Differentiation between President and Chairman in voting

[Guest Russell Pyle]

Our structure is that we have a President and a Chairman of the Board.  Within that structure does the president have a vote?

[Bruce Lages]

We can't really address how your structure defines the voting rights of your officers. Your own rules should spell that out. However, if RONR is your parliamentary authority and no rule of yours specifically supercedes RONR, then what RONR says is that all members retain their voting rights unless limited by disciplinary proceedings. It is the presiding officer of whatever assembly is meeting who should not exercise these rights in order to maintain the appearance of impartiality, except when his vote will make a difference or when the vote is taken by ballot.

 

In addition, for small assemblies, such as boards, of not more than about a dozen members,  the use of RONR's small board rules allows the presiding officer to vote with everyone else, as well as make motions and participate fully in debate.

[Edgar Guest]

Our structure is that we have a President and a Chairman of the Board.  Within that structure does the president have a vote?

 

Perhaps you have a president of the organization and a chairman of the board? If that's the case, the president would be the presiding officer at meetings of the general membership and the chairman (of the board) would be the presiding officer at meetings of the board.

 

Both, as members of the body that is meeting, would have the right to vote but the president should probably refrain from exercising that right in most instances. See FAQ #1.

 

If, on the other hand, you have both a president of the board and a chairman of the board, you'll have to resolve that conundrum for yourselves.