Powers and duties of Committee

[Guest Darren Hall]

In my situation a committee has been formed for the specific purpose of investigating a complaint and presenting a report to the membership for its action. The committee has completed its report and sent it to the body, but action will not be taken until the next meeting. If the committee is presented with new material information that renders parts of the report completely inaccurate, is it acceptable, or even required, for the committee to amend its report prior to the membership meeting? The President of the body has stated that he does not want the report revised, and I, of course, would like to see it revised. Please let me know if I have solid ground to stand on when I demand that this change be made.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

If the committee is presented with new material information that renders parts of the report completely inaccurate, is it acceptable, or even required, for the committee to amend its report prior to the membership meeting?

"Required"?

No.

Of course, nothing is required.

"Acceptable"?

Yes.

Until the report is actually PRESENTED inside a meeting, there is no report, in the official sense. An early draft is just an early draft.

The committee is free to meet, and meet again, and again, unless the committee (the majority of the committee) is satisfied that its report represents its best effort.

Put another way:

Just because a committee mails an early copy of its report to a president, that fact by itself does not prevent the committee from meeting again and generating a "new and improved" report.

And to repeat this step, until the day of presentation.

Sound bite answer:

"Mailing" is not "finalizing".

[Larry Cisar]

And the President also has no authority to say that the committee cannot change their report.

[jstackpo]

If Daren Hall isn't a member of the committee, however, there isn't much he can do beyond request that the committee get together and look at the new information.

[David A Foulkes]

A special committee - as this one surely appears to be - ceases to exist upon presentation of its final report to the assembly, in this case the membership. (p. 474 ll. 24-28) Until such time, it continues to exist and may continue its work, revising what will ultimately become its final report according to all information it receives.

The committee has completed its report and sent it to the body

Whether this could be considered "presentation of its final report to the assembly" is perhaps an oh-so-slightly-tinged gray area. I think you could expect that the committee spokesperson would actually deliver the report in a meeting. So assuming this was not the case, I'd expect the committee is still going strong, until

action will not be taken until the next meeting

the next meeting, at which time it would be expected to report.