To Motion or not to motion

[Tomm]

I have a question regarding an issue that will come up Thursday at the Board meeting. Our Long Range Planning Committee has yet another “recommendation” to give to the Board. This one is rather lengthy, and while I’m not going to read all 9 pages of it, I have already emailed it to the members of the Board, it’s appeared online in the minutes of the LRPC’s last meeting, and it’s attached to the agenda, so anyone that either looks at the agenda online or shows up at the meeting will get it in its’ entirety.

My question is this: If I present this to the Board without reading the document in it’s entirety, does there have to be a motion to accept the report, or can  it just be accepted, the committee thanked, and we move on? Anyway, I have amendments to each of the 16 objectives that they’ve written in case someone on the Board does make a motion and it’s seconded…and I have a couple others that would soften the tone considerably. And, of course, I’m going to make the statement that we need to take the 2-3 hours it will take to discuss each of the objectives in their fullness .

Anyway, do we HAVE to have a motion to accept this?

[Richard Brown]

3 minutes ago, Tomm said:

Anyway, do we HAVE to have a motion to accept this?

You do not need a motion to "accept" a report or recommendation.  In fact, doing so is improper.  A report is simply presented orally or in writing.  If in writing, it is placed on file.   Regardless of whether it is in writing or presented orally, the chair thanks the reporting member for the report and moves on.  The chair might state that "the report will be placed on file", but that isn't necessary as it should be placed on file automatically.

Now actually adopting the recommendations as the recommendations of the assembly itself or adopting motions arising from the report are a different matter.  Doing either of those requires an actual motion and is handled just as any other motion would be handled.

It might help if you can clarify exactly what it is that is being presented and what it is that you want to do with it.

[Transpower]

You can conclude your report by making a motion to adopt the recommendations.

[Bruce Lages]

You don't have to have a motion to accept the committee's recommendations, but without a motion of some kind nothing will happen to those recommendations. If you are presenting this to the board you could, as noted by Transpower, move to adopt the committee's recommendations. This will open them to debate and action by the board, and you could then offer your amendments.

If, as you say, consideration of the recommendations will take several hours to work through, you could also move to refer the committee's recommendations to a committee of the board. This board committee can take the time to deal with the recommendations, and you could submit your proposed amendments to this committee for their consideration. The board committee can then report back to the board with a possibly modified proposal for adoption by the board.

What you shouldn't done is just move on without some action by the board. That will leave the long range planning committee's recommendations in limbo, being neither adopted nor rejected. That would not send a good signal to this committee, or to any other committees that might submit proposals to the board.