Question about proper apostrophe punctuation.

Question

I would appreciate some guidance concerning the appropriate use of apostrophes regarding boards with organizations.

For example: the board of trustees or the board of trustees'

the board of directors are meeting or the board of directors meeting'

the board of directors report or the board of directors' report

Since no one essentially owns the board (it is not an entity). How is it usually punctuated? Thank you for your time.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

bear66For example: the board of trustees or the board of trustees'

The X of Y is Y's X. Therefore, it's the board of trustees. It wouldn't be the board's trustees, anyway. It would be the trustees' board, if anything, but "board of trustees" and the like are fixed phrases.

bear66 the board of directors are meeting or the board of directors meeting'

I suspect you messed that up, but I can't tell which way. If the board of directors have a meeting, it's a board of directors' meeting.

bear66 the board of directors report or the board of directors' report

The report is the board of directors' report. This and the one before are interesting because "board of directors" is the entity that has grammatical possession, and it is a singular thing, a board. Nonetheless, it gets punctuated like a plural because an apostrophe "s" would sound weird:

board of directors's report

bear66Since no one essentially owns the board (it is not an entity). How is it usually punctuated?

The apostrophe does not exactly denote literal ownership.

Question about proper apostrophe punctuation.

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