Agenda in violation of bylaws

[Guest Rusty9]

Out of nowhere our EBoard decided to change the format of our monthly meetings Agenda. The agenda now fails to include items required by our bylaws (I.e reading of previous meeting minutes and the reading of the treasurer’s report). 

The EBoard has been made aware of the issue and thus far has refused to respond to emails or correct the agenda  

Under RONR what steps or objections can be raised at the meeting about this?

[Guest Zev]

Please shed some light on exactly what is an "Eboard," where does its authority come from, and what is the text that determines the agenda of its meetings.

[Richard Brown]

4 minutes ago, Guest Zev said:

Please shed some light on exactly what is an "Eboard," where does its authority come from, and what is the text that determines the agenda of its meetings.

I'm pretty confident that an "Eboard" is an executive board and that its authority comes from the bylaws, but the question still remains as to what authority the executive board has to determine the agenda for what I presume are the regular monthly meetings of the membership.  I doubt that it has that authority, but the answer will be in the bylaws or possibly the special rules of order, if any.

Guest Rusty, we really need more information.  NORMALLY, the executive board is subservient to the general membership and cannot dictate to the membership.  To the contrary, the membership may issue directives to the executive board.  An exception to that rule in RONR would have to be in your bylaws or perhaps  controlling state law.

See Official Interpretations 2006-12 and 2006-13 on the main RONR website here:  https://robertsrules.com/frequently-asked-questions/

[Guest Rusty9]

21 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

I'm pretty confident that an "Eboard" is an executive board and that its authority comes from the bylaws, but the question still remains as to what authority the executive board has to determine the agenda for what I presume are the regular monthly meetings of the membership.  I doubt that it has that authority, but the answer will be in the bylaws or possibly the special rules of order, if any.

Guest Rusty, we really need more information.  NORMALLY, the executive board is subservient to the general membership and cannot dictate to the membership.  To the contrary, the membership may issue directives to the executive board.  An exception to that rule in RONR would have to be in your bylaws or perhaps  controlling state law.

See Official Interpretations 2006-12 and 2006-13 on the main RONR website here:  https://robertsrules.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Correct EBoard = Executive board.

Our bylaws says that the agenda for our regular monthly meeting is published by the President and requests to be placed on the Agenda are submitted thru the Secretary. I'm told but haven't verified that we supposedly don't need to have the membership approve or adopt the agenda at because we are a small club/board?

Assuming this is all BS and there is nothing giving the executive board authority over the membership, how should establishing, posting, and approving the agenda be handled per RONR?

[Atul Kapur]

Are you referring to monthly meetings of the membership or of the Executive Board.

If you meet monthly, then RONR says you don't need to adopt an agenda but, rather, follow the standard Order of Business. It's not because you are a "small club/board," whatever that means.

Your bylaws apparently have some provisions about the agenda and where the bylaws conflict with RONR, the bylaws supercede RONR.

[Guest Rusty9]

58 minutes ago, Atul Kapur said:

Are you referring to monthly meetings of the membership or of the Executive Board.

If you meet monthly, then RONR says you don't need to adopt an agenda but, rather, follow the standard Order of Business. It's not because you are a "small club/board," whatever that means.

Your bylaws apparently have some provisions about the agenda and where the bylaws conflict with RONR, the bylaws supercede RONR.

I'm referring the the monthly meeting of the membership. Even if our bylaws do allow the board the control of creating and publishing the agenda, it still has to comply the the agenda requirements in the bylaws. That means the upcoming agenda not containing reading of previous meeting minutes and the reading of the treasurer’s report is a violation of the bylaws and i would assume RONR standard Order of Business. How can this be addressed? Can the meeting be held with a bylaw breaking agenda?

How does RONR say to handle agenda's for monthly membership meetings if there is nothing about it in the organizations bylaws?

[Atul Kapur]

56 minutes ago, Guest Rusty9 said:

That means the upcoming agenda not containing reading of previous meeting minutes and the reading of the treasurer’s report is a violation of the bylaws and i would assume RONR standard Order of Business. How can this be addressed?

If a rule is being violated, a member can raise a point of order.

56 minutes ago, Guest Rusty9 said:

How does RONR say to handle agenda's for monthly membership meetings if there is nothing about it in the organizations bylaws?

Well, first of all, you've told us that there is something about it in your bylaws.

4 hours ago, Guest Rusty9 said:

Our bylaws says that the agenda for our regular monthly meeting is published by the President and requests to be placed on the Agenda are submitted thru the Secretary.

But, in the situation where the bylaws are silent, see § 41: Order of Business; Orders of the Day; Agenda or Program, particularly 41:2 and 41:5–6.

[Richard Brown]

7 hours ago, Guest Rusty9 said:

Under RONR what steps or objections can be raised at the meeting about this?

Guest Rusty, before we can properly answer this, we need to know more about exactly what your bylaws say about the agenda, what is supposed to be in the agenda, and how (and by whom) the agenda is prepared. I have already given you a citation and link to the RONR Official Interpretations by the authorship team which describe the power structure between the board and the membership and tell you how the membership can overturn actions of the board.

Among the things the membership can do are to (1) talk to the president and/or the executive board and try to get them to change the policy; (2) have a member raise a point of order at the next membership meeting that the policy is invalid and violates the bylaws and then appeal from the ruling of the chair if you do not like his ruling; (3) rescind the action of the board using the motion to amend or rescind something previously adopted.

Following up on the comments above by Dr. Kapur, I agree with him that unless your organization has adopted a special rule of order or has bylaw provisions prescribing an agenda process, your organization should simply be following the standard order of business prescribed in section 41:5 of RONR. No agenda is necessary, but the chair may prepare an agenda for his own use as a guide to ensure he doesn’t miss something during the meeting.  If the membership does wish to use and formally adopt an agenda at each meeting, RONR tells you how to do it.  In a nutshell, the assembly adopts the proposed agenda by a majority vote. It may be amended prior to adoption by a majority vote and may be amended after adoption by a two thirds vote.

[Joshua Katz]

13 hours ago, Guest Rusty9 said:

Our bylaws says that the agenda for our regular monthly meeting is published by the President and requests to be placed on the Agenda are submitted thru the Secretary. I'm told but haven't verified that we supposedly don't need to have the membership approve or adopt the agenda at because we are a small club/board?

 

Whoever told you that seems to have mixed up several concepts. Per RONR (i.e. without looking at your bylaws) the body that is meeting adopts an agenda. It is irrelevant that the board is small if the membership is meeting. That the club is small also doesn't matter, except that it may weigh in favor of what RONR suggests anyway - using an order of business rather than an agenda if meeting at least quarterly. 

The real question, then, is whether your bylaws a) obligate you to have an agenda (or some other rules or laws do, such as open meeting laws), and b) change the rulesfor adoption. If they do not, then your membership, not your board, adopts the agenda, and may amend it while it is pending. What exactly do they say?

Another common misconception about RONR (that, nonetheless, is sometimes true under other rules): even if your bylaws allow 2 people to keep items off the agenda, and obligate you to use an agenda, those 2 people still cannot prevent you from taking up an item. You can move to suspend the rules during the meeting to take it up immediately. Or you can move to amend the agenda, which, if already adopted, takes a 2/3 vote or a majority of the entire membership voting in the affirmative. This might be the unusual case, though, where you could give notice, and then amend it via a majority vote, if your rules allow someone other than the meeting body to adopt the agenda.