Can someone else on the board conduct a meeting besides the President?

[Guest Guest - President]

A recent question was posed in an organization I belong to about the President's conduct of meetings. Does the President of an organization have to conduct the business of the meetings?

Here is what our Bylaws say regarding the duties of the President:

"The President chairs the Board of Directors. The President’s duties include but are not limited to opening Board and General Membership meetings, calling members to order, and announcing the business before the members. The President should be familiar with parliamentary procedures. He/She may appoint ad hoc committees and committee chairpersons as needed and be an ex officio member of all committees. He/She will have no vote except his/her normal membership vote and will break all ties except in the case of elections. The President will be the official representative of the organization at all public media events. Only General Membership board members can be elected to this position."

[Chris Harrison]

Unless you have some very strange bylaws one of the duties of the Vice President is to preside in the President's absence (and in the VP's absence a Chair pro tem is elected to preside over the meeting). However, it is possible to Suspend the Rules to elect a Chair pro tem even if the President and/or VP is at the meeting. See Official Interpretation 2006-2 for details.

[jstackpo]

Those duties, &c., assigned to the President that relate to conduct of the meetings, in particular presiding over the meetings, are considered by RONR to be "Rules of Order" - p. 15. Hence, they can be suspended (requires a 2/3 vote to do so) for the duration of the meeting (p. 652) and either the Vice-President can assume the presiding job, or he, too can be "suspended out of the job" and a chairman pro tem can be electd by the members. Or the original motion to suspend the rules can include the name of anyone else to take over the presiding job, p. 653.