Board meeting open to all members

[stwilliams]

Question: If the bylaws say that the board meetings shall be open to all members of the organization (or the public), will this prevent the board from calling for an executive session?

[hmtcastle]

Question: If the bylaws say that the board meetings shall be open to all members of the organization (or the public), will this prevent the board from calling for an executive session?

Not necessarily.

An executive session imposes confidentiality on the attendees. It does not, in and of itself, exclude non-members. Whether such confidentiality is possible if the meeting is open to "the public" is problematic.

[George Mervosh]

Not necessarily.

An executive session imposes confidentiality on the attendees. It does not, in and of itself, exclude non-members. Whether such confidentiality is possible if the meeting is open to "the public" is problematic.

P. 93, lines 10-13 isn't quite so broad.

[Josh Martin]

P. 93, lines 10-13 isn't quite so broad.

Well, the board could declare all individuals present to be "special invitees."

I don't see any parliamentary reason the assembly could not enter executive session, but there are certainly practical problems with enforcing the requirement of secrecy.

[Gary c Tesser]

Question: If the bylaws say that the board meetings shall be open to all members of the organization (or the public), will this prevent the board from calling for an executive session?

It looks to me more as if STW is asking whether the bylaw would allow the board, by entering executive session, to kick out the non-board members, or prevent it. Which is not a question of what Robert's Rules says, but of what the bylaws mean. Which is up to the organization to determine.

[Trina]

Question: If the bylaws say that the board meetings shall be open to all members of the organization (or the public), will this prevent the board from calling for an executive session?

Since this seems stated as a hypothetical issue, rather than an actual reference to bylaws, it may be worth pointing out that the situation for special meetings might be different than the situation for regular meetings of the board. Even if all regular meetings of the board are required to be open to all members (or the public), it might still be possible for the board to call a special meeting which wouldn't be subject to the same requirement. It all depends on the wording of the bylaws. This isn't responding directly to your question about executive session, but may be relevant if your concern is actually about excluding non-members from the meeting room (which is not the same thing as going into executive session).