Agena

[frd2]

I am aware that the President sets the initial agenda, and that the board needs to approve that agenda before continuing with the meeting.

However, if a Director wants to add an item under new business - is this accomplished by a motion, requiring a second? Or does a member have a right to add items to an agenda without obtaining a second?

[Rob Elsman]

I am aware that the President sets the initial agenda, and that the board needs to approve that agenda before continuing with the meeting.

However, if a Director wants to add an item under new business - is this accomplished by a motion, requiring a second? Or does a member have a right to add items to an agenda without obtaining a second?

There is no need to add an item of new business to an agenda. After the orders of the day have been gone through, members can introduce new topics in the order that they are able to obtain the floor and make an appropriate main motion.

...and it is not true that the president sets the initial agenda.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

I am aware that the President sets the initial agenda, and that the board needs to approve that agenda before continuing with the meeting.

Not necessarily.

• The president need not be the person who drafts an agenda.

• There is no rule in Robert's Rules that any agenda is necessary to run a meeting.

• If someone does draft an agenda, there is no rule in Robert's Rules which requires any adoption of the agenda.

However, if a Director wants to add an item under new business - is this accomplished by a motion, requiring a second? Or does a member have a right to add items to an agenda without obtaining a second?

Q. Is the agenda adopted? Or is the agenda merely being used as a guideline without being adopted?

If an agenda is adopted, then, yes, a motion would be necessary to add an agenda item. (See the motion "Amend Something Previously Adopted" in RONR.)

But if the agenda has a class of business called "new business" then there is really no need to agendize anything, is there? Just await "new business" and make your motion, spontaneously.

Beware of the exception: Some organization require (by custom, if not by rule) that even new business must be agendized, so that the assembly essentially wishes to suppress spontaneous new business from the floor.

You would see this typically in those meetings which are tight for time, and for conventions who add estimated minutes' duration to every item on the agenda, so that the meeting's hour of adjournment can be calculated, or at least anticipated, well before the end of the day.

[George Mervosh]

I am aware that the President sets the initial agenda, and that the board needs to approve that agenda before continuing with the meeting.

However, if a Director wants to add an item under new business - is this accomplished by a motion, requiring a second? Or does a member have a right to add items to an agenda without obtaining a second?

See FAQ#14