How far than the committee go?

[Tomm]

A newly formed Standing Committee has been formed as follows:

1. Communication Through Technology Committee: The purpose of the Communication Through Technology  Committee is to recommend avenues for improving ways to reach out and interact with Cardholders to facilitate communication and exchange of information; and to recommend information of interest and value to be provided to Cardholders and potential XXXXXX (name of community) Arizona residents.

The Committee has determined at their meetings that they want to produce a monthly video magazine highlighting the communities Club activities and residence of interest.

Question: Since the Committee has not yet made a report to the Board, and since the Committee was not authorized "with power", can it actually produce a sample episode of their video magazine and include it their initial report to the Board? 

It's my belief that the Committee must first present their report to the Board with the recommendations of the things they would like to do, and how to do them. Then someone would need to make a motion to allow the Committee to actually produce a sample video magazine. Some believe that the sample video can be produced and included in the initial report to the Board.

Pleas advise!   

[Gary Novosielski]

Without getting too deeply into the content (e.g., I don't know what "residence of interest" means),  my comments are:

First a question: Is this or any other standing committee listed in the bylaws, or can the Board simply create standing committees?

 

In general, the Board cannot delegate its powers to a committee. [§49:12]  But they can assign specific tasks that the committee can complete under the supervision of the Board.

So the answer will depend on what instructions were given to the committee.  If the committee has an allocated budget that would cover production of a sample video, they could present that as part of their report.  Since they report to the Board, there's no problem as long as they don't publish the video as if it were an official production of the organization.  What they can't do, on their own, is start publishing monthly videos.  That would require an action of the board

The committee could also include a proposal to produce the sample video in their report, if they need additional resources to produce it.  And of course one of their reports will include a request to roll out the monthly video on a regular basis.  How much Board approval is required before these are released is up to the Board to decide.

Edited January 18, 2021 at 06:15 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Atul Kapur]

Based only on the information that is provided by the OP, the committee is authorized to recommend two different things ( avenues and information).

That does not give them any authority to use any of the organization's resources to produce the sample video. If they want to do it on a volunteer and using their own resources I don't see that anything is stopping them.

This, of course, is subject to change based on extra information, such as budget and instructions, as Mr. Novosielski mentions above,