Nominations & Elections

[Amber]

Our organization accepts nominations before our conference and also from the floor during the conference business meeting. Members then vote by ballot later that evening. My questions are:

When a nomination is made from the floor, does it require a second?

If there is only one nominee for an office and they are elected by acclimation,  does this need a second or is it appropriate to simply say "If there are no further objections, I declare the nominee elected by acclimation?

Do nominations from the floor require a motion to close the vote? Is it appropriate to say "There being no further nominations, I declare nomination closed for the office of Secretary?

Does any of this change just because we have a Nominations & Elections committee?

 

 

[Richard Brown]

In the order that you asked:

1. Nominations do not require a second.

2. If there is only one nominee, the chair can declare the nominee elected unless your bylaws require a ballot vote. If so you must still vote by ballot. That requirement cannot be waived.

3. A motion to close nominations is not necessary. After an appropriate pause, if it appears there are no more nominations, the chair may declare the nominations closed using the language you indicated.

4. Having a nominating committee does not cause that procedure to change, except the report of the nominating committee is received first. The chair then asks if there are any additional nominations for each office.

[Gary Novosielski]

8 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

3. A motion to close nominations is not necessary. After an appropriate pause, if it appears there are no more nominations, the chair may declare the nominations closed using the language you indicated.

Well, not exactly the same language.  More like: "If there are no further objections nominations...." 

[Amber]

Thank you so much for the feedback!

Our organization is in disagreement over who takes nominations from the floor. I believe it is our President but I'm being told it's the Nominations and Elections Chair. Can you point me to the section in RR that would address this?

 

[Bruce Lages]

It is the president - or whoever is chair at the time - who presides over the nomination process. Try this from RONR - "A nominating committee is automatically discharged when its report is formally presented to the assembly..." (p.435, ll.4-5).

[Dan Honemann]

And try this as well:

"The practice in some organizations of permitting the chairman of a committee to preside over the assembly or put questions to vote during the presentation and consideration of the committee's report violates numerous principles of parliamentary law relating to the chair's appearance of impartiality and the inappropriateness of his entering into debate, not to speak of the regular presiding officer's duty to preside (see pp. 448–49)."   (RONR, 11th ed., p. 453) 

[Richard Brown]

1 hour ago, Gary Novosielski said:

Well, not exactly the same language.  More like: "If there are no further objections nominations...." 

Good catch. Thanks. 

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

And finally, the word is acclamation, as in acclaim. "Acclimate" means something else.