Ria —
Short answer to your question #1: We can’t. See Robert’s Rules of Order.
Short answer to your question #2: Tell your members who are complaining that amendment of any pre-meeting agenda shortly after the beginning of the Board meeting is a basic part of "Robert’s Rules of Order".
Long answer:
My “In Brief” version of Robert’s Rules explains it this way, on page 16:
“Instead of following a standard order of business, a group may adopt an
agenda. An agenda sets out the order in which specific items are to be considered … Frequently, the president presents a draft agenda, but to be binding it must be adopted by the group at or soon after the start of the session. The group may
make any changes it wishes before voting to adopt it.”
Further, from page 372 of the 11th Edition of Robert’s Rules of Order:
“AGENDA PROVIDED IN ADVANCE. In some organizations it is customary to send each member, in advance of a meeting, an order of business or an agenda … Such an agenda is often provided for information only, with no intention or practice of submitting
it for adoption. Unless a pre-circulated agenda is formally adopted at the session to which it applies, it is not binding as to detail or order of consideration, other than as it … conforms to an order of business prescribed by the rules of the organization.”
Note that the word “member” in the above quotation refers to members of the deliberative body that is going into session — i.e., to members of ODV in the case of the League’s Board meetings. If we were talking about a meeting of a local radio
club that has chosen to follow Robert’s Rules, it would refer to all voting members of the club.
BTW, I disagree with your statement that “It [last minute changes to the agenda] shouldn’t be”. I, for one, have no problem with last-minute changes to the agenda: That tells me we are a responsive, dynamic Board, willing to consider up-to-the-minute
adjustments to the flow of the meeting — as might be caused by programmatic logic (such as when a discussion of one topic most logically follows another) and/or external factors such as Covid-19, etc.
I must say, you get an “interesting” set of complaints up there; the ones *I* get have more to do with substance and less to do with the order in which we took things up.
Bud, W2RU
Members have been emailing me, accusing us of hiding things because
the agenda is not distributed to them beforehand.
Now, we know better - things get added last minute, and the agenda
changes. It shouldn't be, but that is what we have.
Two questions:
1. How can we make it that we have an up to date agenda distributed to
members before the meeting?
2. How can we effectively communicate that the final agenda was
amended (or substituted) during or right before the meeting?
Thanks
Ria
N2RJ