Edgar Guest

Only members (of the body that is meeting) have any parliamentary rights. Non-members have none. They don't even have a right to be there.

Non-members can, however, be permitted (by the assembly) to attend and speak. And the assembly can admit some non-members and exclude others. And it can permit some non-members to speak but not others.

That's right. If your bylaws say, for example, that you have a treasurer then you must have a treasurer (i.e. you have to obey your bylaws). You might not be able to "complete" the election on the first round of voting but you have to do your best to complete the election. No matter how long it takes.

Is it possible to vote for nobody?

No. If no one is willing to serve then you might want to either eliminate the office (by amending the bylaws) or dissolve the organization (by rescinding the bylaws).

Or you might want to try and figure out why no one wants this particular office.

If only one person is nominated for an office, does RONR stipulate that they are automatically elected?

No.

If the membership does not desire them to be elected, how would they make their votes known?

By nominating and/or voting for someone else.

If casting a blank ballot counts as an abstention and not towards the votes needed for a win, how would someone cast a vote against the nominee?

By voting for someone else. 

Does RONR say that a nominee can be elected only by having been nominated?

No. But if your bylaws don't require a ballot vote, and if there is only one nominee, then the chair can declare the sole nominee elected "by acclamation".

Comments, anyone?  Please?

Perhaps it depends on the specific nature of the unfinished business? For instance, questions laid on the table die if not taken from the table before a quarterly time interval has elapsed (p.301). Or something like that. I suppose there might be other instances of unfinished business (consideration of a continuing breach?) that (like old parliamentarians?) never die. But this is the sort of parliamentary arcana I prefer to leave to the experts (i.e. those with upper-case letters after their names).

Gimme a few minutes.

Really?

OK, George, but as I understood the question, the meeting was only to hold the vote, not to conduct other business.

And your basis for this understanding is . . . ?

Can you make a motion to remove a life member of a fire company?

Once you are a life member, your a life member for life. 

You seem to have answered your own question.

We have quotas to meet to become a life member. Make so many fire calls and trainings.

I suppose you could amend the rules to, for example, increase the number of fire calls required for life membership and this person might no longer qualify. But that sounds like a pretty cheesy thing to do.

Nothing in bylaws about protecting their status.

Well, if their status depends on being alive, there are laws that protect that status.

And, just to provide a specific example, let's say that the motion was to paint the clubhouse. The vote results in a tie. The motion is defeated. You could say that the board didn't decide to paint the clubhouse or you could say that the board decided not to paint the clubhouse. The result is the same.

What happens when there is a tie vote?

See also this recent topic.

I suppose so. But if the motion is adopted you may have to kill him.

My interpretation is that the minutes are private and that someone from the general membership cannot order the reading of those minutes since they are secret. It doesn't make sense that someone can order they be read if disclosing what happened is prohibited.

See the first full paragraph on p.487.

And note that "someone" can't order the reading of the board's minutes; it takes a lot of "someones".

The idea here is that the board is an instrument (instrumentality?) of the general membership and that the tail shouldn't wag the dog.

Can an addendum be made to the minutes to reflect that it was discussed that mr x would be responsible?

As Mr. Fish suggests, discussions don't belong in the minutes. Either before or after the fact.

Who do we need to report those minutes to?

Minutes don't need to be "reported" to anyone. 

But note that the general membership can order the reading of the board's minutes at a meeting of the general membership. If the board meeting in question was held in executive session then the general membership meeting should be held in executive session as well (or at least that portion of the meeting where the minutes are read). 

I have read that minutes need not be taken at executive session . . .

Well, you didn't read it here. Or in RONR.

And this thread is four years old!

Look in the Index under "executive session".

And congratulations on becoming a member (though I suspect you may miss putting the bunny back together).

In regards to the agenda, what if an agenda is not given to the members before a meeting

Are you asking what to do if there's no agenda at all or are you asking what to do if there's an agenda but it hasn't been given to the members before the meeting? If the former, see Mr. Lages' reply (#6). If the latter, see FAQ #14.