VIII. LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

VIII.A. ACTION ITEMS:

1. Shall include, but shall not be limited to, policy changes, projects, budgetary approvals and approvals of expenditures, hirings, firings, elections, etc., or anything else that requires an immediate vote. Examples of non-action items would be reports or open-ended discussions and will be referred to as ‘discussion items’

2. It is under the discretion of Cabinet to designate particular items 'action items' before sending them to Board.

VIII.B. ORIGINATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ACTION ITEMS

1. Action items may begin in committees, where they will be developed and honed before being sent to the Board of Directors. Cabinet may decide that these particular action items are not yet ready and send them back to committees.

2. Cabinet also has the discretion to originate its own action items that do not require extensive committee deliberation and are already established in policy or procedural guidelines, such as elections, VOC's, etc.

3. Cabinet will draw up an agenda for the following Board meeting the week before the meeting takes place. This agenda will be disseminated to Board and the membership at large. Members may propose agenda items to Cabinet in advance of the Cabinet meeting by contacting the president.

4. The Board of Directors will hear action items as specified by the agenda drawn up by Cabinet. Additional items may be added at the beginning of the meeting (see I.B.6) if they are procedural and already enumerated in policy

5. Board may also create action items during the meeting or during the approval of the agenda by a 2/3rds vote if they feel the issue is time urgent and this urgency is judged to take precedence over the advertisement of the Board agenda to the general membership in advance of the Board meeting. There is an exception to this threshold when Board wishes to review a decision made by Cabinet acting as Board, in which case, Board may add the item as either a discussion or action item with a 1/3rd vote.

6. If an action or a discussion substantially in deviation from a proper action item is proposed during the agenda process or during discussion, the president will refer the matter back to a committee with appropriate jurisdiction or to Cabinet but s/he may be overruled by an absolute majority of Board representatives (see I.B.7).

[Board approved 12/11/14.]