<div dir="ltr">My experience is the same as Ron's. At C/W MARS, we have used executive session when dealing with personnel issues that are confidential but there is nothing spelled out or examples provided about what type of situation requires it. It is solely based on the vote of the board to move into executive session. I also agree with Mike that it would have a chilling affect if examples and reasons are spelled out.</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 8:43 AM, Gagnon, Ron <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gagnon@noblenet.org" target="_blank">gagnon@noblenet.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Grace and all,<br></div>In experiences I have heard of, which is backed by Robert's Rules, a regular board meeting happens and then there is a vote to go into executive session. So in light of that, the existence of the executive session is known as part of the regular meeting minutes, but not the subject or the content. And the executive session only happens if there is a majority willing to do so. I believe one then closes the executive session, and if there is no other regular business, adjourns the meeting.<br><br></div>A special meeting can be called, the executive session does not have to be within a regularly-scheduled meeting, and the special board meeting will have the usual notice and minutes requirements.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">Ron<br></font></span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div class="h5"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 6:25 PM, Grace Dunbar <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gdunbar@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">gdunbar@esilibrary.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">Sorry for the noise... My thumbs are extra thumby today.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ron and Ruth, I know both of you have a lot of Board experience outside of the EOB. In your experience, what's the"norm" with regard to notice of a meeting or other issues Terran raised?<br>
Grace</p>
<p dir="ltr">sent from my phone, apologies for brevity and autocorrect</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On May 24, 2016 6:22 PM, "Grace Dunbar" <<a href="mailto:gdunbar@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">gdunbar@esilibrary.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr">sent from my phone, apologies for brevity and autocorrect</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On May 24, 2016 5:37 PM, "Mike Rylander" <<a href="mailto:mrylander@gmail.com" target="_blank">mrylander@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Terran,<br>
<br>
Regarding calling an Executive Session: "the Chairperson, the Vice<br>
Chairperson, or any three (3) Board members may call an Executive<br>
Session of the Board." No change to meeting and voting quorum is<br>
mentioned, so my reading is that those remain the same as for any<br>
other meeting. Does anyone read that differently? Should we make it<br>
explicit that, unless otherwise mentioned, all meeting rules remain<br>
the same?<br>
<br>
Participation seems clear to me: "only members of the body that is<br>
meeting and special invitees as the body or its officers determine to<br>
be necessary are allowed to attend." Grace and Ruth, maybe "the body<br>
that is meeting" in the third paragraph should be replaced by "the<br>
EOB" to be explicit?<br>
<br>
As to explicitly prescribing specific acceptable reasons for calling<br>
an Executive Session, I worry that would have a chilling effect on the<br>
ability of the Board to address potentially sensitive issues. That, I<br>
think, is something we don't want to invite. The point of creating a<br>
framework for these rare cases is to remove the chilling effect of<br>
publicly discussing sensitive topics, and I don't think we should<br>
replace one with another.<br>
<br>
Public announcement is an interesting question. An Executive Session<br>
is often, by its nature, a "time is of the essence" issue, so I don't<br>
think a public announcement before hand should be required, or even<br>
desirable in some cases.<br>
<br>
I am on the fence as to whether publicly reporting the existence of<br>
such a session after the fact should be required, since the relevant<br>
individuals, present and future Board members, will have access to the<br>
institutional memory and content of the event. Also, the timing of an<br>
Executive Session may well imply its content -- out of band<br>
information leakage, to put it in technical parlance -- so maybe<br>
reporting the occurrence of such a session should be something that is<br>
addressed as a matter of course during the session, with the default<br>
being "no disclosure." I'm open to any opinions here, but I see it as<br>
a mild chilling risk to important action the Board may want to take to<br>
protect the Project.<br>
<br>
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to evaluate some non-normative examples<br>
of reasons for a session in this discussion, so that everyone is on<br>
the same page. Terran, do you have any you would like to bring up<br>
specifically?<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
--<br>
Mike Rylander<br>
| President<br>
| Equinox Software, Inc. / Open Your Library<br>
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)<br>
| email: <a href="mailto:miker@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">miker@esilibrary.com</a><br>
| web: <a href="http://www.esilibrary.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.esilibrary.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 4:56 PM, Terran McCanna<br>
<<a href="mailto:tmccanna@georgialibraries.org" target="_blank">tmccanna@georgialibraries.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> Grace and Ruth,<br>
><br>
> Thank you for the hard work that's been put in already.<br>
><br>
> I've been mulling it over since yesterday, and I think overall it reads very<br>
> well, but that it should be more explicit about what types of situations<br>
> would constitute the need for an Executive Session or for a private email<br>
> list conversation to ensure that they are only used if absolutely necessary.<br>
> The current language is somewhat vague and words like 'sensitive' and<br>
> 'prudent' can be subjective.<br>
><br>
> I know that none of us want to give anyone a reason to think that the EOB is<br>
> making decisions behind closed doors, or even worse, for a private meeting<br>
> to actually end up causing accusations of unfairness / abuse of power /<br>
> conflict of interest / etc. that may have been avoided had the meeting been<br>
> open in the first place.<br>
><br>
> Perhaps incorporating a few example scenarios of situations that would call<br>
> for an Executive Session would be useful to help clarify the need, both for<br>
> the community members, and for those of us who may be on the fence as to<br>
> whether a problem should be discussed openly or privately.<br>
><br>
> I think it would also be useful if it were clearer about the scheduling and<br>
> participation of an Executive Session... Do these meetings follow the same<br>
> quorum rules as the public meetings? Do the meetings get posted when<br>
> scheduled so that the community knows that they are happening? Do they have<br>
> to be scheduled with a certain amount of lead time to allow all board<br>
> members to arrange their schedules, or can they be called at any time?<br>
><br>
> Regards,<br>
> Terran<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Terran McCanna<br>
> PINES Program Manager<br>
> Georgia Public Library Service<br>
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150<br>
> Atlanta, GA 30345<br>
> <a href="tel:404-235-7138" value="+14042357138" target="_blank">404-235-7138</a><br>
> <a href="mailto:tmccanna@georgialibraries.org" target="_blank">tmccanna@georgialibraries.org</a><br>
><br>
><br>
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 2:18 PM, Grace Dunbar <<a href="mailto:gdunbar@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">gdunbar@esilibrary.com</a>><br>
> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> Hi all,<br>
>> Ruth and I have been working on the wording of adding language to the<br>
>> Rules of Governance regarding the Executive Session. I have not checked in<br>
>> with the SFC yet for their input as I wanted to hear from the group if they<br>
>> felt that this was on the right track.<br>
>><br>
>> Any/all thoughts are welcome.<br>
>> Cheers!<br>
>> Grace<br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>> Grace Dunbar, Vice President<br>
>> Equinox - Open Your Library<br>
>> <a href="mailto:gdunbar@esilibrary.com" target="_blank">gdunbar@esilibrary.com</a><br>
>> 1-877-OPEN-ILS | <a href="http://www.esilibrary.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">www.esilibrary.com</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></div></div><span class="">-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Ronald A. Gagnon<br></div>Executive Director<br></div>North Of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE)<br></div>Danvers, Massachusetts 01923<br><a href="tel:978-777-8844" value="+19787778844" target="_blank">978-777-8844</a><br></div><a href="http://www.noblenet.org" target="_blank">www.noblenet.org</a><br></div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">Tim Spindler<br><a href="mailto:tjspindler@gmail.com" target="_blank">tjspindler@gmail.com</a><div><br></div><div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><b><font size="6" color="#519230" face="Webdings"><span style="font-size:24pt;font-family:Webdings;color:rgb(81,146,48);font-weight:bold">P</span></font></b><b><font size="2" color="#519230"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:rgb(81,146,48);font-weight:bold"> Go Green - </span></font></b><b><font size="1" color="#519230" face="Verdana"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(81,146,48);font-weight:bold">Save a tree! Please don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.</span></font></b></p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font></p></span></div></div>
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