Gary Novosielski

The full council is not the committee, so it makes no sense to move at the full council meeting something that could only be moved in a committee meeting. Therefore, the point of order was well taken, and the chair ruled properly. However, it would have been proper for someone to move to Discharge the committee from further consideration of <the ordinance>, and take the matter up in the full council. The motion to Discharge a Committee is covered in detail in RONR (§36).

Well, if it can't be reconsidered at all, then the rules on what happens when a motion to Reconsider is adopted would not apply. But when such a motion is adopted, it does bring the question again before the assembly.

There is no rule in RONR that prohibits committee membership by outside individuals. The question of whether committee member appointmenet falls within the powers of the president must be answered by consulting your bylaws.

It sounds like a badly written bylaw, but since that's apparently not a verbatim quote, it's hard to tell. Did nobody ever consider that there might be valid reasons for absence? DId nobody consider inserting a qualifier such as "unexcused" in the rule? In any case, until you amend it, you have to obey it.

No it's not. Adopting a motion to Reconsider brings the question of the amendment back before the assembly. It's not nullified unless, after further debate if any, it is voted down.

Okay, it's perfectly logical. But it's still wrong.

Inattention, I suppose.

One point that should be understood, however, is that a Parliamentary Inquiry addressed to the chair, while it may be informative, is merely the chair's opinion on an as-yet hypothetical situation. It is not a ruling, and therefore cannot be appealed. If members of the assembly disagree with the chair's response to a Parliamentary Inquiry, they need to wait until the chair puts that opinion into practice by a ruling (perhaps as the result of a Point of Order), and at that point raise an Appeal to what they consider an adverse ruling by the chair.

I think you meant to say an "otherwise qualified" candidate, since one who has never served on the BoD is, by definition, not qualified. This rule cannot be suspended unless something in that "..." section that was omitted allowed for suspension of the rule. If the society believes that this rule does not serve the society well, their course of action is to amend the bylaws, according to the procedure set forth in the bylaws for their own amendment.

Agreed, but the question could just as easily be rephrased as: "Is board action required to place someone in the role of Director Exempt?" Based on the language you quoted, and not having read the bylaws in their entirety, it seems to me that the only relevant factor is whether the eligible person wishes to become a D.E., or does not. There is no language suggesting that the board has the power deny such a proper request. If voting No is not an option, then voting is pointless and therefore dilatory.

RONR tells us that nominations are debatable, but doesn't give much advice about exactly how to manage this debate. But we do know that during debate, a member who has the floor may ask (through the chair) whether someone else would agree to answer a question. Note that the person is under no obligation to answer the question, but if I'm running for office I suspect I would agree to answer pretty much any reasonable question that a member might have.

It doesn't sound like the motion was validly phrased, based on your question. Motions should be drafted so as to propose a yes/no question. What was the exact language of the motion in this case? When the vote on the motion is a tie, the result is the same as if everyone voted No. But it sounds like No wasn't one of the choices; hence, the problem.

Please enter your new question as a New Topic.

In this particular case, adding it to the bylaws would be vastly preferable, since neither appointing committees nor authorizing the board are actions that are allowed without a quorum.

According to RONR, neither debate nor voting are allowed by e-mail. So if either or both are allowed in your organization, that would have to be in your bylaws.

Well, you can certainly resign, but whether you get appointed to the unexpired remainder of the two-year term depends on whether the president nominates you, and the board approves.

Any member may move to amend the budget while it is being considered. It doesn't have to be a director.

If the terms of office are stated in the bylaws, then the only valid way to change those terms is with a bylaws amendment. Any other action that purports to change the bylaws is null and void.

A tie vote is less than a majority, so the motion is defeated.

No. The only two ways to vote are Yes or No. Of course the member may also abstain. Since this is an individual vote, I presume that this is taking place in the context of a roll-call vote. In that case the dialog might take place as follows: Secretary: Mr. Adams? Mr. Adams: Yes, with reservations. Secretary: Mr. Adams--Yes. Ms. Brown? And so on... The fact that Mr. Adams may have reservations about his vote is of no parliamentary significance. If Mr. Adams believed that his reservations were of any wider interest than to himself alone, the time to bring them up would have been during debate, not during the voting process.

After the nominating committee's report is made at the meeting, the chair must call for nominations from the floor. To be clear, this includes all positions, not only those that the nominating committee failed to report on, but also those that they did nominate.

The bylaws appear to provide that the board, as that's what it appears to be, holds an "organizational" meeting after the AGM, at which the election has presumably taken place, in order to organize itself, which typically includes at least election of officers. There are board members, they just haven't decided who will do what. Whenever they get their act together and hold a meeting, that will be their organizational meeting. The fact that no officers were yet selected does not mean the board cannot meet. Any member may call the meeting to order and preside over an election of a chair pro-tem and they're off and running..

If I understand correctly, the AGM elected a board, and the board was supposed to meet immediately afterwards (organizational meeting) to elect officers from among its own number, but failed to do so. It seems to me they should do so as soon as practicable.

Unless the bylaws expressly give the board the power to suspend provisions in the bylaws, they can't. When a board is given the authority to act on behalf of the organization (typically between meetings of the general assembly of organization) it is assumed that those decisions will not conflict with the bylaws. The bylaws can only be changed by the authorized body and according to the prescribed procedure set out in the bylaws for their own amendment.

Rather than moving to Adjourn, a motion at the final meeting of the committee to Rise and Report is certainly appropriate. If the committee keeps minutes (not typically the case) the motion would be recorded there.