What Is a Committee Report?

Committee Report / Committee Reports

A committee report is a detailed document that outlines the work done by a committee, the discussions undertaken during its meetings and the recommendations it has based on that. These reports highlight its findings to the board.

Committee reports might be annual or quarterly updates, reports resulting from an investigation or suggestions on executing new ideas.

Purpose of a committee report

Boards often have to navigate multiple issues and ideas at once. As such, they appoint board committees to take a closer look into different matters and advise them on the next steps.

A committee report is an essential tool to guide the board on critical matters. It compiles all the data, facts and insights regarding key issues to help the board make informed decisions.

Contents of a committee report

Here are the contents of a standard committee report:

Methodology

Information on how the committee collected the data regarding the matter assigned.

Findings

Data recorded from the process, including statistics, facts and other relevant information.

Analysis

An explanation of what the data suggest and conclusions drawn from them.

Recommendations

Based on the conclusion, the committee’s opinion on the best course of action to solve the problem.

Implementation plan

Action items required to help achieve the desired results.

Format and presentation

A regular committee report — annual or quarterly — should be written and submitted as specified in the company byelaws. It should summarise the work accomplished by the committee during the time period covered.

All committee reports should be distributed to each board member before the meeting. The presentation based on the report should be delivered in the meeting by the chairperson of the committee or a committee member chosen as the designated reporter.

Approval and adoption 

No motion is needed to receive a committee report. Once the members have seen it in the official meeting materials, it is considered as “received”.

If a committee report includes recommendations and conclusive steps to a course of action, the reporting member should raise a motion for each item to be approved and adopted. No second is needed for this motion. The items are then presented one by one to the full board.

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