Acting on Committee Report Recommendations

[John A]

When a committee is created and then submits their report to the Board, it gets included in the Board agenda. Not all reports have recommendations, but some do. RONR p506 lines 30-34 says the following.

MOTIONS FOR ACTION ON REPORTS.  Immediately after receiving a board’s or a committee’s report—unless it is a report containing only information on which no action is taken (p. 525)—an assembly normally considers whatever action may be recommended in or arise out of the report.

I'm having a disagreement with some of my colleagues regarding how recommendations should be handled. I interpret "normally considers" to mean that the Board should consider the recommendations, even if they choose to not approve them. Another colleague interprets this is direction for order of business, that recommendations would normally be considered immediately after receiving the report, but it does not require the recommendations to be considered. The agenda and what items are considered is usually under the control of a few individuals on the executive committee and the individuals that created the report are sometimes not there to present the report (submitted in written form). I had a question from the chair of a committee that submitted a report, who asked what did the Board decide about the recommendations that they had worked hard on, and they were quite disappointed that the Board did not really consider them. It also seems slightly disrespectful to ask a committee to spend a considerable amount of effort putting together the report and recommendations and not get any feedback (positive or negative).

Is there anywhere else in RONR that supports having to deal with recommendations in reports that I can use to support my case. Our governance for these types of reports (ad hoc committees that report to the President) just says that the President submits the report to the Board (which they do).

[Greg Goodwiller, PRP]

No. the only way for a recommendation to be acted upon by a board or assembly is for someone to move that the recommendation be adopted. Generally, that is assumed to be whoever makes the report of the committee or entity making the recommendation (the chair, or another member of the committee - see RONR pg. 513, ll. 16-17) . But if in the scenario you have outlined, there isn't anyone present who is a member of that entity, some member of Board itself would need to make the motion.

[John A]

21 minutes ago, Greg Goodwiller said:

No. the only way for a recommendation to be acted upon by a board or assembly is for someone to move that the recommendation be adopted. Generally, that is assumed to be whoever makes the report of the committee or entity making the recommendation (the chair, or another member of the committee - see RONR pg. 513, ll. 16-17) . But if in the scenario you have outlined, there isn't anyone present who is a member of that entity, some member of Board itself would need to make the motion.

Understood, thanks. I will recommend future committees find out who (on the Board) would be presenting and possibly advocate (to them) that the report recommendations be considered by the Board. They might even consider finding a different Board member to present if they feel that would be helpful.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 7/16/2020 at 4:15 PM, John A said:

When a committee is created and then submits their report to the Board, it gets included in the Board agenda. Not all reports have recommendations, but some do. RONR p506 lines 30-34 says the following.

MOTIONS FOR ACTION ON REPORTS.  Immediately after receiving a board’s or a committee’s report—unless it is a report containing only information on which no action is taken (p. 525)—an assembly normally considers whatever action may be recommended in or arise out of the report.

I'm having a disagreement with some of my colleagues regarding how recommendations should be handled. I interpret "normally considers" to mean that the Board should consider the recommendations, even if they choose to not approve them. Another colleague interprets this is direction for order of business, that recommendations would normally be considered immediately after receiving the report, but it does not require the recommendations to be considered. The agenda and what items are considered is usually under the control of a few individuals on the executive committee and the individuals that created the report are sometimes not there to present the report (submitted in written form). I had a question from the chair of a committee that submitted a report, who asked what did the Board decide about the recommendations that they had worked hard on, and they were quite disappointed that the Board did not really consider them. It also seems slightly disrespectful to ask a committee to spend a considerable amount of effort putting together the report and recommendations and not get any feedback (positive or negative).

Is there anywhere else in RONR that supports having to deal with recommendations in reports that I can use to support my case. Our governance for these types of reports (ad hoc committees that report to the President) just says that the President submits the report to the Board (which they do).

As with any action, there must be a motion (usually made by the reporting member) to adopt a recommendation in the report.

It is worth a reminder, perhaps, that motions arising out of a committee report do not require a second, which streamlines the process a bit.

[Rob Elsman]

On 7/18/2020 at 11:17 AM, Gary Novosielski said:

As with any action, there must be a motion (usually made by the reporting member) to adopt a recommendation in the report.

It is customary, in some societies, for the chair to assume the necessary motion to adopt the recommendation(s) of a committee.  There is no problem with this, "provided the assembly is accustomed to this method", RONR (11th ed; wished it were the 12th), p. 507.  With respect to other references to assumed motions, see the Index under the heading "Assumed Motions".  Also, see  Assumption of Motions by the Chair, RONR Off. Interp. 2007-1.

[Rob Elsman]

To avoid misuses of the chair's authority to assume a motion, the rule limits the permissible instances to when "the proper motion is a matter of clear-cut procedure and must necessarily be introduced to resolve the case" [italics mine], RONR (11th ed.; wished it were the 12th), p. 507.

Unfortunately, some presiding officers misuse their authority to assume a motion by acting in a partisan way to assume motions beyond the scope of the rule.

[Gary Novosielski]

3 hours ago, Rob Elsman said:

It is customary, in some societies, for the chair to assume the necessary motion to adopt the recommendation(s) of a committee.  There is no problem with this, "provided the assembly is accustomed to this method", RONR (11th ed; wished it were the 12th), p. 507.  With respect to other references to assumed motions, see the Index under the heading "Assumed Motions".  Also, see  Assumption of Motions by the Chair, RONR Off. Interp. 2007-1.

Hence my use of the word "usually".  As chair, I would prefer to entertain a motion from the reporting member than to assume one, but that's just me.