Meeting vs Trial

[Guest icub4ucme]

Hi and thanks to allin advance who respond to this problem.

My spouse is the President of a local community organization who use Roberts Rule as the process of meetings.he has been an officer for the last 5 years.and recently elected President. My spouse has been in conflict with the secretary and vice president over petty little conflicts such as birthday parties, hurt feelings and so on. They insist my spouse demonstrates poor leadership, also he is fake and plastic.By the way my spouse has been President now for 2 whole months.

Recently a emergency meeting was called to evaluate a recent event.The event was a huge sucess brought in new members.3 people complained aboutt the registration which the person designated was late. The President covered until the person got there.This event was called by a advisor/moderator to also mend and reconsile broken hearts.This turned into an impromptu trial with several people wanting to resign. This was contsrtued that this was a leadership problem and that some type of penalty must be administered to the president.They later all stood there and berated him one by one telling how bad of a president he was. Later it was voted to put him on some type of probation.

My questions are.

Can a board meeting turn trial like this without a chance of due process or any way at all to defend himself then given a penalty such as probation over hurt feelings, he has not broken any bylaws or any state local federal laws?

[Rob Elsman]

Hi and thanks to allin advance who respond to this problem.

My spouse is the President of a local community organization who use Roberts Rule as the process of meetings.he has been an officer for the last 5 years.and recently elected President. My spouse has been in conflict with the secretary and vice president over petty little conflicts such as birthday parties, hurt feelings and so on. They insist my spouse demonstrates poor leadership, also he is fake and plastic.By the way my spouse has been President now for 2 whole months.

Recently a emergency meeting was called to evaluate a recent event.The event was a huge sucess brought in new members.3 people complained aboutt the registration which the person designated was late. The President covered until the person got there.This event was called by a advisor/moderator to also mend and reconsile broken hearts.This turned into an impromptu trial with several people wanting to resign. This was contsrtued that this was a leadership problem and that some type of penalty must be administered to the president.They later all stood there and berated him one by one telling how bad of a president he was. Later it was voted to put him on some type of probation.

My questions are.

Can a board meeting turn trial like this without a chance of due process or any way at all to defend himself then given a penalty such as probation over hurt feelings, he has not broken any bylaws or any state local federal laws?

You are correct to note that a defendant in a disciplinary action has due process rights, including the right to adequate time to prepare a defense. RONR has a whole chapter on disciplinary procedures that you might find interesting to read. Take a look at RONR (10th ed.), §61, pp. 624ff.

[Josh Martin]

Can a board meeting turn trial like this without a chance of due process or any way at all to defend himself then given a penalty such as probation over hurt feelings, he has not broken any bylaws or any state local federal laws?

The board doesn't have the authority to take disciplinary action at all unless the Bylaws authorize it to do so. By default, disciplinary action is reserved for the general membership.