Rule adopted without a motion or vote

[Guest Assistant Secretary]

I have review our associations minutes over the past 18 years. The first 6 years, the minutes followed Robert's Rules pretty close with some minor errors. 6 years later, the format completely changed and a bunch of unnecessary information was added into the minutes. There was no motion or vote recorded to accept the changes in the minutes. One board member says "the board has always added this information and it was adopted as a rule". Is it acceptable to create a rule without a motion or vote? I've been combing through RR 11th edition for hours and cannot find anything that mentions rules created without a motion or vote. Can anyone help me out please. Can this "rule" be thrown out? A page location within the rules would also be a big help!!! Thank you!!

[Josh Martin]

38 minutes ago, Guest Assistant Secretary said:

Is it acceptable to create a rule without a motion or vote? I've been combing through RR 11th edition for hours and cannot find anything that mentions rules created without a motion or vote. Can anyone help me out please. Can this "rule" be thrown out?

Well, it is possible to adopt a rule by unanimous consent, without any formal motion or vote. Such actions are still recorded in the minutes, however, so the fact that the minutes make no mention of this rule makes the board member’s claim that it was adopted as a rule somewhat questionable. See RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 54-56.

If the “rule” does not, in fact, exist, then there is not really anything to “throw out.” The Secretary should simply start to follow the rules in RONR, unless and until the board actually instructs him to do otherwise.

Edited April 18, 2018 at 11:29 PM by Josh Martin

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with Mr Martin, don't go back and change anything already done. Just start doing it correctly moving forward unless the assembly does formally adopt a special rule to do it differently.