"Pool" of committee members.

[Guest Arthur541]

Does Robert's allow for a board to appoint a "pool" of say 6 committee members for a committee consisting of 3, then have a property manager pick the 3 members to actually hold the meeting.  I don't believe that is allowed anywhere in Robert's, or should be.   My HOA wants to have the board appoint a "pool" of 6 committee members then leave it to the manager to pick the 3 to actually hold a given meeting.   

[Rob Elsman]

Nothing in RONR (12th ed.) empowers the board to do this.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:18 PM, Guest Arthur541 said:

Does Robert's allow for a board to appoint a "pool" of say 6 committee members for a committee consisting of 3, then have a property manager pick the 3 members to actually hold the meeting.  I don't believe that is allowed anywhere in Robert's, or should be.   My HOA wants to have the board appoint a "pool" of 6 committee members then leave it to the manager to pick the 3 to actually hold a given meeting.   

No, that's not an appropriate duty for the property manager.  What's the point of this odd exercise, and whose idea was it?

 

[puzzling]

On 9/17/2023 at 2:18 AM, Guest Arthur541 said:

Does Robert's allow for a board to appoint a "pool" of say 6 committee members for a committee consisting of 3, then have a property manager pick the 3 members to actually hold the meeting.  I don't believe that is allowed anywhere in Robert's, or should be.   My HOA wants to have the board appoint a "pool" of 6 committee members then leave it to the manager to pick the 3 to actually hold a given meeting.   

RONR 49:12 says that  as general principle that a board cannot delegate its authority.

So if you really want to do this you need to include it in the bylaws. (And even then it is complicated) 

Why does your organisation wants to do this in the first place? Why not let the board democratically decide who is on the committee (the project manager may give suggestions for it)

[Guest Arthur541]

Thanks for the responses.  Some very good points fellas.  The "pool" idea came from the frustration of trying to get volunteers for a HOA fining committee.  As you can probably guess, the idea was to get half a dozen volunteers for a "pool"  and pick 3 people from that "pool" to actually run a committee meeting of 3 people.  Then the board pres  and manager decided to let the manager pick the 3 people from the "Pool" for the meeting, instead of the board doing it, as the law requires.  The board pres and manager then decided to allow the property manager to pick the 3 from the "pool" and schedule the meeting, instead of the board. The law and our documents require the board to appoint the committee. .   I told the board not to do it.   Last Thursday at the board meeting the property manager argued that there is nothing in the law or documents preventing a "Pool" of people.  Then the question occurred to me to go to Robert's to see about this idea of a "pool".   There was a resolution for this fining committee adopted by the board  in 2018 she claimed was expired and that the board should pay not attention to it.  

[Atul Kapur]

Consider whether the HOA can create a fining committee with a membership of nine (or twelve or fifteen or ...) and set quorum at three (unless there is a requirement in a superior document that quorum has to be higher). If you wanted, you could put in further restrictions regarding quorum, such as saying that the chair must be present and one of the three.

All members of the committee would need to be sent notice of all meetings, but this would increase the odds of achieving quorum. The chair could also use Doodle or similar scheduling software.

This may require an amendment to your bylaws, but it may resolve your situation.

[Rob Elsman]

It may be necessary to obtain the advice of an attorney, since the line of argument seems to turn on whether or not there is a statute that conflicts with what is being proposed.