Antoinette K.

Thank you both for your response.

If the Chair is unable to fulfill their duty, i.e., they are absent due to illness or injury, can they delegate their authority to a non-Board member? Does it have to be in advance of the meeting?

Thank you Josh for your thorough analysis. This is very helpful.

Hello, My organization's bylaws do not adopt any particular parliamentary procedure. However, the bylaws section that discusses the meeting of members states: "the order of business must comply with Robert's Rules of Order." Does RONR have to be expressly adopted in an organization's bylaws for it to be used for all rules of order (i.e., not just the order of business)? In my scenario, for example, could it be implied that RONR is only applicable for the member meetings' order of business and that RONR would only be persuasive for parliamentary procedure, not determinative? Any clarification would be helpful.

Thank you for confirming.

Hello All, I have a follow up question on this. Is there any particular wording in RONR on an assumed motion? For example, on the above-mentioned motion to adopt the agenda, assuming we didn't want to take the unanimous consent route. Or would it be appropriate to just state "The question is on the adoption of the agenda," something to that effect? Any examples would be helpful.

Thank you both for your response.

My understanding from Official Interpretation 2007-1 is that in certain circumstances, a chair may "assume" a motion. Such instances are to facilitate the business of the assembly or when the motion is a matter of clear-cut procedure. Would it be reasonable to say that adopting the agenda and closing the meeting could also be examples of where assuming a motion may be appropriate? Also, RONR states that assuming the motion may appropriate . . ."provided that the assembly is accustomed to this method." Are there any examples of how to prove this? For example, would a pattern of the chair assuming motions at meetings suffice?

Ah, makes sense. Thanks.

I reviewed the Official Interpretation 2007-1 you referenced above. As a follow up, if the Chair were to assume a motion, in the appropriate scenario, would that motion need to be seconded?

This is very helpful. Thank you for your response.