If a recommendation is the essence of a committee report, then the person who gives the report is the one who - at the end of the report- makes the recommendation. It is in order to make it at that time and not in the new business portion of the agenda.
It depends on how much is on the agenda. If it were a fairly quick item, I might let it be done then. But if it's going to require a lot of discussion and take the focus away from the normal progression of the meeting, then I'd have them mention it in passing during the committee report and then bring it up for discussion during the new business section.
As for voting on funding, my most active PTO group did all funding votes at the end of the meeting (just the vote, discussion was earlier). That way we could consider the big picture and everything being requested versus funding one thing just because it came up before another on the agenda.
I agree with WFS that all committee related business can and should be discussed within the Commmittee Reports section of the agenda. Yes, it's called "Committee Reports" but they shouldn't be restricted to just reporting on what they've been doing. While they have the floor, they should discuss anything related to their committee. Whether it's a contentious issue or not shouldn't matter and I'm not sure how holding it until the New Business portion matters at all.
If it's a budget item and, say, they're asking for additional funding, waiting to vote until the end of the meeting may make sense only if additional funding issues will come up and you want to wait to hear them all before making an official motion.
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Once they have the floor, let the person discuss their item and then move on to another. Why have them present their current business, move on and then come back to him/her again to discuss a recruiting event? We're not that rigid with the old/current business vs new business. Once a chairperson has the floor discussing their responsibility, we cover all of it before moving on to another chairpeson.
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If we're following Robert's Rules and our agenda provides for officer/committee reports prior to new business, is it acceptable for an officer/committee chair to make a motion that leads to debate during the report?
For example:
Say our Volunteers Chair gives a report and wants to propose a volunteer recruiting event to be held in September. If the VC knows that some are against this idea and the proposal will lead to debate, should the VC hold off until new business or is it okay for the VC to make a motion at the end of the report?
As School XYZ has had positive reinforcement from volunteer recruiting events, I move that we hold one on the evening of September 2, 2007 to attempt to counter low levels of volunteerism in our school.
