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Nominating Committee Problem


Larry

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My organization’s bylaws states that people running for office should not be allowed to be on the nominating committee. Do to an oversight, a candidate was put on the committee. There was no questions, complaints or concerns about this until after the committee rendered its decision. Then all of the sudden, people had a problem with that member of the committee.

Should the committee’s decision be rendered invalid due to the oversight in picking a candidate for committee membership, or since there were no objections until after a decision was made, should the Nominating Committee’s decision stand?

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Since the committee is making only a recommendation, it will be up to the voters to decide whether or not to vote for the candidate who was improperly placed on the committee.  Did the committee include him/her in its selection of candidates in its report?  There will (should) be a chance to make nominations from the floor when the election process gets under way.  See page 435.

At any rate, done is done so just do the election.

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Guest Who's Coming to Dinner
15 minutes ago, Guest Zev said:

I fail to see why the assembly must accept the report from the nominating committee or any committee. Move to amend the committee report. Isn't this what is done with any committee report? What is the problem?

Huh? I'm not sure the assembly has the authority to alter a committee report. The report is what the majority of committee members agree to and is a matter of fact and record.

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22 hours ago, Larry said:

My organization’s bylaws states that people running for office should not be allowed to be on the nominating committee. . . .

Please quote for us exactly, verbatim, what the bylaws say about this.  Please don't paraphrase, quote exactly.

1 hour ago, Atul Kapur, PRP "Student" said:

Isn't the appointment of the Nominations Committee (with the ineligible member) a continuing breach as it violates the bylaws?

I don't know.  It might depend on the exact wording of the relevant bylaw provision.  Regardless, I don't think it renders the report of the nominating committee void, but it would enable the removing  of the ineligible member as long as the breach continues.  Once the report is issued without a point of order having been raised as to the possibly ineligible member, I think it's too  late to do anything about it.  The committee is discharged when it issues its report unless  one of the nominees withdraws and it re-convenes to come with another nominee.  (RONR p. 435).

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14 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

I fail to see why the assembly must accept the report from the nominating committee or any committee. Move to amend the committee report. Isn't this what is done with any committee report? What is the problem?

It is neither appropriate nor necessary to amend the report of the nominating committee. Members are free to make further nominations from the floor.

Indeed, it is generally not appropriate to amend any committee report. Reports for information only are received and placed on file. For reports which contain recommendations, motions are made to adopt those recommendations. Those motions may be amended, but not the report itself.

The only circumstance in which it is appropriate to amend a committee report is when the report is being adopted in its entirety, which may be done, for instance, if the report is to be published in the name of the society. Even in such a case, the edits must be made clear - it is not appropriate to suggest that the committee agreed to something when it did not.

10 hours ago, Atul Kapur, PRP "Student" said:

Isn't the appointment of the Nominations Committee (with the ineligible member) a continuing breach as it violates the bylaws?

Yes, but as there does not appear to be any suggestion that a single vote would have affected the committee’s decision, I don’t see how it matters at this point. The individual can be removed from the committee, but the committee has already completed its work.

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18 minutes ago, Guest Zev said:

Sorry, I should have used a more precise expression. I realize that reports themselves cannot be changed. But what can be amended is the motion suggested by the committee's report.

What motion is suggested by the nominating committee report? The report is simply a list of the persons who the nominating committee has recommended for election. I don't think the assembly has the authority to change such a report.

 

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20 minutes ago, Guest Zev said:

Sorry, I should have used a more precise expression. I realize that reports themselves cannot be changed. But what can be amended is the motion suggested by the committee's report.

Yes, but in this case, no motion is suggested by the committee’s report. The report of the nominating committee is simply a list of nominations. If members wish to elect others, the proper course of action is to make additional nominations from the floor.

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Mr. Brown, please. I said specifically that my choice of words was unfortunate and that I agree that the report itself cannot be amended.

Mr. Martin: I do not disagree. The implied motion is that "These individuals listed in this report be elected to the respective offices." However, if the assembly has understood this report to be only informational, then yes they can just file it away and make their nominations from the floor. Many organizations, however, do not understand it this way and it will depend on how they have handled their elections over the years.

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46 minutes ago, Guest Zev said:

Mr. Martin: I do not disagree. The implied motion is that "These individuals listed in this report be elected to the respective offices." However, if the assembly has understood this report to be only informational, then yes they can just file it away and make their nominations from the floor. Many organizations, however, do not understand it this way and it will depend on how they have handled their elections over the years.

I am afraid these clarifications of yours still leave something to be desired. :)

When an election is pending, the implied motion is “That (blank) be elected to the office of (name of office).” More precisely, the procedure is analogous to filling a blank in a motion which has already been adopted. The report of the nominating committee is merely a list of nominations and may not be amended. If a member wishes for others to be elected, the proper procedure is to make a nomination from the floor. Once again, no motion to amend the nominating committee’s report is necessary or appropriate, and if such a motion is made the chair should rule it out of order and inform the member of the correct procedure.

It is unfortunate that many organizations do not understand how nominations and elections work, but the organization’s lack of understanding does not affect the proper procedure. It does not depend on how the organization has handled elections over the years. The fact that the assembly has been doing it wrong for years is not a sufficient reason to keep doing it wrong. If the organization has actually adopted rules prescribing a different procedure, that is another matter. Depending on the exact nature of these rules, it may be possible to adopt them as special rules of order, or it may be necessary to amend the bylaws.

Edited by Josh Martin
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The exact wording of the bylaws is as follows:

The Board of Directors will appoint a three (3) person Nominating Committee to suggest a slate of candidates for election at the Annual Meeting. No Officer shall be a member of the Nominating Committee although other Board Members are eligible.
a) Should a member of the Nominating Committee be proposed as a candidate for either a Director or Officer position, that member will recuse himself or herself from the Nominating Committee and a new member of the Nominating Committee will be appointed by the Board of Directors immediately.

Members of xxxxxx shall be eligible to suggest candidates to the Nominating Committee.
a) The members of the Nominating Committee shall be published to the general membership with directions on how to contact the Nominating Committee to suggest candidates within two weeks of the Nominating Committee being appointed. 

Candidates for each of the five board positions up for election shall be presented to the Board of Directors and all members of xxxx by the Chair of the Nominating Committee no later than March of the calendar year in which directors are to assume their positions and no sooner than 30 days prior to the election. The Nominating Committee shall also nominate candidates for any vacated positions in any Class that do not correspond with the positions due for election.

The Nominating Committee shall propose a slate of officers at the same time. Officers will be elected by the new Board of Directors after the Annual Meeting.

Each nominated Director or Officer must be approved by two-thirds (2/3) of the Nominating Committee.

A proxy with the board nominations listed will be mailed to each member no later than two (2) weeks prior to the Annual Meeting.

The Membership may propose alternate candidates for the Board of Directors by submitting a slate supported by ten (10) member signatures. Alternate candidates may be written onto the proxy mailed to members.

The Board of Directors may propose alternate candidates for Officers by submitting a slate supported by a Board majority.

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Larry: Out of curiosity, over the years whenever the Nominating Committee presents its list, does the report include a formal motion that is read by the reporting member, or does some other person gain the floor to make such a motion, or perhaps none of these and the presiding officer instead makes a motion to that effect? Also, it is common practice for the assembly to move additional candidates or do they just go with the report?

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There really is no motion. The NomCom emails its decision to the BOD as well as the membership. There is always the option to add other nominees (as stated in the bylaws), although I’m not sure if that was ever done. I believe the only reason there was any objection here is because certain people did not agree with the NomCom’s decision. Rather than nominate another slate, they chose to challenge the NomCom’s validity.

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Just to avoid possible confusion, if someone doesn't like just one or two of the NomCom's choices, there is no need to nominate (another) complete slate.

In effect, each office is a separate election - you don't, or shouldn't have to, vote for the whole slate all at once but you vote for each individual candidate for each office.

If you are electing members to a board, you get to vote for however many positions there are to fill, but you can put in your own names anywhere in the list.

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21 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

Sorry, I should have used a more precise expression. I realize that reports themselves cannot be changed. But what can be amended is the motion suggested by the committee's report.

 

21 hours ago, Josh Martin said:

Yes, but in this case, no motion is suggested by the committee’s report. The report of the nominating committee is simply a list of nominations. If members wish to elect others, the proper course of action is to make additional nominations from the floor.

 

26 minutes ago, Larry said:

There really is no motion. The NomCom emails its decision to the BOD as well as the membership. There is always the option to add other nominees (as stated in the bylaws), although I’m not sure if that was ever done. I believe the only reason there was any objection here is because certain people did not agree with the NomCom’s decision. Rather than nominate another slate, they chose to challenge the NomCom’s validity.

I disagree with Guest Zev and agree with Mr. Martin and with Larry.  There is no motion.  There is no motion that has been suggested.  The Nominating committee is basically a committee "with power"... the power to actually nominate  (not suggest) members for the various positions.  Once the committee makes its report, the members named have been nominated and the committee is discharged per page 435: "A nominating committee is automatically discharged when its report is formally presented to the assembly, although if one of the nominees withdraws before the election, the committee is revived and should meet immediately to agree upon another nomination if there is time." 

If the membership doesn't like the persons nominated by the nominating committee, the solution is to nominate and vote for others, but the report of the nominating committee is finished and its list of nominees have been nominated just as surely as if a nomination had been made from the floor. 

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On 4/14/2018 at 3:54 PM, Larry said:

The question is: is the NomCom’s decision void due to an ineligible member? Or since the objection was made only after the nominations were announced (and the committee was automatically discharged) does the NomCom’s decision stand?

No, I do not think the nominations are void. It appears to me that, at this time, it is too late to raise a Point of Order regarding the composition of the nominating committee.

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