Mike O'Connell Posted December 2, 2019 at 03:35 PM Report Share Posted December 2, 2019 at 03:35 PM Guests Report post Posted just now In the past our board has always recorder the meetings. Recently several employees presented the board with a complaint about the President of the organization. The board scheduled a meeting asking the President to appear, however the Chairman did not allow the employees who signed the complaint to participate in the meeting. Additionally the board chairman refused to have the meeting recorded. After an hour of discussion the board found not reason for the complaint. So my question is 1. can the board Chairman turn off the recording machine. and second, should he not allowed those whose wrote the complaint address the president directly with their issues. Additionally the employees were not allowed to participate in any discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Elsman Posted December 2, 2019 at 04:01 PM Report Share Posted December 2, 2019 at 04:01 PM 1. The use of the recording machine is up to the members of the board, not the chairman individually. 2. The presence and participation of employees who are not members of the board is up to the members of the board, not the chairman individually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted December 2, 2019 at 04:03 PM Report Share Posted December 2, 2019 at 04:03 PM (edited) 35 minutes ago, Mike O'Connell said: Guests Report post Posted just now In the past our board has always recorder the meetings. Recently several employees presented the board with a complaint about the President of the organization. The board scheduled a meeting asking the President to appear, however the Chairman did not allow the employees who signed the complaint to participate in the meeting. Additionally the board chairman refused to have the meeting recorded. After an hour of discussion the board found not reason for the complaint. So my question is 1. can the board Chairman turn off the recording machine. and second, should he not allowed those whose wrote the complaint address the president directly with their issues. Additionally the employees were not allowed to participate in any discussion. Some more information would be helpful. For starters, is this a nonprofit corporation or a business corporation? I ask because you made several references to employees. Second, are these employees members of the organization? Members of the board? If they are not members of the board, they would be treated as nonmembers or guests of the board per the rules in RONR and do not have the right to even be present at board meetings, much less to speak, unless you have a customized rule which permits it or the Board has granted them permission to attend and/or speak. Was the meeting conducted in executive (secret) session? It sounds like maybe it was. Executive sessions are customary when disciplinary matters and personnel matters are discussed. RONR contains no rules regarding recording of meetings. This is something that is up to the organization to decide for itself. Do you have a rule on the subject, or is the recording of meetings just a custom? Any member could have made a motion that the meeting be recorded. Any board member who took issue with any aspect of the chairman's actions or rulings could have and should have made an immediate point of order. The chair would rule on the point of order and his ruling could be appealed to the assembly on the motion of one member and a second. It requires a majority vote to overrule the chair. Edited to add I agree with the comments above by Rob Elsman. He stated it much more succinctly than I did. 🙂 Edited December 2, 2019 at 04:12 PM by Richard Brown Corrected typo and added last paragraph Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Swann Posted December 3, 2019 at 04:56 PM Report Share Posted December 3, 2019 at 04:56 PM Our nonprofit board's new chair asked that an executive session be added as a standing item to all board agendas and, further, that the board "automatically" adjourn into executive session at the conclusion of each meeting "in case the board has anything it wants to discuss privately." Does RONR or any authoritative source stipulate a board's consideration of an executive session, e.g., adoption of a main motion (with or without stating the proposed executive session topic), etc.? Or does a nonprofit board self-govern in this respect, absent any guidance from the organization's bylaws? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted December 3, 2019 at 05:14 PM Report Share Posted December 3, 2019 at 05:14 PM (edited) Guest John, please post your question as a new topic rather than piggybacking on someone else’s thread. That’s the way we prefer doing it here. Edited December 3, 2019 at 05:15 PM by Richard Brown Added last sentence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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