Does a board member have to be identified if adding a motion to the agenda instead of in open meeting?

[Guest Jupiter05]

A board member called and requested a resolution be added to the agenda that is amending a previously adopted motion. The agenda states: "Resolution to approve: To clarify the board member service fund of $7500 to be equally shared among all five board members as requested".

Do I have a right to demand the board member requesting the change be identified?

This motion would actually need to be a motion to Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted, correct? 

I feel this proposed resolution is unfair. One board member is trying to block me from training to learn how these rules work. In a review of past meeting minutes of over 10 years, this resolution has never been altered before.

How do I stop it?

[Atul Kapur]

Whether it's on the agenda or not, some member present at the meeting will have to actually move the motion.

[Guest Jupiter05]

On 2/18/2024 at 8:49 PM, Atul Kapur said:

Whether it's on the agenda or not, some member present at the meeting will have to actually move the motion.

So there's no way to know who added the resolution to the agenda?

[Atul Kapur]

I don't know. Did you ask whoever drafts the agenda?

[Joshua Katz]

On 2/18/2024 at 8:47 PM, Guest Jupiter05 said:

Do I have a right to demand the board member requesting the change be identified?

 

Demand? No. A proposed agenda is not an agenda until it is adopted by the body. If, say, the chair presents a proposed agenda, to be approved at the meeting, the chair is free to include or not include whatever he'd like. When others make suggestions, they are just that, and not an action. If you believe the item does not belong on the agenda, you can ask the chair not to include it, or, if that doesn't work, move to amend to delete it when the agenda is pending for adoption. Alternatively, some motion will need to be made, and you can vote no on that.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 2/18/2024 at 8:47 PM, Guest Jupiter05 said:

Do I have a right to demand the board member requesting the change be identified?

I don't know.  I don't even know if you are a member. 

It does sound like a motion to Amend Something Previously Adopted.  Items on an agenda typically do not identify who, if anyone, requested their inclusion, but when the meeting occurs, if you are permitted to attend, you can see who moves it or, if you have access to the minutes, you can find the identity of the actual mover there.

[Joshua Katz]

On 2/20/2024 at 8:15 PM, Gary Novosielski said:

It does sound like a motion to Amend Something Previously Adopted. 

What does? To what does "it" refer?

[Gary Novosielski]

On 2/20/2024 at 10:26 PM, Joshua Katz said:

What does? To what does "it" refer?

It refers to the proposed resolution to insert some clarification into a previously adopted agreement.

[Joshua Katz]

Well, I agree that that motion is a motion to amend something previously adopted. But I don't see how that's relevant to whether or not the minutes reflect who requested a change in the draft agenda to include it, which is not a motion to amend something previosly adopted, since the agenda had not been adopted.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 2/21/2024 at 9:34 AM, Joshua Katz said:

Well, I agree that that motion is a motion to amend something previously adopted. But I don't see how that's relevant to whether or not the minutes reflect who requested a change in the draft agenda to include it, which is not a motion to amend something previosly adopted, since the agenda had not been adopted.

I don't see how either.  I assumed the minutes would record who actually made the motion in the meeting, and would not record who requested the change to the agenda prior to the meeting.