Jump to content
The Official RONR Q & A Forums

Executive session rules


Guest Joni

Recommended Posts

Our board went into executive session three times to discuss an institutional name change. Although there are many other related questions, on executive session, here goes. First, executive session was announced by the chairman with no purpose initially and the reason we were finally given was that it would make people mad to know we were discussing a name change. Our bylaws state we will operate under Robert's Rules of Order. Second, the minutes of our meetings do not reflect that we ever went into executive session for any of our three meetings. At the third meeting a vote was taken as to the name change. The results of that vote was passed along to another board which must place our board's "recommendation" (not unanimous) before hundreds or thousands in order to change the name because the institution is under that body's governance and it requires a charter change. The results of our board's vote is not in the minutes of that meeting, but has been publicized and carried out. Are those sessions still to be consistered "executive sessions"? AND is there basis for a continuing breach of executive session?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) RONR requires no reason to enter into Executive Session. Enter it as you please.

2) What was adopted in Executive Session is not always bound by the secrecy provisions and nothing changes the fact that the initial decision was made there.. The minutes of the E.S. must be 100% accurate though (and those minutes are kept separately from the portion of the meeting that was not in Executive Session), and the fact a motion was put forth to the members from that session, is not a problem.

See RONR, pp. 92-93 for what is written about executive session.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) RONR requires no reason to enter into Executive Session. Enter it as you please.

2) What was adopted in Executive Session is not always bound by the secrecy provisions and nothing changes the fact that the initial decision was made there.. The minutes of the E.S. must be 100% accurate though (and those minutes are kept separately from the portion of the meeting that was not in Executive Session), and the fact a motion was put forth to the members from that session, is not a problem.

See RONR, pp. 92-93 for what is written about executive session.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, I forgot to clarify that the chairman announced we were going into executive session, but did not ask for consent. So we did not vote on going into executive session. Therefore, I wanted to know if, in fact, we could have been considered not in executive session because of this apparent "oversight" by the chairman on 3 separate occasions. It is the habit of our board to take a very informal and sloppy attitude about applying the rules. What has ensued is "bullying" by the institution's administrators to get the trustees to do what they want in secret.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, I forgot to clarify that the chairman announced we were going into executive session, but did not ask for consent. So we did not vote on going into executive session. Therefore, I wanted to know if, in fact, we could have been considered not in executive session because of this apparent "oversight" by the chairman on 3 separate occasions. It is the habit of our board to take a very informal and sloppy attitude about applying the rules. What has ensued is "bullying" by the institution's administrators to get the trustees to do what they want in secret.

If the Chair says you are going into Executive Session and no one objected to it then you all consented to it. Next time someone needs to object. Don't let yourselves be bullied into doing something you don't want to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the Chair says you are going into Executive Session and no one objected to it then you all consented to it. Next time someone needs to object. Don't let yourselves be bullied into doing something you don't want to do.

Thanks. I bought my RONR and left it at a restaurant! Next meeting is Friday. I have to get another RONR tomorrow! No more bully tactics allowed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Executive Session is essentially a way of barring non-members of a group from the meeting.

No, executive session is essentially a way of imposing confidentiality on the members. There's no need to go into executive session to exclude non-members and non-members can be invited to attend a meeting held in executive session.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...