Non-voting members

[Guest Parker]

Our accrediting agency requires that our Head of School be an "ex-officio, non-voting, member." Is a "non-voting member" allowed in Robert's Rules?  Thanks.

[Chris Harrison]

RONR leaves it up to the organization to determine what sort of classes of membership (and what rights) they want to have.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

52 minutes ago, Guest Parker said:

Our accrediting agency requires that our Head of School be an "ex-officio, non-voting, member." Is a "non-voting member" allowed in Robert's Rules?  Thanks.

RONR does not have anything regarding a "non-voting member". It would have to be defined in your rules if it is to be allowed.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

1 hour ago, Guest Parker said:

Our accrediting agency requires that our Head of School be an "ex-officio, non-voting, member." Is a "non-voting member" allowed in Robert's Rules?  Thanks.

Robert's defines a member as having the right to vote. So your Head of School is not a member as far as RONR is concerned. The rights and privileges of this position will be entirely up to your own rules.

[Gary Novosielski]

3 hours ago, Guest Parker said:

Our accrediting agency requires that our Head of School be an "ex-officio, non-voting, member." Is a "non-voting member" allowed in Robert's Rules?  Thanks.

RONR does not have any type of non-voting member.  But since your bylaws supersede RONR, your organization does.   When this sort of thing is included in bylaws, the question often arises: what other rights, if any, are restricted?  Can the non-voting "member" make motions, speak in debate, attend executive sessions, and more?  Ultimately it's up to your society to define the role of a non-voting member. 

I think most of us here tend toward the view that when some of the rights of membership are explicitly removed in the bylaws, any rights not mentioned remain.  

[Gary Novosielski]

2 hours ago, Guest Who's Coming to Dinner said:

Robert's defines a member as having the right to vote. So your Head of School is not a member as far as RONR is concerned. The rights and privileges of this position will be entirely up to your own rules.

I think that if the bylaws say there are such things as non-voting members, then the Head of school is one, as far as RONR is concerned. 

[Gary c Tesser]

4 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

I think most of us here tend toward the view ...

And some of us vociferously and vehemently do not.

[Richard Brown]

I agree with Gary Novosielski's comments and will add that it is my firm opinion that when the bylaws restrict one or more of the basic rights of a class of membership, those members still have all rights of membership except for those specifically restricted .

I also believe that conclusion is the correct conclusion when applying the principles of interpretation of bylaws to such a statement in the bylaws.  Only those rights specifically mentioned are excluded.

Ultimately, though, it is up to each organization to interpret its own bylaws.

Edited to add: I also agree with all of the comments preceding Mr.Novosielski's first comment.

Edited October 18, 2017 at 03:31 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Dan Honemann]

I think the only significant disagreement was with respect to the right of persons not entitled to vote to attend executive sessions, since they are not "members" as that term is defined in RONR.

[Gary c Tesser]

2 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

it is my firm opinion that when the bylaws restrict one or more of the basic rights of a class of membership, those members still have all rights of membership except for those specifically restricted .

 

2 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

I think the only significant disagreement was with respect to the right of persons not entitled to vote to attend executive sessions, since they are not "members" as that term is defined in RONR.

O Richard, our first quarrel.

O Dan, our second first quarrel.

"-Apse, upse; apse unguent, apse unguentine.-"

(I ahve now cleared this stuff up.)