Member of a new committee setting dates for their event without meeting with other committee members

[Guest Brett]

Hello all,

At our last meeting I conducted, we set up a committee of 3 members to talk about an event such as its date, cost, and activities and one of the committee members took it upon himself to get everything set up and ready to go without meeting with the rest of the committee to discuss what they want to do as a committee. What can be done in this situation?

[Guest Zev]

It is not uncommon for the assembly to appoint a special committee and the president to appoint a chairman that then performs the acts which you describe. The president hands a copy of the referred motion and the text of the motion to commit to this chairman. The committee meets, decides what their recommendation is and the committee president reads the recommendation at the appropriate time and the assembly decides what to do with their original motion. The special committee then ceases to exist. In this case one particular member took the initiative to do the works that the chairman normally does. My advice is to have him appointed as the chairman of this committee. And the rest will fall into place. The individual that took the initiative, at least to me, is an excellent example of a highly sought after committee member. He should be commended.

[Joshua Katz]

I'm confused about what this means:

7 hours ago, Guest Brett said:

get everything set up and ready to go

It sounds like the committee could not act for the organization, so if this means making hotel reservations, etc., then I think that's a problem. If it means he returned a recommendation to the board without speaking to the committee, I think that's a problem, too. If it means he came into the committee meeting having done the research and said "here's what I think we should recommend" then I agree with Guest Zev above that he's doing a good job.

[Richard Brown]

8 hours ago, Guest Brett said:

Hello all,

At our last meeting I conducted, we set up a committee of 3 members to talk about an event such as its date, cost, and activities and one of the committee members took it upon himself to get everything set up and ready to go without meeting with the rest of the committee to discuss what they want to do as a committee. What can be done in this situation?

I'm not sure exactly what happened. This member clearly does not have the authority to make the decision on behalf of the committee, but he certainly has the right to say this is what I think we should do. The rest of the committee can agree or not. He may just be a strong member and good leader who came up with a plan that he hopes the others will agree with.

[Transpower]

The rest of the committee will have to "ratify" what's been done, or else the member will have to cover whatever expenses he caused.

[Richard Brown]

45 minutes ago, Transpower said:

The rest of the committee will have to "ratify" what's been done, or else the member will have to cover whatever expenses he caused.

Well, maybe, but only if the society insists that he do so

[Josh Martin]

 

2 hours ago, Transpower said:

The rest of the committee will have to "ratify" what's been done, or else the member will have to cover whatever expenses he caused.

The committee may not have the power to ratify these actions. It is not clear exactly what actions the committee member took, and what exactly the committee was authorized to do. The committee may have simply been instructed to investigate these matters and make a recommendation to the assembly.

9 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

The committee meets, decides what their recommendation is and the committee president reads the recommendation at the appropriate time and the assembly decides what to do with their original motion. The special committee then ceases to exist. In this case one particular member took the initiative to do the works that the chairman normally does. My advice is to have him appointed as the chairman of this committee. And the rest will fall into place. The individual that took the initiative, at least to me, is an excellent example of a highly sought after committee member. He should be commended.

I concur with Mr. Katz that it is unclear what “actions” exactly were taken by this person, and could be reasonably interpreted as the member coming up with fully formed recommendations to present to the committee, to the committee member having already made all actions and decisions relating to the committee’s duties without consulting the other members of the committee, or anything in between. Where exactly the actions fall on this spectrum may influence whether the assembly feels that the committee member’s “initiative” warrants reward or punishment.

Edited May 10, 2019 at 05:48 PM by Josh Martin