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President Disallowing Board member vote


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Does Robert's Rules ever allow for the presiding president to tell a member that he/she will not be "allowed" to vote on a particular issue or action? I recently ran into this on a matter related to "approval of minutes" for a retreat that I was not able to attend. The lawyer present said she thought Robert's Rules allowed for the president to "disallow" a member's vote under such circumstance.

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Does Robert's Rules ever allow for the presiding president to tell a member that he/she will not be "allowed" to vote on a particular issue or action? I recently ran into this on a matter related to "approval of minutes" for a retreat that I was not able to attend. The lawyer present said she thought Robert's Rules allowed for the president to "disallow" a member's vote under such circumstance.

Perhaps that lawyer would be advised to read RONR before stating such an opinion. Perhaps RONR and RONRIB might make a good Christmas/Holiday gife for her. :o

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Does Robert's Rules ever allow for the presiding president to tell a member that he/she will not be "allowed" to vote on a particular issue or action? I recently ran into this on a matter related to "approval of minutes" for a retreat that I was not able to attend. The lawyer present said she thought Robert's Rules allowed for the president to "disallow" a member's vote under such circumstance.

For the matter of approving minutes specifically, this may be correct if you mean taking a vote altogether. No vote is taken on approval of the minutes; any corrections are offered (in case of an argument, you do take a vote on whether or not to correct the minutes), and once everyone is happy, the minutes are approved without a vote.

An individual member can never be denied the right to vote, except in accordance with your bylaws, or due to disciplinary procedures.

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Does Robert's Rules ever allow for the presiding president to tell a member that he/she will not be "allowed" to vote on a particular issue or action?

No.

I recently ran into this on a matter related to "approval of minutes" for a retreat that I was not able to attend. The lawyer present said she thought Robert's Rules allowed for the president to "disallow" a member's vote under such circumstance.

The lawyer is mistaken - RONR allows for no such thing. However, you shouldn't be taking a vote on the minutes at all - the chair should simply declare the minutes approved when there are no further corrections. If there is a vote on one of the corrections, however, you have the right to vote regardless of whether you were present at the meeting the minutes are for.

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The lawyer present said she thought Robert's Rules allowed for the president to "disallow" a member's vote under such circumstance.

Well, she should continue to think until that is no longer the case. There is no such rule, or even anything that could reasonably be mistaken for such a rule, in RONR.

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