diff --git a/services/frontend/tests/e2e/committee-save.spec.ts b/services/frontend/tests/e2e/committee-save.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..531a181f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/frontend/tests/e2e/committee-save.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import {expect, test} from "./test"
+import {installApiMocks, loginAsBoard} from "./mocks"
+
+/**
+ * Saving a committee whose member list has not arrived yet.
+ *
+ * The manager fetches its users after the form is already open. The picker is given a member's
+ * id and cannot name them until that list lands, and a save in the meantime has to reach the
+ * api all the same — the id is on the model, and the reader changed a name, not a member.
+ *
+ * A system test found this as `updates committee name and description` failing with a submit
+ * that produced no request at all: the form judged itself invalid because the picker had
+ * reported the member it could not yet name as no member.
+ */
+const COMMITTEE = {
+  id: 900,
+  name: "Events Committee",
+  description: "Runs the events, and has done for years.",
+  version: 3,
+  members: [{userId: 1, role: "Chair"}],
+}
+
+test.describe("the committee manager", () => {
+  test("saves a name change while the member list is still on its way", async ({page}) => {
+    await installApiMocks(page, {committees: [COMMITTEE]})
+    await loginAsBoard(page.context())
+
+    // Later routes win, so this one holds the user list back without touching the rest.
+    await page.route("**/users?**", async route => {
+      if (route.request().method() !== "GET") return route.fallback()
+      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 3000))
+      return route.fallback()
+    })
+
+    const saved = page.waitForRequest(
+      request => request.method() === "PUT" && /\/committees\/900$/.test(new URL(request.url()).pathname),
+    )
+
+    await page.goto("/committees/manage")
+    await page.getByTestId("committee-edit-btn-900").click()
+    await page.getByLabel("Committee name").fill("Events Committee Renamed")
+    await page.getByLabel("Description").fill("A description long enough to satisfy the rule.")
+
+    await page.getByTestId("committee-form-submit-btn").click()
+
+    const request = await saved
+    expect(JSON.parse(request.postData() ?? "{}")).toMatchObject({
+      name: "Events Committee Renamed",
+      description: "A description long enough to satisfy the rule.",
+      members: [{userId: 1, role: "Chair"}],
+    })
+  })
+})
diff --git a/services/frontend/tests/e2e/mocks.ts b/services/frontend/tests/e2e/mocks.ts
index fb360ed31..adab2e7da 100644
--- a/services/frontend/tests/e2e/mocks.ts
+++ b/services/frontend/tests/e2e/mocks.ts
@@ -496,7 +496,7 @@ export async function installApiMocks(page: Page, fixtures: Fixtures = {}) {
   ]
 
   const baseCommittees = fixtures.committees ?? [
-    {id: 900, name: "Events Committee"},
+    {id: 900, name: "Events Committee", description: "Runs the events.", version: 0, members: []},
   ]
 
   const baseBlogs = fixtures.blogs ?? [
@@ -896,6 +896,12 @@ export async function installApiMocks(page: Page, fixtures: Fixtures = {}) {
     if (method === "GET" && path === "/committees") {
       return fulfillJson(route, baseCommittees)
     }
+    if (method === "PUT" && /^\/committees\/\d+$/.test(path)) {
+      const id = Number(path.split("/").at(-1))
+      const body = JSON.parse(request.postData() ?? "{}") as Record<string, unknown>
+      const stored = baseCommittees.find((candidate) => Number(candidate.id) === id) ?? {id}
+      return fulfillJson(route, {...stored, ...body, id, version: Number(body.version ?? 0) + 1})
+    }
     if (method === "GET" && path === "/committeeMembers/committees") {
       return fulfillJson(route, baseCommittees)
     }
diff --git a/services/frontend/tests/unit/components/form/fields/UserSelect.test.ts b/services/frontend/tests/unit/components/form/fields/UserSelect.test.ts
index cea975b0f..be5f10adc 100644
--- a/services/frontend/tests/unit/components/form/fields/UserSelect.test.ts
+++ b/services/frontend/tests/unit/components/form/fields/UserSelect.test.ts
@@ -98,3 +98,43 @@ describe("UserSelect", () => {
     expect(mockFindUsers).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
   })
 })
+
+describe("a member the list cannot account for yet", () => {
+  /**
+   * The parent's value survives a list that does not contain it.
+   *
+   * `users` is one page of an unbounded table, fetched after this field mounts, so a member
+   * off that page cannot be resolved to a user yet. Emitting `undefined` there does not blank
+   * a field — it clears the id out of the form, the picked-a-user rule then refuses the save,
+   * and the submit sends no request at all. Which is the whole bug, three times over.
+   */
+  it("does not clear an id it simply cannot resolve", async () => {
+    const wrapper = mountSelect([], 4242)
+    await wrapper.vm.$nextTick()
+
+    const cleared = (wrapper.emitted("update:modelValue") ?? []).filter(([id]) => id === undefined)
+    expect(cleared).toHaveLength(0)
+  })
+
+  it("resolves it once the list arrives, without having lost it", async () => {
+    const wrapper = mountSelect([], alice.id)
+    await wrapper.vm.$nextTick()
+
+    await wrapper.setProps({users: [alice]})
+    await wrapper.vm.$nextTick()
+
+    expect(selected(wrapper)).toMatchObject({id: alice.id})
+    expect((wrapper.emitted("update:modelValue") ?? []).filter(([id]) => id === undefined)).toHaveLength(0)
+  })
+
+  /** A field the reader can actually see is a field the reader can actually clear. */
+  it("still reports a user clearing a value that was resolved", async () => {
+    const wrapper = mountSelect([alice], alice.id)
+    await wrapper.vm.$nextTick()
+
+    await wrapper.findComponent({name: "VAutocomplete"}).vm.$emit("update:modelValue", undefined)
+    await wrapper.vm.$nextTick()
+
+    expect((wrapper.emitted("update:modelValue") ?? []).some(([id]) => id === undefined)).toBe(true)
+  })
+})
diff --git a/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/helper/CommitteeFormHelper.kt b/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/helper/CommitteeFormHelper.kt
index c0e59f832..2c3a89f97 100644
--- a/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/helper/CommitteeFormHelper.kt
+++ b/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/helper/CommitteeFormHelper.kt
@@ -1,11 +1,15 @@
 package net.blueshell.api.system.frontend.helper
 
+import com.microsoft.playwright.Locator
 import com.microsoft.playwright.Page
 import com.microsoft.playwright.options.AriaRole
 import net.blueshell.systemtests.HttpFailureLog
 import com.microsoft.playwright.assertions.PlaywrightAssertions.assertThat as assertPw
 
 object CommitteeFormHelper {
+    /** The picker's 250ms settle, plus one api round trip, plus room for a machine under load. */
+    private const val OPTION_TIMEOUT_MS = 20_000.0
+
     fun fillCommittee(page: Page, name: String, description: String) {
         val nameField = page.getByLabel("Committee name")
         val descriptionField = page.getByLabel("Description")
@@ -36,16 +40,35 @@ object CommitteeFormHelper {
         // loads users asynchronously after mount — on a fresh create
         // form the autocomplete can be empty when this helper runs.
         // Waiting for the option locks the binding without polling.
+        //
+        // Given longer than the default: the picker settles for 250ms before it asks the api
+        // at all, and the answer is a round trip to a container that may be serving this
+        // query for the first time. Five seconds covers that on an idle machine and not on a
+        // loaded one, which is the whole of why this test failed in CI and never here.
         page.getByRole(
             AriaRole.OPTION,
             Page.GetByRoleOptions().setName(fullName).setExact(false),
-        ).first().click()
+        ).first().click(Locator.ClickOptions().setTimeout(OPTION_TIMEOUT_MS))
     }
 
     fun removeFirstMember(page: Page) {
         TestIdLocatorHelper.byTestIdPrefix(page, "committee-form-remove-member-btn-").click()
     }
 
+    /**
+     * What the form is refusing to save on, in its own words.
+     *
+     * A submit that sends no request at all has been refused by a rule rather than by the api,
+     * and the rule that refused is on the page as a message under its field. Read only when a
+     * save has already failed to arrive, so that the failure says which field rather than only
+     * that nothing was sent.
+     */
+    fun refusals(page: Page): List<String> =
+        page.locator("[data-testid=committee-form] .v-messages__message")
+            .allTextContents()
+            .map { it.trim() }
+            .filter { it.isNotEmpty() }
+
     fun submit(page: Page) {
         val submitBtn = TestIdLocatorHelper.byTestId(page, "committee-form-submit-btn")
         submitBtn.waitFor()
diff --git a/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/management/CommitteeManagerPageSystemTest.kt b/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/management/CommitteeManagerPageSystemTest.kt
index eaf94828b..7672e01dc 100644
--- a/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/management/CommitteeManagerPageSystemTest.kt
+++ b/tests/system/src/test/kotlin/net/blueshell/api/system/frontend/management/CommitteeManagerPageSystemTest.kt
@@ -161,9 +161,16 @@ class CommitteeManagerPageSystemTest : PlaywrightTestBase() {
         // that is what is waited for.
         CommitteeFormHelper.submit(page)
 
-        pollFor("committee metadata updated") {
-            val refreshed = TestHelper.findCommittee(committeeId)
-            refreshed != null && refreshed.name == updatedName && refreshed.description == updatedDescription
+        // A save that never reaches the api has been refused by a rule on the form, and the rule
+        // that refused says so under its own field. Without it the failure can only report that
+        // nothing was sent, which is where this one sat for two runs.
+        try {
+            pollFor("committee metadata updated") {
+                val refreshed = TestHelper.findCommittee(committeeId)
+                refreshed != null && refreshed.name == updatedName && refreshed.description == updatedDescription
+            }
+        } catch (refused: AssertionError) {
+            throw AssertionError("${refused.message} form refused with ${CommitteeFormHelper.refusals(page)}", refused)
         }
     }
     private fun pollForCommitteeByName(name: String): TestHelper.CommitteeRow =