Committee Order in Bylaws

[Guest laverne willis]

RONR 51:28, 12th edition, states that standing committees report in meetings in the order they are listed in the bylaws.  How are they to be listed in the bylaws alphabetically or the order when they are adopted in the bylaws?  I cannot find a source in any written RONR document.

[Joshua Katz]

The order in the bylaws is up to the organization. I would list them in the bylaws in the order you'd like them to report at meetings.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 2/29/2024 at 6:19 PM, Guest laverne willis said:

RONR 51:28, 12th edition, states that standing committees report in meetings in the order they are listed in the bylaws.  How are they to be listed in the bylaws alphabetically or the order when they are adopted in the bylaws?  I cannot find a source in any written RONR document.

There is no rule on this.  The order is determined by examining the bylaws and seeing how they are, in fact, listed.  How they got that way is of only academic interest.  As the saying goes, "There's a lot of truth in what actually happens."

[Josh Martin]

On 2/29/2024 at 5:19 PM, Guest laverne willis said:

RONR 51:28, 12th edition, states that standing committees report in meetings in the order they are listed in the bylaws.  How are they to be listed in the bylaws alphabetically or the order when they are adopted in the bylaws?  I cannot find a source in any written RONR document.

The standing committee may be listed in whatever order the organization in the bylaws in whatever order the organization believes is appropriate. The current reporting order is whatever order they are listed in the bylaws currently. Certainly, the organization can revise this in the future if desired.

For what it is worth, my general experience is that committees are listed mostly alphabetically, with a perhaps a few more specialized or unusual committees listed after the others.

On 2/29/2024 at 5:21 PM, Joshua Katz said:

The order in the bylaws is up to the organization. I would list them in the bylaws in the order you'd like them to report at meetings.

In the alternative, the organization is free to adopt its own special rule of order specifying the order in which the committees report.