At 09:16 PM 4/5/00 EDT, you wrote: >Tim, > >I do not have a Roberts' available to me at present. Could you please spell >this out? > >> Per RRoONR pg 95 >From Robert's Rules Of Order, Newly Revised, 9th Edition, 1990 (latest edition) Edited by Henry M. Robert, III. and William J. Evans IV, MEETING AND SESSION #9, Particular Types of Business Meetings Executive Session, pg 95 --------- An executive session in general parliamentary usage has come to mean any meeting of a deliberative assembly, or a portion of a meeting, at which the proceedings are secret. This term originally referred to the consideration of executive business--- that is, presidential nominations to appointed offices, and treaties--- behind closed doors in the United States Senate. The practice of organizations operating under the lodge system is equivalent to holding all regular meetings in executive session. In any society, matters relating to discipline--- particularly trials--- properly should be handled only in executive session. In most organizations, except those operation under the lodge system, by practice or sometimes by rule, membership meetings are open to the public, but BOARD and COMMITTEE meetings are customarily held in executive session. In the latter case, members of the organization who are not members of the board or committee, and sometimes nonmembers, may be invited to attend, perhaps to give a report, but they are not entitled to attend. A motion to go into executive session is a question of privilege, and therefore is adopted by a majority vote. Only members, special invites, and such employees or staff members as the assembly or its rules may determine to be necessary are allowed to remain in the hall. A member can be punished under disciplinary procedures if he violates the secrecy of an executive session. Anyone else permitted to be present is honor bound not to divulge anything that occurred. The minutes, or record of proceedings, of an executive session must be read and acted on only in executive session, unless that which would be reported in the minutes--- that is, the action taken, as distinct from that which was said in debate--- was not secret or secrecy has been lifted by the assembly. When the minutes of an executive session must be considered for approval at an executive session held solely for that purpose, the brief minutes of the latter meeting are, or are assumed to be, approved by that meeting. Tim >Thank you. > >Virginia (Ginger) Cisewski