Chair role in election of members

[Guest Babe in the woods]

I have a question involving what Roberts says about a Chairs role in an election, as well as general ethical standards. Board members are voted in by my organizations membership as a whole. We have a nominations committee which recommends candidates, with their consent, but we also accept nominations from the floor and any member of the organization can request to be on the ballot. Is there any guidance in Roberts to the chairs role or conduct? Nothing in the bylaws of my organization. In my organization the chair is campaigning against the nomination committee's recommendation. While our boards elections always involve lively campaigning I have never seen the chair so active in this before, accept when they were on the ballot themselves. I thought a chair, as a general rule was not supposed to engage in debate, although, the campaigning is occurring outside of our meetings. Thank you in advance for your comments, I am learning.

[Josh Martin]

29 minutes ago, Guest Babe in the woods said:

Is there any guidance in Roberts to the chairs role or conduct? Nothing in the bylaws of my organization. In my organization the chair is campaigning against the nomination committee's recommendation. While our boards elections always involve lively campaigning I have never seen the chair so active in this before, accept when they were on the ballot themselves. I thought a chair, as a general rule was not supposed to engage in debate, although, the campaigning is occurring outside of our meetings.

You are correct that the chair is not to engage in debate, however, RONR has no rules regarding what the chair says outside of meetings.