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No Quorum at Nominations Meeting - Now What?


ParliamentaryBuff

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To elect our officers, we post a signup sheet for 60 days for members who want to run. Then, we take nominations from the floor per our bylaws, which state, "Nominations shall take place in the regular meeting in May… Any member in good standing may nominate eligible members for office." The problem is, we didn't have a quorum at the May meeting. RONR after the meeting, I see that we had several options to get a quorum or delay the meeting. Unfortunately, we weren't aware of those options and adjourned the meeting. Now, a member is upset that there was not an opportunity to take nominations from the floor. Some members are calling for a special meeting to take nominations from the floor, but the language is clear that it's the "regular meeting in May", so is that possible? Other members are frustrated because interested parties had plenty of time to sign up but are now complicating the process. I also noticed in RONR that nominations can be reopened by majority vote.

That is the background and the results of my research. What is the proper way(s) to proceed?

Thanks in advance.

- Sean

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First cross your fingers and hope that your bylaws include the "or until..." clause described on p. 573-574.

Then ignore the "regular meeting in May" because, obviously, you have to have elections.  So call a special meeting (if your bylaws authorize such) or wait until your next regular meeting to complete the elections.  See p. 444.

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1 hour ago, jstackpo said:

First cross your fingers and hope that your bylaws include the "or until..." clause described on p. 573-574.

Then ignore the "regular meeting in May" because, obviously, you have to have elections.  So call a special meeting (if your bylaws authorize such) or wait until your next regular meeting to complete the elections.  See p. 444.

I agree with your comment about the need to have an election and calling a special meeting if possible, but I interpret the original post as saying that they are to take NOMINATIONS at the May meeting.  He never said anything about when elections are to take place.

Based on that, I'm assuming that elections take place at the next meeting.  It should be possible to make nominations from the floor at that meeting unless the bylaws specifically prohibit it.  Even if the bylaws do prohibit it, there is the possibility that the rules could be suspended to permit it.  Even though that provision is in the bylaws, it seems to me to be in the nature of a rule of order that could be suspended.  I know there have been discussions about that in this forum.  Perhaps someone can point to a thread with such a discussion.

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3 hours ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

When are the elections?

Hieu, they are June 11th.

Quote

they are to take NOMINATIONS at the May meeting.

That is correct, Richard. We know what to do about the actual election because it is clearly specified in the bylaws. We're just not sure what to do about the failure to take nominations from the floor due to the quorum issue.

  • I know that a meeting adjourned due to quorum satisfies the obligation to have a meeting, so maybe we don't need to have nominations from the floor?
  • Or if we have a special meeting, can nominations from the floor be done then even though the bylaws say it is done at the regular May meeting?
  • Or maybe someone would have to make a motion to reopen the nominations at the special meeting by majority vote?
  • Or something else I haven't thought of!
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Do your bylaws specifically say that nominations from the floor shall not be allowed at the June election meeting?  If not, then per RONR they can, and in my opinion, should be allowed at that meeting.  From page 435 of RONR:  "Call by the Chair for Further Nominations from the Floor. After the nominating committee has presented its report and before voting for the different offices takes place, the chair must call for further nominations from the floor."

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3 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

Do your bylaws specifically say that nominations from the floor shall not be allowed at the June election meeting?  If not, then per RONR they can, and in my opinion, should be allowed at that meeting.  From page 435 of RONR:  "Call by the Chair for Further Nominations from the Floor. After the nominating committee has presented its report and before voting for the different offices takes place, the chair must call for further nominations from the floor."

Is it your view that a bylaw provision saying, e.g. ,"Nominations shall be from the floor at the May meeting, and the election held at the June meeting" would not prohibit nominations at the June meeting prior to the election?

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5 hours ago, SeanDeNigris said:

To elect our officers, we post a signup sheet for 60 days for members who want to run. Then, we take nominations from the floor per our bylaws, which state, "Nominations shall take place in the regular meeting in May… Any member in good standing may nominate eligible members for office." The problem is, we didn't have a quorum at the May meeting.

Each year our president appoints an ad-hoc nominating committee two months before the nomination meeting. Both the committee and the nominating meeting are prescribed in our bylaws.  The committee nominates one person for each office.  The committee submits its report to the chair before the nominations meeting. The report is made available to the membership by electronic means and a few by USPS.  If a quorum is not made for the nominations meeting the report of the committee still stands as a slate of officers. Our bylaws require a ballot election so anyone may write in a name at the time of elections.

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33 minutes ago, Godelfan said:

Is it your view that a bylaw provision saying, e.g. ,"Nominations shall be from the floor at the May meeting, and the election held at the June meeting" would not prohibit nominations at the June meeting prior to the election?

I do not think this provision, taken alone, would prohibit the assembly from having nominations from the floor at the June meeting, especially if the May meeting was unable to have nominations from the floor due to lack of a quorum.

2 hours ago, SeanDeNigris said:

Or maybe someone would have to make a motion to reopen the nominations at the special meeting by majority vote?

A special meeting seems like overkill just to make nominations. I'd make a motion to reopen nominations at the June meeting. A majority vote would be sufficient, in my opinion.

It could even be argued that the business which should have been conducted at the May meeting (the nominations) should automatically be conducted at the June meeting. Since nominations were never really opened (or closed) in the first place, I don't know that a motion to reopen them is necessary.

37 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

Do your bylaws specifically say that nominations from the floor shall not be allowed at the June election meeting?  If not, then per RONR they can, and in my opinion, should be allowed at that meeting.  From page 435 of RONR:  "Call by the Chair for Further Nominations from the Floor. After the nominating committee has presented its report and before voting for the different offices takes place, the chair must call for further nominations from the floor."

This citation is inapplicable in this case, because there is no nominating committee. This organization conducts its nominations by mail, and is therefore not required to take nominations from the floor by any rule in RONR. The organization's bylaws, however, call for nominations from the floor, and the organization is free in any event to take nominations from the floor, unless specifically prohibited by the bylaws (and even in that case, such a rule could likely be suspended).

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44 minutes ago, Godelfan said:

Is it your view that a bylaw provision saying, e.g. ,"Nominations shall be from the floor at the May meeting, and the election held at the June meeting" would not prohibit nominations at the June meeting prior to the election?

Yes, that is my position, although we don't know if that is, in fact, exactly what the bylaws say.  I take that position for two primary reasons.

First, rules concerning nominations in the bylaws are in the nature of rules of order and can be suspended.  Rules regarding qualifications of members cannot be suspended.  This rule concerns nominations.

Second, just as in the case of elections or certain reports of officers that the bylaws say should take place at a particular meeting, such as the annual meeting. if for some reason, such as the absence of a quorum, those actions are not completed at the designated meeting, they are not forever barred, but should be done as soon as possible, such as the next meeting.

Question:  If the June meeting is quorumless for some reason and the assembly adjourns without having set an adjourned meeting, is it your position that the reports can never be made and the elections never held..... or not held until the June meeting a year from now?  Of course not.  You just do it as soon as you can.  

I believe this situation with nominations from the floor is the same.  If it couldn't be done at the May meeting, do it at the June meeting.  I don't believe a suspension of the rules is even necessary, but if  so, they can certainly be suspended to permit nominations at the June meeting preceding the the elections. 

This recent thread sheds more light on suspending a bylaw provision regarding nominations: 

Oops.  I didn't intend to post the link twice, but now that I did, I can't get rid of the second one.  I'll keep trying.

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Thanks for all the replies!

Richard, Josh, and Hieu: the problem with doing it at the June meeting is that:

  • "write-in voting shall not be permitted" per the bylaws, and
  • absentee ballots must be available at least a week before elections. From the bylaws: "Any member upon request… shall have the right to vote by absentee ballot, at least one week prior to the election day."

So it seems in order to have the ballots prepared in time, we'd have to either:

  • skip the nominations from the floor, or
  • have a special nominations meeting, and reschedule the June meeting to allow time for the absentee ballots

Also, to complicate things further, the bylaws require 15 days notice for both the nominations meeting and the election meeting.

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23 hours ago, SeanDeNigris said:

Thanks for all the replies!

Richard, Josh, and Hieu: the problem with doing it at the June meeting is that:

  • "write-in voting shall not be permitted" per the bylaws, and
  • absentee ballots must be available at least a week before elections. From the bylaws: "Any member upon request… shall have the right to vote by absentee ballot, at least one week prior to the election day."

So it seems in order to have the ballots prepared in time, we'd have to either:

  • skip the nominations from the floor, or
  • have a special nominations meeting, and reschedule the June meeting to allow time for the absentee ballots

Also, to complicate things further, the bylaws require 15 days notice for both the nominations meeting and the election meeting.

Well, for starters, combining votes at a meeting with absentee votes is a terrible idea.

Based on these facts, I suppose a special meeting is the best idea, if it is possible to send notice in time.

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Well, for starters, combining votes at a meeting with absentee votes is a terrible idea.

Not if the vote at the meeting is also by ballot and if the potential candidates are entirely set in stone (as seems to be the case).

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