Nominating Committee - report and petitions

[Guest Guest WMCW]

A chapter of a large organization has an executive committee (ExCom) that's elected by the chapter's membership. The chapter bylaws specify that the ExCom shall appoint a committee to nominate candidates to serve on it. The NomCom then reports a list of candidates to the ExCom. According to the bylaws, candidates who are not on the NomCom list may be placed on the ballot by petition of the membership. Elections themselves are handled by a different committee. 

Questions:

1) Does the NomCom simply make its report and the ExCom passively receives it? There does not appear to be any recommendation to implement or any reason to adopt/approve/accept the report. 

2) My 10th edition indicates that after a nominating committee makes it report, the chair of the receiving committee should then open the floor for additional nominations. However the bylaws of this chapter indicates that additional candidates should be added by petition. Does the explicit inclusion of a method for adding candidates mean that nominations from the floor should not be requested? 

[Joshua Katz]

1.  I'm a bit thrown by "it" in the following sentence:  The chapter bylaws specify that the ExCom shall appoint a committee to nominate candidates to serve on it.  

Is the "it" here the ExCom?  Assuming it is, given that the membership elects the ExCom, I have no idea what the ExCom should do with the report of the nominating committee.  I would guess say "thank you" and move on, like a treasurer's report.  Do the bylaws actually state that the committee reports to the executive committee?

2.  10th?  Horrors.  We don't use that thing anymore.  We're on the 11th now.  However, it remains true that, unless the bylaws say otherwise, the chair should call for nominations from the floor.  I assume that the chair of the receiving committee is presiding during the election?  I'm not sure how that happened (or what a receiving committee is), but I will assume that's what your bylaws say.  In any case, you're asking a question of bylaw interpretation, and I'm not prepared to give an answer.  However, there is a general rule that the specific governs over the general, and that specific permission forbids other things of the same class.  It is likely that the provision here means that no nominations should be taken from the floor, but much will depend on the language used.

[Guest WMCW]

Thanks for your prompt reply. 

1) You got it right. I should have written "The chapter bylaws specify that the ExCom shall appoint a committee to nominate candidates to serve on the ExCom, who are then voted on by the general membership."  And yes, the NomCom reports to the ExCom. From the bylaws: "The NomCom... shall report the nominees’ names to the ExCom..."

Since I first wrote a new wrinkle has come to light. The ExCom debated whether to accept or reject the report, which was controversial because it omitted some incumbents. I can't find anything in RNR about reports being rejected. Is that even possible?

The closest thing I can imagine would be for the ExCom to reconvene the NomCom, perhaps with different members, and ask them to prepare a fresh report. Is that ever done? 

2) Understood. 

 

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, Guest WMCW said:

Thanks for your prompt reply. 

1) You got it right. I should have written "The chapter bylaws specify that the ExCom shall appoint a committee to nominate candidates to serve on the ExCom, who are then voted on by the general membership."  And yes, the NomCom reports to the ExCom. From the bylaws: "The NomCom... shall report the nominees’ names to the ExCom..."

Since I first wrote a new wrinkle has come to light. The ExCom debated whether to accept or reject the report, which was controversial because it omitted some incumbents. I can't find anything in RNR about reports being rejected. Is that even possible?

The closest thing I can imagine would be for the ExCom to reconvene the NomCom, perhaps with different members, and ask them to prepare a fresh report. Is that ever done? 

2) Understood. 

So far as RONR is concerned, the report of the nominating committee is neither accepted nor rejected. Whether your bylaws provide otherwise is up to your organization to interpret.

With that said, if the Executive Committee has the authority to appoint the nominating committee, I suppose it could replace the committee's members, in hopes that the new members would submit a revised report. I have never seen such a thing happen, and (especially considering that the apparent reason for this action is protecting their own positions), I imagine there would be repercussions for such a decision.

[Joshua Katz]

2 hours ago, Guest WMCW said:

Since I first wrote a new wrinkle has come to light. The ExCom debated whether to accept or reject the report, which was controversial because it omitted some incumbents. I can't find anything in RNR about reports being rejected. Is that even possible?

 

As I said, I don't even know why the nominating committee is reporting to the executive committee (well, I know now that it's because your bylaws say so, but I don't know why your bylaws say so).  As a result, I can't say whether or not it's possible (or what it would mean) for the executive committee to 'reject' the report.  In general, reports are received without action, and any recommendations in them are moved and considered.  Here, the bylaws direct a committee to report to the executive committee with, seemingly, no recommendations.  If I were to hazard a guess, it looks informational, but I'm not walking out on that limb since reading the entirety of the bylaws would be needed.  

I agree with everything Mr. Martin says.  I might add that, while people will be people, it shouldn't be all that controversial to not nominate people for additional terms - if the point was to rubber stamp the incumbents, the executive committee might as well be the nominating committee.

[Richard Brown]

It seems to me that unless there is some contrary provision in this organization's rules, this committee is an ordinary nominating committee and its nominees should automatically be placed on the ballot. I don't think the executive committee or any other body should have the right to arbitrarily change the report.

 

[Joshua Katz]

I also agree with Mr. Brown.  

[Guest WMCW]

Thanks for the responses. You've all been very helpful.