Misuse of "Agenda" or Error in Inclusion of "call to order"?

[jstackpo]

In the text found on page 371, lines 25-27  (text that is new to the 11th edition, by the way) we read: 

"In an agenda, often an hour is assigned only to such subjects as the calls to order, recesses, adjournments..."

The difficulty is that a "call to order" isn't an "item of business" (i.e., something the assembly can act on in a meeting) and shouldn't be included in an agenda at all.  See the footnote on page 26. A "call to order" takes place before the meeting begins.

I suppose this could be remedied by dropping "the calls to order" from the quoted text, or by changing "agenda" to "program", the more all-encompassing term.   

I'll leave that decision to the authorship team.

[Guest Zev]

Very nice catch!

[Dan Honemann]

17 hours ago, jstackpo said:

In the text found on page 371, lines 25-27  (text that is new to the 11th edition, by the way) we read: 

"In an agenda, often an hour is assigned only to such subjects as the calls to order, recesses, adjournments..."

The difficulty is that a "call to order" isn't an "item of business" (i.e., something the assembly can act on in a meeting) and shouldn't be included in an agenda at all.  See the footnote on page 26. A "call to order" takes place before the meeting begins.

I suppose this could be remedied by dropping "the calls to order" from the quoted text, or by changing "agenda" to "program", the more all-encompassing term.   

I'll leave that decision to the authorship team.

Actually, this text is not new to the 11th edition. You will find it on page 316 of the 7th edition, and in all subsequent editions as well. It simply got moved around a bit in the 11th.

An "order of the day" is "a particular subject, question, or item of business that is set in advance to be taken up during a given session, day, or meeting, or at a given hour, provided that no business having precedence over it interferes."  (RONR, p. 364, ll. 17-21)

I agree that calls to order, recesses, and adjournments are not technically "items of business", but they are items which are sometimes properly included within an adopted agenda or program. For example, an adopted agenda or program may include a recess which is scheduled for a certain time (see p. 232, ll. 3-19), and in that event will also ordinarily fix the time at which the meeting is to be called to order again.

 

[Tim Wynn]

On 5/27/2018 at 12:41 PM, jstackpo said:

The difficulty is that a "call to order" isn't an "item of business" (i.e., something the assembly can act on in a meeting) . . .

If the session contains multiple meetings, the time at which later meetings are to be called to order is within the control of the assembly that is adopting the agenda. Therefore, I would say the assembly can take action on calls to order . . . though it'll have less control over one that has already occurred. 🙂 

 

Edited June 23, 2018 at 11:45 PM by Tim Wynn

[Dan Honemann]

12 hours ago, Tim Wynn said:

If the session contains multiple meetings, the time at which later meetings are to be called to order is within the control of the assembly that is adopting the agenda. Therefore, I would say the assembly can take action on calls to order . . . though it'll have less control over one that has already occurred. 🙂 

 

Welcome back, Tim. You've been missed!

[Tim Wynn]

On 6/24/2018 at 8:44 AM, Daniel H. Honemann said:

Welcome back, Tim. You've been missed!

Thank you, sir. It's good to be home.