Committee recommendations

Why a recommendation isn't a decision

A committee has no authority of its own. It only holds what the board (or the bylaws) gave it, and most committees are given the power to study something and recommend, not to act. A management-industry source puts the split in shorthand:

"Committees research and recommend. The board reviews and decides."

Source: How to Build Effective HOA Committees That Strengthen Your Community, Kuester Management Group

So when the landscape committee votes 4 to 1 to switch irrigation vendors, or the finance committee agrees unanimously on a new reserve target, none of that has changed anything yet. It's input. The fiduciary duty to weigh it and act still sits with the board.

How the board disposes of the report

Robert's Rules describes the next step plainly: once a committee's report is presented, the parent body still has to deal with it.

"the next business in order is the disposal of the report, the proper disposition depending upon its nature."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order Revised, Article IX, "Committees and Boards", public domain edition (1915)

In practice, that means the recommendation becomes an item of board business, usually opened with a motion, and the board votes on it like any other decision. Exactly how a board is required to take up a committee report, and whether the association's parliamentary authority even applies, depends on the bylaws and on whether the association has adopted one at all. Check your governing documents.

The committee's own discussion of how it reached its recommendation is not part of the board's official minutes either. That distinction matters for the record: what the committee talked about stays with the committee, and what the board decides is what gets recorded. See Committee minutes for that split in detail.

The exception: when the committee already has the final say

Not every committee only recommends. A board can delegate its own decision-making power to a specific committee, and when it has, that committee's vote is the action, not a suggestion waiting on one.

"such as an executive 'committee of the board' made up entirely of directors to which the board has delegated certain powers, or an architectural review committee"

Source: Creating Committees, HOA Law Blog, SwedelsonGottlieb

The way to tell which kind of committee you're dealing with is to check what the board's own resolution, charter, or the governing documents actually say that committee was given. See Advisory vs decision-making committees to work out which kind yours is, and Committee authority for how that grant of power is supposed to be written down.