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Town meeting


Guest demoranvilles

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Guest demoranvilles

We are redoing our town meeting because of problems with procedure (in Maine). I read somewhere that you can not have the same moderator preside over the second meeting. Is this true? And if so, where can I find the info for that?

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We are redoing our town meeting because of problems with procedure (in Maine). I read somewhere that you can not have the same moderator preside over the second meeting. Is this true? And if so, where can I find the info for that?

There isn't any rule in RONR against having the same presiding officer again, but the concept of "redoing" a meeting is not from the book either. If you really are required to "redo" a meeting, that comes from some other source of rules.

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Guest demoranvilles

We had some parlimentary procedures that were not followed. We were told that we could not increase our amount in any article. We always have in the past (town does not have a charter), and our articles are written as "open ended". Our new town manager interpreted them as closed, and would not let us increase the amounts. The moderator went with what he said, mainly because he did not have a manual in front of him to go by.

Thanks so much for your response!

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We had some parlimentary procedures that were not followed. We were told that we could not increase our amount in any article. We always have in the past (town does not have a charter), and our articles are written as "open ended". Our new town manager interpreted them as closed, and would not let us increase the amounts. The moderator went with what he said, mainly because he did not have a manual in front of him to go by.

Thanks so much for your response!

Decisions made at the meeting can probably be revisited, by means of a motion to rescind, or to amend something previously adopted (see RONR pp. 293-299). These motions have higher voting threshholds (2/3 vote without notice OR majority vote with notice OR majority vote of the entire membership) than an ordinary main motion.

An incorrect ruling by the moderator (chair?) regarding the possibility of amendment (which is what I think you are describing) does not make the actions of the previous meeting invalid. A point of order about the moderator's error would have had to be timely (i.e. raised at the time the error was made). However, since this is a town body, you may well be subject to other rules and/or statutes. If one of those superior rules was broken by not allowing amendment, then the actions of the meeting might be null and void on that basis (see RONR p. 244 for a description of 'continuing breaches').

Your original suggestion that the same moderator might not be allowed to chair the next meeting does not come from anything in RONR. Just because the presiding officer screwed up at one meeting, no automatic mechanism puts someone different in the chair for the next meeting. If you have such a rule, it must be found elsewhere.

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