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Recusals and Voting


Guest Jim Anderson

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There is no such thing as "recusal" in RONR-Land. All members (with the possible exception of those subject to disciplinary proceedings) have a right to vote. No member may be compelled to vote and no member may be compelled to abstain.

 

By the way, if this is an election, you vote for individual candidates for individual offices. You don't vote "to approve the entire board slate".

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Thank You Edgar. More detail. We are technically a nominating committee. We select nominees and present an entire slate of nominees for an up or down vote to our entire membership. I was required to recuse myself from discussions regarding the board chair position because my business partner was a nominee. The claim was that it would be conflict of interest. I argued that there was no potential for financial gain and therefore the issue they were concerned with should be labeled Personal Bias. I still agreed to recuse to eliminate any perception of bias. After the "selection" of the chair, we discussed and nominated the other board positions. They ask for a vote of the committee to approve the roster of nominees. I voted to approve and later started to question whether I could actually vote on the entire slate considering I recused for the chair position. Another committee member recused for a different board position. Should we have abstained from the vote of approval?

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We select nominees and present an entire slate of nominees for an up or down vote to our entire membership.

That's unfortunate but if those are your rules then those are your rules. But are those really your rules or just a custom? Does your board really have the authority to tell the membership (who, presumably, elected the board members) to, in effect, take it or leave it?

 

I was required to recuse myself from discussions regarding the board chair position because my business partner was a nominee. The claim was that it would be conflict of interest. I argued that there was no potential for financial gain and therefore the issue they were concerned with should be labeled Personal Bias. I still agreed to recuse to eliminate any perception of bias. After the "selection" of the chair, we discussed and nominated the other board positions. They ask for a vote of the committee to approve the roster of nominees. I voted to approve and later started to question whether I could actually vote on the entire slate considering I recused for the chair position. Another committee member recused for a different board position. Should we have abstained from the vote of approval?

Whether or not you chose (or were required) to refrain from participating in debate has absolutely no bearing on whether or not you can vote. I'm sure many members remain silent and then vote. In any event, the proper way to have resolved this was for a member to have raised a point of order to the effect that your vote was improper (not that he'd have much of a case). The chair would rule on the point of order but his ruling could be appealed. The assembly (the members present) would decide who's "right".

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Seems like a terrible way to operate a nominating committee. Generally, you want people on a nominating committee who know people, have connections, and have worked with people, so they have a larger pool of people they are willing to recommend, as well as having people they know aren't suited for the job. It kind of defeats the purpose if a person can't nominate people he knows.

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 We are technically a nominating committee. We select nominees and present an entire slate of nominees for an up or down vote to our entire membership.

 

Could you quote the bylaws rule that says there is an up or down vote on a "slate"?  I'm not doubting your word, but i'd just like to see how the language is phrased.

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