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objection to a candidate for board elections


Guest Sue

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At our upcoming AGM, one member may raise an objection to a candidate running for the board. The candidate meets the qualifications set out in our rules, but the member has an objection based on what she considers to be uncooperative behaviour. What should the chair do when the member raises her objection?

 

Candidates will say a few words, followed by a Q and A session. If the member raises her objection to this candidate in the form of a question, is that admissible? 

 

Thanks in advance for your help for those 2 questions.

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If the candidate meets the qualifications set out in the rules, then he or she meets the qualifications, full stop. There is no procedural grounds that could be used to deny this person's candidacy.

 

Your disgruntled member can, of course, try to convince people not to vote for the candidate. In the context of a meeting, she can't attack another member's character or make accusations against them."

 

Whether or not she can bring up issues in a Q&A period is ultimately up for your organization to decide. You may decide that she can't make a statement, but that she can ask the candidate to comment on an issue. These sorts of questions, and where the lines are, are for your organization (by the chair or, on appeal, the whole meeting by vote) to decide.

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RONR tinted pages 18-19, contains an entry #49.

49. Nominations, to make (46)

 

The column labeled "debatable" is marked "YES".

 

So, it appears that RONR confirms that "to make nominations" is debatable.

So, debate on things like "qualifications" would be in order.

 

When you go to Section 46 (Chapter XIV, Section 46, "Nominations and Elections"), and do a search for the word "debat . . ." [i.e., debate, debatable, debating, etc.], there is no such word in Section 46.

 

So the text of Section 46 does not contain a rule or sentence in support of tinted pages 18-19.

So I cannot cut-and-paste any text from Section 46 to show the reader how debate is to occur in the midst of "making a nomination."

 

***

The candidate meets the qualifications set out in our rules, but the member has an objection based on what she considers to be uncooperative behaviour. What should the chair do when the member raises her objection?
 

RONR does not offer a fixed solution to "how" debate is to be accomplished.

So I reply, "I don't know."


Candidates will say a few words, followed by a Q and A session. If the member raises her objection to this candidate in the form of a question, is that admissible?

 

RONR does not offer a fixed solution to "how" debate is to be accomplished.

So I reply, "I don't know."

 

Perhaps:

• The opportunity of true debate has passed, and it is too late.

• As long as a single member is allowed to speak "in favor", then there must be a right to speak "in opposition." So, your candidates forum might be the appropriate time and place for members to speak in the negative.

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If the member simply participates in debate (or Q&A) that's acceptable as long as the rules of decorum are observed.  

 

If the member raises a formal Point of Order, claiming that the candidate is not eligible to hold office for some reason, the chair should rule the point not well taken (if, as you say, the member is eligible according to your rules.)

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RONR tinted pages 18-19, contains an entry #49.

49. Nominations, to make (46)

 

The column labeled "debatable" is marked "YES".

 

So, it appears that RONR confirms that "to make nominations" is debatable.

So, debate on things like "qualifications" would be in order.

 

When you go to Section 46 (Chapter XIV, Section 46, "Nominations and Elections"), and do a search for the word "debat . . ." [i.e., debate, debatable, debating, etc.], there is no such word in Section 46.

 

So the text of Section 46 does not contain a rule or sentence in support of tinted pages 18-19.

 

So I cannot cut-and-paste any text from Section 46 to show the reader how debate is to occur in the midst of "making a nomination."

Thank you, Kim, for pointing out that conflict!!!   I have been scratching my head over it too, this weekend, because of some recent threads about nominations "being debatable" and about the time and method for making nominating and/or candidate speeches.  I found precisely what you found:  No clear guidance and the statement in the tinted pages that is nowhere supported by anything I could find in the text of the book.

 

I hope someone.... Mr. Honemann, perhaps.... can provide some guidance.

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Thank you, Kim, for pointing out that conflict!!!   I have been scratching my head over it too, this weekend, because of some recent threads about nominations "being debatable" and about the time and method for making nominating and/or candidate speeches.  I found precisely what you found:  No clear guidance and the statement in the tinted pages that is nowhere supported by anything I could find in the text of the book.

 

I hope someone.... Mr. Honemann, perhaps.... can provide some guidance.

 

Our resident expert on this subject is our very good friend George Mervosh, but I might mention that, in addition to what is said in the tinted pages, RONR says that:

 

"A nomination is, in effect, a proposal to fill the blank in an assumed motion 'that ______ be elected' to the specified position",  and that "Proposals to fill a blank in a debatable motion are debatable."  (p. 430; p. 164)

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As Dan points out, RONR does indicate that nominations are debatable, but really says nothing about how that particular debate is conducted.

 

Parliamentary Law may shed some light on the how to’s.  Referring to nominations, General Robert notes:  “They are seldom debated, though sometimes the member making the nomination makes what is termed a nominating speech.  This also is sometimes done by one or more seconders of the nomination.” Parliamentary Law, p. 206

 

Also, “The makers and the seconders of a nomination have the right to advocate the claim of their nominee when making or seconding the nomination.  As soon as the chair announces one nomination, another may be made in the same way, and so on, as long as members wish to nominate.  Parliamentary Law, p. 207

 

The answer to Question #242 in PL, on p. 497 is a bit too long to type in full, but the question was: “As a general rule, has the chair the right to refuse to recognize a member to make a nominating speech ?”

 

In his answer he notes, in part:  “If the member making the nomination wishes to make a nominating speech, he should obtain the floor and make his nomination and speech without waiting for the chair to state the nomination.  In a similar way, it may be seconded with a speech, or sometimes it is seconded by two or three members in succession, each making a speech.  This is all the debate that is customary.”

 

The General cautions that the chair must make sure these speeches are made in good faith and are not frivolous and wasting the assembly’s time and that a speech attacking another candidate’s qualifications should be avoided since it might be impossible not to get into personalities.

 

All I want to add at this time, is just a couple of things I’ve gathered from reading this:

  1. Initially, members can make nominating speeches and seconding speeches at the time the nomination is made.*
  2. The rules currently in RONR relating to length of speeches, decorum, germaneness, etc…all apply unless debate is limited or extended or the rules are suspended (for example, to permit at Q&A), or a rule is adopted regarding nominations at the outset of a meeting - most often a convention or large annual meeting where adopting standing rules are quite common.

 

*And any other time nominations are open and in order.

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