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I can't think of the advantage to a board member of doing that - a member of the public is only a guest at a board meeting with no right to participate. So I'm not sure why a member of the board, with full rights of participation (make motions, debate, vote), would give up all those rights to become a mere guest at the meeting. Possibly the board member wanted to reduce the number of members present below the quorum requirement to prevent the board from acting. Foolish or not, I cannot think of any rule against doing it.

Two issues arise here. First, the intent of the documents may be that both the board and the board president can appoint committees - I would have to see the full context to determine if that is the case. Second, you are correct that the bylaws are controlling over a mere "policy" document, which Robert's Rules would call a "standing rules". If the bylaws specifically give the appointment power to the board, and not the board president, then you cannot modify that in the policy. If you would like a more specific answer please email your documents to kirby@parliamentarian.com. There is no charge for the initial consultation.

Based on the premise that a household has only one vote, then each household is a single "member", so no, a member cannot second the member's own motion. But note this has little impact because frankly the second of the motion is not very important. It only means "yes I would like to talk about that also". Lack of a proper second is never a basis for undoing a vote. Once any debate or a vote occurs on a motion, the second is no longer relevant.

Robert's Rules of Order does provide a default definition of a quorum, which is a majority of the voting members. You can override Robert's Rules by putting an exception in your bylaws, or by adopting a Special Rule of Order. Both of these usually require a 2/3 vote. You could use either to set the quorum requirement for committees at whatever you want. You cannot change the quorum requirement with a simple majority vote. You cannot change the quorum requirement in the same motion as appointing or creating the committee (in the case of a special committee) unless approved by a 2/3 vote.

First we need to know if Robert's Rules of Order applies to your organization. Bylaws do not replace Robert's Rules but there should be something in the bylaws that recognize Robert's Rules as the "parliamentary authority". Where Robert's Rules conflict with the bylaws, the bylaws rules. If you need the correct language that should be in the bylaws for this, please email me at kirby@parliamentarian.com Under Robert's Rules you would have a secretary at each meeting who keeps minutes and distributes those to the members. Whether the minutes should be available to the members depends on who has the power in the organization. In some organizations, the board is the center of power, and in other the members are the center of power, and the board is accountable to the members. The easy solution in that case is for the members to amend the bylaws to require the board minutes to be sent out to the members. But you could also do this by passing a Standing Rule, which only requires a majority vote, directing the board to do so.