Angie N

Hello, In our organization the Parliamentarian is an elected position and is also chair of the bylaws committee and member of the executive board. I understand that the Parliamentarian in general should remain impartial and not participate in debate and voting unless by secret ballot. Does this still apply as a board member and chair of bylaws? If possible, can someone tell me where I can find the answer in RONR also? Thank you so much!

Help please! Questions: If a nominating committee is elected, what would be the process according to RONR on how the nominations can be handled if the committee doesn't yet exist? Would self nominations and any member nominating a member in a meeting be in order? The bylaws only state that the committee is elected. Also want to mention this is not a new organization. Thank you!!

Thank you Mr. Kapur! I do appreciate this response and suggestion. I am also more optimistic. I am a part of this group and the fact that I am asking questions here for guidance, does in fact say we want to get it right even I represent a small population.

Thank you! With the proper guidance we will.

I appreciate your opinion and agree we may not have been prepared. We will definitely move on however we are having a special meeting for the vacancy and I want to be able to ensure we get this right.

I really want us to get this corrected properly.

I understand your comment however they are elected in my organization

It was presented by the president agreeing with this recommendation from the Parliamentarian. There has been a lot of back and forth about next steps other than filling the vacancy. The president is even considering just declaring the unopposed candidate the winner. It was said she never declared her the winner or "loser" she just adjourned the meeting not knowing what to do because the no votes were counted as the majority. Can he do this? Our bylaws say elections are done by secret ballot.

Hello again. I'm sorry to beat this dead horse however I have another question. The election was contested and our Parliamentarian declared the entire election invalid due to the ballot being incorrect and members not present at the meeting and voted. It was about 5 which wouldn't change the results for any of the candidates. I understand the points made here about contesting the election had to be timely with a point of order during the meeting and it wasn't. I also don't believe we should be doing the entire election over just filling the vacancy. Based on 46:50, can the membership decide that the election was invalid and we have the election over? Are they any other RONR references that would explain why the election was valid and just incomplete? Thanks again @Gary Novosielski @Joshua Katz@Atul Kapur@Richard Brown

@Richard Brown This is exactly what is stated in the bylaws. "The term of office shall be two years." There is no other language about vacancies or until successors are elected.

Mr. Katz, yes I meant until the next election - thank you for the correction. The bylaws say the term of office for the position is 2 years. No further information about filling vacancies.

Thank you for this information. I will certainly pass along so hopefully this doesn't happen again.

Thank you for responding. This is helpful.

That is correct. The no votes got the majority for this candidate. And the meeting adjourned stating that the current officer will stay in place until elections however there are no provisions in our bylaws about vacancies so I don't believe that's the correct solution. Thank you for your help. This makes sense that election is incomplete.

I have a follow up question. The chair did declare the results however one of the candidates on the ballot was not on the call to contest the results. I know it was mentioned in this thread that it had to be timely to contest. One of the candidates does plan to contest because he was an unopposed candidate and as a result of the ballot having a no option instead of a write in he lost. Would this be scenario be in order or is the election still final with no alternative solution to rectify?