which may include any power which may be be exercise by a committee."   

Comments?  

[jstackpo]

Clearly then the president can NOT do what you described in your initial post.

However, I'll leave to your HoA the bylaws interpretation question of whether "appoint" takes on the portmanteau (double) meaning of BOTH "establish" and "name people to" a committee.    The word does get used that way (unfortunately, in my view) in "common usage" but a strict definition limits "appoint" to "name people to".  RONR makes that distinction in some places, but not so much in others.

[Arthur541]

Thank you for your reply.   Along those lines, when the board does appoint someone, they must appoint members, by name, to the committee, as members. Yes?  Then that determines a quorum and they have regular meetings.   A board cannot just have a pool of committee members, or appoint "liaison" board members.  I am asking because attorneys tell me they are condoning this with their boards and actually telling their  boards to just throw Robert's Rules out the window for some  Florida Administrative Codes.  Are you seeing this anywhere.  It seems pretty sloppy way of setting up committees.  I am told by attorneys judges have penalized associations for this kind of sloppiness.  Know anything about this?  Arthur

[Joshua Katz]

This forum only handles parliamentary matters, not legal matters.  If there are relevant procedural statutes (or regulations with the force of law, I suppose) they will take precedence, but I doubt there are any statutes requiring the throwing of RONR out the window.  As a parliamentary matter - the power to appoint committees means just that, not the power to choose 10 people and ask someone else to somehow choose 3 of them, or whatever.  If the board has the power to delegate, it may be able to achieve something along these lines.  There is no rule in RONR requiring that committee members be members of the board or assembly, although, unless your rules say otherwise, the appointment of non-members to a committee requires a vote of the assembly.  I'm not sure what liason board members would mean in this context, but if the board wants to decide "Jim will talk to the chair of that committee," it can assign that task to Jim (presumably by forming a one-person "liason to the committee" committee).  

[Guest Arthur541]

I did not think I was introducing legal matters.   You agree that RONR does not condone a "pool" of people.   Good.   Thank you.