Chair provides false/wrong information during Chair's report

[Genesis]

At the start of the board meeting, the Chair makes his report.  The meeting is open to the assembly.  Often the report includes false or misleading information which cannot be supported by evidence or documentation whereas the correction can. Because there is no motion, what can I do to correct his statements?  "Point of order" seems out of place at this point.

[Richard Brown]

Any member who is presenting a report, including the president (or chairman), is subject to being asked questions about the report at the conclusion of the report.  The report is before the assembly. This could be in the form of "Requests For Information", formerly known as "Point of Information".  Because of the rules of decorum, you must be careful how you ask the questions and must not accuse the presenter of wrongdoing or of knowingly presenting false information or of being an idiot. Assume the member making the report is recommending painting the clubhouse red and blue with yellow trim and said, for example, that "there is no need to buy yellow paint because if you mix some of the red and blue, you get yellow".   You could try  to correct him for example, by saying something like, "Mr. Chairman, are you sure?  I recall learning in high school science that when you mix red and blue you get purple, not yellow.  You get yellow when you mix red and green.  Is my information incorrect?

If he insists that you do indeed get yellow when you mix red and blue, you might then move to refer the matter to a committee for further study.

If he concludes his report with a motion, such as "I move that we paint the clubhouse red and blue with yellow trim and that we mix some red and blue to get yellow paint for the trim", and the motion gets seconded and is before the assembly, it can then be amended to straighten the mess out to provide that a quart of yellow paint be purchased for the trim.  Or you could amend it to paint the trim purple so there is no need to buy yellow paint and the red and blue could be mixed to get the purple paint.

Edited September 5, 2018 at 09:59 PM by Richard Brown
Edited first and paragraphs

[Joshua Katz]

I agree with Mr. Brown's points, although I have no idea about the colors (I find that color-blind people, like myself, tend to just tune out any facts about colors as irrelevant.) I'm not sure I love the form of the questions, though - they remind me of the academic "norm" of making a speech, then turning it into a question with "don't you think?" Wouldn't it suffice to ask "what do you get when you mix A and B?" and then ask "what does this document say?" when given the wrong answer, since the rules of evidence don't apply and you could point to a club document even on a collateral matter? After all, we're told that there are publicly-available (or at least club-available) documents which demonstrate the right answer.

[Richard Brown]

35 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

I'm not sure I love the form of the questions, though - they remind me of the academic "norm" of making a speech, then turning it into a question with "don't you think?"

 

I don't  like it, either, but I think that is pretty much the only alternative we have under RONR.  A direct confrontation would be out of order.  The report is not a debatable question.

35 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

Wouldn't it suffice to ask "what do you get when you mix A and B?

I don't think so, at least not in this case, because the person presenting the report has already said (erroneously) that you get yellow purple when you mix A and B.  I suppose I could ask, though, what color do you get when you mix red and green.  (Edited to add underlined portion).

35 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

and then ask "what does this document say

If you are clairvoyant and know in advance what he is going to say in his report and you have a document that will rebut it in your briefcase, fine... great!   It has been my experience that that rarely happens and we are usually taken by surprise by something said in the report and have only our memory and life experiences to rely on in that sort of spontaneous exchange.

35 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

After all, we're told that there are publicly-available (or at least club-available) documents which demonstrate the right answer.

Well,I suppose that instead of saying "I was taught in high school science that red and blue produce purple", you could say,  "I just now pulled out my cell phone and asked Google what color you get when you mix red and blue and it says you get purple, not yellow.  Is it your position that Google is incorrect"?  

Edited September 5, 2018 at 10:41 PM by Richard Brown
Tried to straighten out some typos. Underlined corrections and additions.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

2 hours ago, Genesis said:

At the start of the board meeting, the Chair makes his report.  The meeting is open to the assembly. 

Generally nonmembers of the board have no rights at board meetings. You may need permission from the board to speak.

[Richard Brown]

44 minutes ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

Generally nonmembers of the board have no rights at board meetings. You may need permission from the board to speak.

Mr. Huynh is correct. If you are not a member of the board, you may not have the right to speak at all without permission. As an alternative, you can try to get a board member to make the point instead or just wait and point out the mistake after the meeting is over.

Edited September 6, 2018 at 12:06 AM by Richard Brown

[Genesis]

Thank you Richard, Joshua, and Hieu for your assistance and humor!