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Chairman of the Board


Jim Anderson

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Chairman of the Board

In our organization, the Chairman of the Board is the President of the organization. The duties of the President, include appointing committees other than those committees whose appointments are identified as “appointed” or “elected” by the Board.

In addition, our Board has adopted the rules for “small boards” as it contains fewer than 12 elected members.

In regard to President appointed committees:

  1. When and if a committee chair so appointed by the President resigns, does the President (also COB) have the right to take over as chair of that committee?

  2. If so, does the President as COB need to relinquish the chair position to the next in line in order to make a report of the committee to the Board and enter into debate and voting on the report (considering our Board adopted “small board” rules)?

  3. If the next in line (Vice President) were to accept the temporary “chair” position, does this acting “chair” have a right to enter into debate and vote on the report (considering our Board adopted “small board” rules)?

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Thank you all.

In regard to my third question, I was simply attempting to obtain an answer as to whether the Vice-President if taking over the chair, could enter debate/discussion and vote on any motion presented by the President who stepped down from the chair position to make a  motion, debate it and vote on the question. Keeping in mind that our Board has adopted the relaxed rules for a "small board".

Perhaps this wording of my question would be better:

"If the Vice President were to accept the chair position, would he have a right to enter into debate and vote on the report?

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Since the answer to the second question was No, because you have adopted small board rules, the president would not have stepped down from the chair, so the vice president would not be in the chair.  

However, if for some reason the VP is presiding, the question is reduced to question 2, which is still No.

 

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Clarification please:

Mr. Novosielski, in your last post you indicate the answer to my 3rd question is the same as #2 which is still no.

The question #3 is slightly different from #2 in that it asks:

If the V-P sitting in the "chair" position would have the right to enter into debate and vote on any resulting question?

Whereas #2 asks if the President would need to step down to debate/vote.

Thank you

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On 4/19/2016 at 0:16 PM, Jim Anderson said:

. . . considering our Board adopted “small board” rules . . .

So, you are using the Robert's Rules option of "small boards and committees" subset of parliamentary rules?

Then see page 500.

Quote

In committees, the chairman is usually the most active participant in the discussions and work of the committee.

And see page 488.

Quote

If the chairman is a member [in a small board or committee], he may, without leaving the chair, speak in informal discussions and in debate, and vote on all questions.

 

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1 hour ago, Jim Anderson said:

Clarification please:

Mr. Novosielski, in your last post you indicate the answer to my 3rd question is the same as #2 which is still no.

The question #3 is slightly different from #2 in that it asks:

If the V-P sitting in the "chair" position would have the right to enter into debate and vote on any resulting question?

Whereas #2 asks if the President would need to step down to debate/vote.

Thank you

Why aren't these, in part, the same question?  That is, if the chair need not step down to debate/vote, then of course the VP may debate and vote when presiding.  

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6 hours ago, Jim Anderson said:

Clarification please:

Mr. Novosielski, in your last post you indicate the answer to my 3rd question is the same as #2 which is still no.

The question #3 is slightly different from #2 in that it asks:

If the V-P sitting in the "chair" position would have the right to enter into debate and vote on any resulting question?

Whereas #2 asks if the President would need to step down to debate/vote.

Thank you

The rules that apply to the presiding officer, with respect to voting, making motions, and the like, would be the same regardless of whether it happened to be the president, the VP filling in in the absence of the president, or a president pro-tem elected for a single session.  

So effectively questions #3 and #2 are the same question, and have the same answer.

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11 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

The rules that apply to the presiding officer, with respect to voting, making motions, and the like, would be the same regardless of whether it happened to be the president, the VP filling in in the absence of the president, or a president pro-tem elected for a single session.  

So effectively questions #3 and #2 are the same question, and have the same answer.

Right, but I think the OP's point is that while the questions are getting at the same thing, they are worded in such a way that the answers are the opposite. Question #2 asks if the President needs to step down from the chair to speak in debate. Question #3 asks if the Vice President may speak in debate while serving as chair. For a small board, the answers are "No" and "Yes," respectively.

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