George Mervosh

If the bylaws require a vote by ballot for the elections, that requirement may never be suspended (unless the rule itself provides for its own suspension), and ballots must be used. Do your bylaws require a ballot vote?

If the motion made 2 months ago was adopted, any member may move to either rescind or amend it, yes. See RONR (12th ed.), §35 for full details, including the vote required to adopt such a motion.

Interesting question. 21:10 notes that while a privileged motion to adjourn is pending, it is proper: "to inform the assembly of business requiring attention before adjournment;", but it does not say a parliamentary inquiry may be made while such a motion is pending, although 33:1 leaves me wondering if it would be in order. If it was an incidental main motion, as Mr. Honemann noted yours should have been, yes, that would be proper.

It is up to the board itself to decide if this person may attend meetings.

Guest Bill - See FAQ#18 at https://robertsrules.com/frequently-asked-questions/#faqs to support Mr. Katz's first sentence in his reply. Also, I am not clear what you mean by "Also, from what I read, normally once a board member has resigned it cannot be undone without the other board members approving". Once a resignation has been properly accepted by the body authorized to do so, that action cannot be rescinded at all. See RONR (12th ed.), 35:6 c)

In my opinion it does not violate the rules of decorum, but I suppose this might be a case where I can see disagreement on whether or not it is.

The last sentence in 57:5 and n2 may be of help in answering your question.

An affirmative vote to postpone may be reconsidered, but the motion needs to be made in the same session that it was adopted.

You are correct. The Constitution can only be amended via the amendment process contained within it. When there is a separate constitution, its rules supersede those in the bylaws, so it would be a good idea to tend to it rather quickly.

I must admit I would have got this one wrong, no matter the vote required to waive the actual reading. This seems to be their form of previous notice, and skipping any element of it would not be permitted, in my opinion. But alas, I have at least learned something today.

Can you address this first, please? "Members cannot be assessed any additional payment aside from their dues unless it is provided for in the bylaws. " RONR (12th ed.), 56:19. Do the bylaws expressly authorize assessing members a fine?

I think many of us here would agree that not having an official record of what transpired at a meeting for one year is unacceptable and could have undesired consequences. Adopting a motion by a majority vote to have the board approve the minutes or appointing a committee to approve them is a very simple yet important action, or it would not be recommended in RONR.

" The name of the maker of a main motion should be entered in the minutes, but the name of the seconder should not be entered unless ordered by the assembly." RONR (12th ed.), 48:5 1)

The annual meeting minutes should be in the same format as any other meeting and the rules and form in §48 in RONR (12th ed.) would apply to all meetings. I have a hunch the minutes contain far more than they should. This section is worth a careful read.

So you disagree with Mr. Martin's reply? If you are, I would be curious as to the rule you would cite to support any disagreement? If you're just saying it may be unfair, I won't disagree with you.

No. The members at the annual meeting should have authorized the board to approve the minutes, or, appointed a committee to approve them, but the board cannot assume such powers. See RONR (12th ed.), 48:12 In your case the minutes remain unapproved. Next year the assembly needs to take some action so that they don't have to wait a year for an approved set of minutes. Of course I prefer Mr. Gerber's reply to mine, but the delete function isn't available any longer.

Thanks, Josh. Yes, this subject came up before about listing new business items in an adopted agenda, and I thought that was the case.

I keep getting this wrong, but if an agenda is adopted with items listed under new business, aren't those items really general orders?

No, which is why the citation above was provided. Not under the rules in RONR. The bylaws or some applicable rule in statute would have to provide for this. I don't see any other way, but someone else here might.

Perhaps it is good to start here in your situation: " It is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that the right to vote is limited to the members of an organization who are actually present at the time the vote is taken in a regular or properly called meeting, although it should be noted that a member need not be present when the question is put. Exceptions to this rule must be expressly stated in the bylaws. Such possible exceptions include: (a) voting by postal mail, e-mail, or fax, and (b) proxy voting. An organization should never adopt a bylaw permitting a question to be decided by a voting procedure in which the votes of persons who attend a meeting are counted together with ballots mailed in by absentees. The votes of those present could be affected by debate, by amendments, and perhaps by the need for repeated balloting, while those absent would be unable to adjust their votes to reflect these factors. Consequently, the absentee ballots would in most cases be on a somewhat different question than that on which those present were voting, leading to confusion, unfairness, and inaccuracy in determining the result. If there is a possibility of any uncertainty about who will be entitled to vote, this should be spelled out unambiguously and strictly enforced to avoid unfairness in close votes." RONR (12th ed.), 45:56 emphasis added by me.

I don't, but this is not the case where RONR discusses dropping a name from a ballot in subsequent rounds of balloting when no one has achieved a majority vote as shown in 46:32. Someone did win, he just declined. I am certainly open to the fact my response may not be correct in this regard.

I don't know what your rules say or if they are even applicable to an incomplete election. Nominations are not strictly necessary for a vote by ballot. A ballot can be as simple as a blank piece of paper members write their vote on.

You have an incomplete election. At the next regular or properly called meeting, nominations should be taken from the floor and another vote conducted. No one is automatically on the next ballot. Remember to leave in a space for a write-in vote when voting by ballot.

No.

The only time you record how each person voted is if the vote was taken by roll call. The count would only be listed if the assembly ordered a count or if the presiding officer ordered the vote counted on his own initiative. Otherwise, just simply note, in this case, the motion was adopted.