Conflict of interest?

[gregory]

In our next membership meeting the Chair of the meeting will

be conducting the vote count and the Recording Secretary will be

handling the collection of the secret ballots on various bylaw amendments

that were submitted at our previous membership meeting.

Considering, the Recording Secretary and the Chair

submitted many of the bylaw amendments and seconded

them, is it in violation of RONR that they should also

be allowed to conduct the vote count or handle the ballots

before they have been counted or announced?

If this is a violation, can you site a page reference?

Thanks,

[Tim Wynn]

In our next membership meeting the Chair of the meeting will

be conducting the vote count and the Recording Secretary will be

handling the collection of the secret ballots on various bylaw amendments

that were submitted at our previous membership meeting.

Considering, the Recording Secretary and the Chair

submitted many of the bylaw amendments and seconded

them, is it in violation of RONR that they should also

be allowed to conduct the vote count or handle the ballots

before they have been counted or announced?

If this is a violation, can you site a page reference?

Thanks,

See RONR (11th ed.), p. 414, ll. 12-20, which would not necessarily preclude the participation of the secretary and chair, though I'm not accustomed to the chair appointing himself to serve as a teller.

[Chris Harrison]

There is no violation under RONR and in fact appointing the teller committee is something the Chair can do without the assembly's approval (RONR p. 414). However, I seem to recall reading here that the members do have the option of suspending the rules and appointing the teller committee themselves (requires a 2/3 vote). Hopefully someone can verify my memory and supply a citation if there is one.

[Tim Wynn]

There is no violation under RONR and in fact appointing the teller committee is something the Chair can do without the assembly's approval (RONR p. 414). However, I seem to recall reading here that the members do have the option of suspending the rules and appointing the teller committee themselves (requires a 2/3 vote). Hopefully someone can verify my memory and supply a citation if there is one.

The rule that the chair appoints tellers is a rule of order, so its suspension would not require a special entry in RONR. The general rules in Section 25 will cover it.