Chris Harrison

Calling the cops actually wasn't a joke response. If the organization is willing to press charges they can call the police to forcibly remove the disruptive person. See RONR pp. 645-648 for details. If the person is causing a ruckus it might be hard to conduct business while he or she is there so the Chair could take a short recess or tell the assembly to "stand at ease" until the issue is resolved.

Good question. I think it was yesterday or the day before I was trying to pull up one of the Official Interpretations to answer a question and got the error message. Same thing with the FAQs. I had thought the site was down for repair or something like that but yeah still a problem today.

The Bylaws.

I totally agree. Maybe the COO is upset that this person is educating himself thus making it more difficult for the COO (or anyone else) to run roughshod over the Board and is now trying to put the kibosh on it. However, (playing Devil's Advocate) who's to say that this person wasn't presenting us a skewed version of what was going on and the COO was taking umbrage to this especially if the person was planning to share these responses to other members in order to further his cause. Not suggesting this is the case but you know what Dr Phil says?1 1 "No matter how flat you make a pancake, it’s still got two sides."

Maybe. Did the COO want the Board to take some action off of this 15 page document or was it strictly to cause chaos with no other requested action?

Yeah there is a bit of a snafu since as you noted a custom which conflicts with the parliamentary authority falls to the ground upon a Point of Order being raised (RONR p. 19). A body which doesn't have a parliamentary authority uses the General Parliamentary Law which surprise surprise RONR for the most part is a codification of (RONR pp. xxix-xxx). Of course since RONR isn't your parliamentary authority who cares what it says ? I would ask though if not the General Parliamentary Law then what rules are you all going to follow??

See RONR p. 588 for sample language:

Neither do I. However, since the OP said it's a "next level" committee member I have to question whether they're using the term "committee" in the same way RONR does on page 489 ll. 20-25.

RONR says the bylaws should have an article specifying which officers the organization requires. Does yours? And if so are these "next level committee members" included in it?

The other 3 were elected by majority vote? If so, then the one electied by plurality vote is null and void (RONR p. 251[a] and pp. 404-405) and will need to be done correctly.

I would suggest contacting the governmental agency which grants the organization their non-profit status. They may be able to give you some guidance for getting access to the information you need to perform your duties whether it is them putting pressure on these Board members to cough up the records or supplying some sort of documentation you can give to the Bank to get these malcontents off the accounts and someone else on them. Stay tuned for other ideas.

Who do the bylaws specify fills the vacancy?

It is ultimately up to you all to decide what it meant to "approve the report". However, in my opinion, strictly speaking RONR pp. 507-508 seems to lend more support to your position.

Do the bylaws specify that a member who is in arrears (behind in his dues) loses rights or his membership entirely? If not, see RONR p. 406 ll. 25-30. As for potential disciplinary options for his lying to the Board see FAQ #20.

In this sort of case should the Chair's default position be that the Point of Order is Well Taken and it would be up to someone to provide some evidence that the motion got the 2/3 or majority of the entire membership? Or can the Chair rely on his memory of the event that the vote seemed to have garnered the required number? Also, would it be proper for the Chair upon the Point being raised to instruct the Secretary to refer to the minutes of the meeting in question to determine if the vote was counted or taken by ballot?

Does NAP (or similar organizations) offer courses (online or otherwise)? In my experience unless the instructor knows what they are doing it can do more damage than good. One time an advocacy group I worked with asked me to give a down and dirty run-down of parliamentary procedure (about an hour) for people who were going to be members of governmental bodies. The notes written by previous instructors and the handouts were at best 25% accurate and I had to pretty much toss everything out and start from scratch.

Do your bylaws specifically permit the calling of a Special (Emergency) Meeting? Also, can you give us the EXACT language (from the bylaws) regarding the term of office for Board members? Depending on the wording the Board might stay in office until their replacements are elected.

Was this person actually elected or was there a vacancy on the Board that this person is filling for the remainder of the term? Also, are the elections staggered (a portion are elected one year and the remainder are elected the next year)?

Maybe when one of the mods reads this thread they can pass it onto our resident tech guru who can (hopefully) help katydid figure out the problem.

Was the presiding officer for the committee aware of the assembly's instructions? If so, I wonder if RONR p. 606 ll. 15-30 would have been applicable in this case and any future ones. However, if the Committee has already met (it's a bit unclear if they have) the assembly's recourse is somewhat limited to using FAQ #20.

Probably not but it depends on how exactly the motion is inconsistent with the bylaws. Can you supply more detail?

Never mind.

What does your Constitution say regarding resigning? The default position is the body which is empowered to fill a vacancy is the body which is empowered to accept the resignation creating said vacancy (RONR p. 467). Who is empowered to appoint/elect this officer's successor?

Which raises the issue of what happens if the police arrive and ask whether the organization wishes to press charges. Does the Chair have the authority to say yes on behalf of the organization or would he need to place that question before the assembly?

See FAQ #20 regarding censure (and other disciplinary options) and RONR pp. 391-394 regarding decorum in debate and pp. 247-255 regarding raising a Point of Order.