Richard Brown

And to order that the tellers report and the vote totals be entered in the minutes.

It is true that committees normally do not have minutes that require formal approval, but if your committee does, then a quorum is necessary in order to approve the minutes. In most committees, per RONR, the chairman simply keeps notes of the proceedings. However, there is nothing wrong with the committee keeping formal minutes.

I think the bottom line here is that the rules may be suspended to require a different vote threshold for the adoption of a particular motion than specified in the rules, but the assembly itself must suspend the rules to do it. The president has no authority to unilaterally do it on his own.

I, too, agree with the first sentence but do not understand the second sentence.

No, at least not normally, as Dr. Stackpole said in his answer. Perhaps more information will be helpful. Exactly why were the rules suspended? What particular rule(s) was suspended? Most likely, yes. I’m trying hard to think of a situation where it would not be.

That is quite true, but since the question is about a committee report, perhaps we should point out that page 503 does permit a committee to render a report to which every member has agreed even if the committee had no actual meetings. It seems that this agreement can be reached via email. Here is the text of the relevant from page 503: "In the case of a committee, however, if it is impractical to bring its members together for a meeting, the report of the committee can contain what has been agreed to by every one of its members." RONR does not tell us just how the committee or its chairman should go about getting this agreement from all of the members in the absence of a meeting.

If you want to oppose the use of a consent calendar completely, rather than object to a particular item on the consent calendar, then I suppose you could either object to every item on the consent calendar or try to get a special rule of order adopted prohibiting the use of a consent calendar or setting out acceptable procedures for its use. A consent calendar actually should not be used at all and is out of order unless there is a special rule of order permitting it or the rules have been suspended to permit it. You could therefore make an objection or point of order that there is no provision in your rules for a consent calendar. Whether the chairman and/or majority of the other members will agree with you and do away with it is another matter.

Unless you have a rule to the contrary, if any member objects to an item on the consent calendar, it is removed from the consent calendar and placed on the agenda or order of business where it normally would be if there was no consent calendar. No motion is necessary, although the member objecting might ask that it be placed in the appropriate place in the regular agenda. Here is what RONR says about a consent calendar on page 361: Consent Calendar. Legislatures, city, town, or county councils, or other assemblies which have a heavy work load including a large number of routine or noncontroversial matters may find a consent calendar a useful tool for disposing of such items of business. Commonly, when such a matter has been introduced or reported by a committee for consideration in the assembly, its sponsor, or, sometimes, an administrator, may seek to have it placed on the consent calendar. This calendar is called over periodically at a point established in the agenda by special rule of order, at least preceding standing committee reports. The matters listed on it are taken up in order, unless objected to, in which case they are restored to the ordinary process by which they are placed in line for consideration on the regular agenda. The special rule of order establishing a consent calendar may provide that, when the matters on the calendar are called up, they may be considered in gross or without debate or amendment. Otherwise, they are considered under the rules just as any other business, in which case the "consent" relates only to permitting the matter to be on the calendar for consideration without conforming to the usual, more onerous, rules for reaching measures in the body. (Emphasis added)

Thanks for the heads up on that, Josh. btw, I concur fully with your response above to pfc122.

Well, not necessarily. It would be more correct to say that those who made the change without authorization MIGHT be held responsible. It depends on several factors.

The ONLY correct and current edition of RONR is Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th edition, which is described here: http://www.robertsrules.com/book.html It is available at most bookstores and also from Amazon. The last time I checked Amazon, the price was around $12 or $13. It fluctuates. It's about $19 at retail in bookstores. ROR is the abbreviation for Robert's Rules of Order Revised, which is several editions out of date. That was the name of the 4th, 5th and 6th editions. We are now in the 11th edition.

If the rules in RONR are the only controlling rules and if your bylaws give the Board the authority to make the original decision, then, yes, the newly elected board can rescind or amend a motion adopted by a previous board provided the action authorized by the motion has not been completed. The motion to amend or rescind something previously adopted has some special provisions which it might be well to take a look at. The motion is covered on pages 305-310 of the current 11th edition of RONR.

Mjhmjh, Since you have significantly changed the question, and many of our regulars have probably already read the original question, may I suggest that you just delete your original post with a comment that “I have deleted this question and have reworded and reposted my question as a new post”. Usually we clarify a question with subsequent posts, not by rewording the original post. That leads to confusion because the original answers are no longer applicable

I thought you were quoting the committee charge from a real life situation. It isn’t?

The term Charter is also used to refer to the creation or establishment of local chapters or units of state or national organizations, wherein the parent organization grants a charter to a local subsidiary unit which has complied with the requirements of the parent organization to become a local unit or chapter.

Agreeing with Messrs Kapur, Goodwiller and Novosielski, I believe more information and context is necessary for us to provide any meaningful input. At a minimum, the precise language of the entire relevant provision in the bylaws is necessary.

Once a main motion has been made and second and stated by the chair, it is in the control of the assembly and is susceptible to debate and amendment. Any member may propose an amendment. The person who made the original motion has no control over the motion once it is before the assembly and has no more say in what happens to it than does any other member, although the member who made the motion may ask permission of the assembly to withdraw it. It's up to the assembly whether to grant that permission.

Elect officers and board members who are committed to following the rules. You can also try to remove those who do not. Edited to add: See FAQ No. 20 on the main website for starters on how to remove officers: http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html#20

Guest Gini, I also note that you referred to your organization as a “council”. If this is a public body of some sort, such as a city council, state laws which supersede the rules in RONR might be applicable.

Guest Gini, Mr. Harrison is referring you to the motion to rescind or amend something previously adopted, which is the motion you would want to use. The vote required to adopt the motion depends on whether previous notice of the motion is given. It also has a few other special characteristics.

In an ideal world, that would be true. And perhaps it SHOULD be the case. However, in the world I live in, I find that more often than not that neither the budget nor the bylaws contain such instructions or detail. Edited to add: In my experience, it often boils down to either custom or the whim of the president or treasurer.

You are right. He did, and I deleted my comment just as you were posting yours.

Comment essentially deleted because I mis-read the original post. I thought the question was about adopting a motion in violation of law rather than one which violates the bylaws.

Yes.

The assembly could vote to adjourn, but the chair cannot just arbitrarily declare the meeting adjourned. There are other disciplinary measures that can be imposed on a disruptive member, including having the assembly order him removed from the meeting. See Chapter XX of RONR for details on disciplinary procedures. It's 26 pages of rather detailed procedures. Offenses occurring in a meeting is covered primarily on pages 644-648.