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Can an affirmative vote to ASPA be rescinded?


Chris Claire

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At a meeting late last year a motion to do X passed. On the agenda for the next meeting, which took place recently, were, among other things, a motion to amend X (to provide more specifics for how it would work) and after that a motion to rescind X. The motion to amend X passed, and the hour was late, so the chair postponed the rest of the business to the next meeting.

My question is this: Is it in order for the motion to rescind to come up after an affirmative vote to amend? RONR (11th ed.) states on p. 307: "A negative vote on these motions [to amend or rescind] can be reconsidered, but not an affirmative vote." And on the next page RONR specifies what actions cannot be rescinded or amended, including, "When it has previously been moved to reconsider the vote on the main motion, and the question can be reached by calling up the motion to Reconsider (37)."

Technically this particular ASPA, which was affirmed, was not a reconsideration, but in the general spirit of the meaning of the term it was. At the next meeting, when the motion to rescind is made, can it be called out of order? The chair of the group (who is not a fan of X) intends to postpone any action on X until after the next meeting.

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Ideally, when the motion to amend was pending, a primary amendment should have been offered to rescind. Depending on the outcome of the primary amendment vote, the final motion to amend or rescind would have been taken.

That said, I don't see why rescind it out of play at a later session, since it can be applied to any adopted main motion where the action has not been carried out.

RONR does not give the President authority to delay the action.

Your use of the motion to reconsider the vote is not applicable based on your facts.

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Technically this particular ASPA, which was affirmed, was not a reconsideration, but in the general spirit of the meaning of the term it was.

The "general spirit of the meaning of the term" has no bearing on what RONR means by the term. Reconsideration, as RONR uses the term, played no part in your process. Feel free to rescind the amended motion.

And note that the chair, on his own, can't postpone anything.

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FYI, I'm trying to do whatever is possible to prevent it from being rescinded.

Well, then, take a careful look at pages 121-24. If a motion to rescind is made at the next meeting, you may be able to successfully argue that it will require either a two-thirds vote or the vote of a majority of the entire membership for its adoption, depending upon exactly what has actually occurred.

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At a meeting late last year a motion to do X passed. On the agenda for the next meeting, which took place recently, were, among other things, a motion to amend X (to provide more specifics for how it would work) and after that a motion to rescind X. The motion to amend X passed, and the hour was late, so the chair postponed the rest of the business to the next meeting.

My question is this: Is it in order for the motion to rescind to come up after an affirmative vote to amend? RONR (11th ed.) states on p. 307: "A negative vote on these motions [to amend or rescind] can be reconsidered, but not an affirmative vote." And on the next page RONR specifies what actions cannot be rescinded or amended, including, "When it has previously been moved to reconsider the vote on the main motion, and the question can be reached by calling up the motion to Reconsider (37)."

Technically this particular ASPA, which was affirmed, was not a reconsideration, but in the general spirit of the meaning of the term it was. At the next meeting, when the motion to rescind is made, can it be called out of order? The chair of the group (who is not a fan of X) intends to postpone any action on X until after the next meeting.

The answer to the question in the title of your thread would be no, but that is not what you're describing in your question.

You can't rescind a vote (Y) to amend a previous action (X), but you can rescind X itself in its entirety, even though it may have been amended one or more times before you do so.

But you cannot rescind or amend something after it has already been carried out.

Also the chair does not have the authority to postpone things. The assembly does.

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In response to the last response: "... you cannot rescind or amend something after it has already been carried out," would you kindly supply a citation?

P. 308 certainly, but also common sense. If the motion "to burn down that ugly gazebo in the yard" has already been carried out, any attempt to unburn it would be absurd.

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P. 308 certainly, but also common sense. If the motion "to burn down that ugly gazebo in the yard" has already been carried out, any attempt to unburn it would be absurd.

Sure, but if the motion was to paint the gazebo red, it's not as absurd (though it's equally parliamentarily improper) to think that you could rescind the motion and restore the original color.

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Sure, but if the motion was to paint the gazebo red, it's not as absurd (though it's equally parliamentarily improper) to think that you could rescind the motion and restore the original color.

Well, you could certainly move to repaint it the original color which, besides having the advantage of a lower vote threshold than R/ASPA, would be neither absurd* nor improper,

But moving to rescind the decision to paint it red is both, if it has already been painted. For one thing, rescission would make paying the bill for the paint problematic, since the job was retroactively unauthorized. And then, whose job would it be to painstakingly remove the coat of red paint with tweezers, or whatever?

(I believe the custom in most organizations is to assign such jobs to absentees.)

___________

*certain colors excepted, of course

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