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Assigning the Floor, Multiple Motions


dodger71

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I am new to this board and hoped someone could provide some guidance. I have followed Robert’s Rules for years, but I am not a parliamentarian and am no expert. Here are the circumstances:

I am going to serve as chair for a relatively large academic meeting that will likely become contentious. The committee is considering serious curricular changes, so everyone has strong feelings.

I will likely receive about four different written motions before the meeting. The motions will contradict one another, so only one can be a main motion at a time. I know that only one of the motions can become the original main motion when I have assigned the floor to a member who will then make a motion (probably by introducing one of the four written motions submitted before the meeting).

Under Robert’s Rules (p. 30), the person who rises first is the one I should assign the floor. However, I do not think the selection process described on p. 30 is feasible given that four members are going to seek the floor aggressively from the outset of the meeting.

My question:

What other options do I have for assigning the floor to one of the members who submitted a written motion before the meeting? I think that some kind of random selection process would be fair, but I am not aware of any precedent for assigning the floor through random selection. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Alternatively, do I have other ways to prioritize the motions before the meeting?

Thanks in advance. 

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RONR pp. 380-382 goes into more detail regarding preference in recognition.  That being said I think that you ultimately will need to recognize whoever rises first seeking the floor and the others will simply have to work within the rules to get their competing motions considered (for example they can check out RONR pp. 153-162 regarding offering an amendment to the motion via a substitution).  Stay tuned for thoughts from others who may have more experience dealing with larger more contentious assemblies.

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Only one original main motion may be on the floor at any time.  What is the nature of these other four motions?  Are they amendments to the original main motion?  If not, they will have to wait until the main motion is disposed of.  If they are amendments, then only one of them may be considered at a time while the original main motion is pending.

Maybe if we had some more details we could be of more help.

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6 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

Only one original main motion may be on the floor at any time.  What is the nature of these other four motions?  Are they amendments to the original main motion?  If not, they will have to wait until the main motion is disposed of.  If they are amendments, then only one of them may be considered at a time while the original main motion is pending....[snip]

A few thoughts.

1.  As I read this, all these proposals originate as original main motions, of equal status, except when the chair recognizes one of the members trying to move them.

2.  Although each of these "about four" proposals was apparently envisioned as a stand-alone, hopefully without competition, a full two of them can be moved as proposed substitutes, while the version that actually leapt to his feet nano-fractionally faster than the others, is pending,  So I think this: " If they are amendments, then only one of them may be considered at a time while the original main motion is pending" is oversimplified (albeit mercifully).

 

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9 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

Only one original main motion may be on the floor at any time.  What is the nature of these other four motions?  Are they amendments to the original main motion?  If not, they will have to wait until the main motion is disposed of.  If they are amendments, then only one of them may be considered at a time while the original main motion is pending.

Maybe if we had some more details we could be of more help.

Thank you to everyone for the comments. These have helped.

The entire business of the meeting will focus on the adoption of one of four proposals, which will be submitted in writing before the committee meeting. The person to whom I assign the floor first will be allowed to move to adopt his or her proposal. Based on other comments above and my reading of RONR, the other members can then move to amend via substitution.Thus, if we have four total proposals, we would have one original main motion to consider the first proposal followed by votes to consider the other proposals through a series of motions to amend via substitution.

My real focus was how to assign the floor initially because I think the initial decision will be a big point of contention. In other words, all four members who submit written proposals will demand assignment of the floor. It makes sense to me to put the matter of assignment to an assembly vote, assigning the floor to the person receiving the largest number of votes (RONR p. 382). We are also likely going to have a bunch of subsidiary motions as well, including motions to table indefinitely. Thus, I am very concerned that we at least have some order to the initial part of the meeting so that the assembly has a clearer idea of what we are actually considering. As I would suspect many of you know, academic assemblies do not always follow Robert's Rules as closely as they should!

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47 minutes ago, dodger71 said:

 

Thank you to everyone for the comments. These have helped.

The entire business of the meeting will focus on the adoption of one of four proposals, which will be submitted in writing before the committee meeting. The person to whom I assign the floor first will be allowed to move to adopt his or her proposal. Based on other comments above and my reading of RONR, the other members can then move to amend via substitution.Thus, if we have four total proposals, we would have one original main motion to consider the first proposal followed by votes to consider the other proposals through a series of motions to amend via substitution.

 

Well, no, dealing with motions to amend offered in the form of motions to substitute (RONR, 11th ed. pp. 153-62) isn't quite as simple as this, and I'm afraid that you have a bit of studying to do before your meeting. After you have spent some time reviewing these rules, come back and let us know if you have questions remaining.

 

47 minutes ago, dodger71 said:

My real focus was how to assign the floor initially because I think the initial decision will be a big point of contention. In other words, all four members who submit written proposals will demand assignment of the floor. It makes sense to me to put the matter of assignment to an assembly vote, assigning the floor to the person receiving the largest number of votes (RONR p. 382). We are also likely going to have a bunch of subsidiary motions as well, including motions to table indefinitely. Thus, I am very concerned that we at least have some order to the initial part of the meeting so that the assembly has a clearer idea of what we are actually considering. As I would suspect many of you know, academic assemblies do not always follow Robert's Rules as closely as they should!

Yes, I think that putting the matter of assignment of the floor to an assembly vote is probably your best course of action, assuming you cannot get the interested parties to come to some sort of an agreement as to how to proceed.

By the way, you say that these proposals involve "curricular changes." Does this mean that these proposals will be motions to amend something previously adopted and is now in effect, or are they truly original proposals?

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2 minutes ago, Chris Harrison said:

If the assembly is asked to decide who gets the floor would a majority vote be required in order to assign the floor to a particular member or would it be whoever gets the most votes?

" If the chair is in doubt as to who is entitled to the floor, he can allow the assembly to decide the question by a vote, in which case the member receiving the largest vote is entitled to the floor. " RONR (11th ed.), p. 382

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1 hour ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

Well, no, dealing with motions to amend offered in the form of motions to substitute (RONR, 11th ed. pp. 153-62) isn't quite as simple as this, and I'm afraid that you have a bit of studying to do before your meeting. After you have spent some time reviewing these rules, come back and let us know if you have questions remaining.

To be sure, I have plenty of studying to do, but I do realize the process is not simple. I was really just outlining options.

1 hour ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

By the way, you say that these proposals involve "curricular changes." Does this mean that these proposals will be motions to amend something previously adopted and is now in effect, or are they truly original proposals?

They are truly original proposals. We may also have to address motions that are out of order (RONR, 11th ed., p. 111, regarding motions previously adopted) as well as motions to rescind (probably also out of order under RONR, 11th ed., p. 308). I am more immediately concerned with assigning the floor initially.

Thanks.

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23 hours ago, dodger71 said:

They are truly original proposals. We may also have to address motions that are out of order (RONR, 11th ed., p. 111, regarding motions previously adopted) as well as motions to rescind (probably also out of order under RONR, 11th ed., p. 308). I am more immediately concerned with assigning the floor initially.

I understand that your immediate concern is with assigning the floor, and that is why I asked what I did. It might have had some relevance (e.g., see pp. 593-94).

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