All nonprofit committees should have documentation describing their purpose, authority, membership, and basic meeting and recordkeeping requirements. A committee “charter” is the most common term used to describe this document, which is also sometimes described less formally as the committee’s “job description.” What you call the document is less important than ensuring that there are records containing this essential information.

Check your state’s nonprofit corporation statute to be sure, but these laws generally require that Board committees keep minutes of their meetings, or at least records of all official actions taken by these committees. Further, the Form 990 inquires whether organizations contemporaneously document meetings held, or written actions taken by, committees authorized to act on behalf of the Board (see Part VI, Section A, Line 8b). Therefore, it is highly recommended, and may be required by applicable state law, to keep minutes of committee meetings.

It is quite common for nonprofit organizations to have non-Directors on their standing committees, but whether this is permitted is a surprisingly complicated question. The answer depends on the applicable state nonprofit corporation statute, and these laws are often more restrictive on this subject than you might think.