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Presidents Authority to Allow/Not Allow Vote


Guest Lisa

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I recently joined a group and a major topic is coming up for discussion at our next meeting.

Because this could be a contentious topic, it was communicated that the President of the group had the right to do the following:

"If the discussion warrants a vote to be taken, the president has the right to conduct a vote, at his discretion"

Is this correct?  I've never heard that a President of an organization has the sole authority to determine if something should be voted on or not, especially if many people are requesting that a vote occur to determine the direction of a topic after an open discussion about it in the next meeting

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There is certainly no authority for such a claim in RONR.  According to those rules, business is brought before the assembly by way of a motion.  Once a motion has been made, debate is held on that motion, at the close of which the matter comes to a vote (during debate, other motions may modify the motion, change the way debate is conducted, speed things up, slow things down, or dispose of the motion in some other way, such as by postponing it or sending it to a committee).  

Many organizations seem to have the idea that it is better to engage in lots of round-about debate, and only rarely (with hushed voices at the momentous occasion) present a motion.  This is a very good way to not get things done.  It sounds like your organization has taken it a step further by lettings its president decide, based on the debate, if there is something to be voted on.  (There is ample historical support for this, it was common before the current system of parliamentary procedure was introduced for debate to occur, and the chair to try to determine, from the debate, what question should be considered, then put that to a vote.  People found it didn't work all that well, which is why we use our current system instead.)

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